Parambrata Chattopadhyay and Parno Mittra in Apur Panchali

Composer Indraadip Dasgupta tells t2 about the musical journey of Apur Panchali...

What’s the inspiration behind the theme of Apur Panchali?

The Apur Panchali theme is a derivative of or a variation on the Pather Panchali theme, and there is a counter theme on Pather Panchali’s theme which eventually becomes the theme of Apur Panchali in the course of the film. I never plan the music I’m making for films. Apur Panchali is a film whose music was composed before the film was made, and this has happened for the first time in my life. Kaushikda prefers to have a theme while he is shooting. We usually do the background score of a film after watching it.

Why do you feel the Pather Panchali theme has stood the test of time?

The way Ravi Shankar placed the notes was sure to move you. It’s not a note but a language, a certain kind of comment. He combined pathos and hope, and there is a bright side to it as well… there’s also a whiff of folk. As a young boy, when I watched Pather Panchali for the first time, I was also moved by the strains of music played on the tar shehnai that marks Durga’s death.

So how did you go about composing the music?

I felt the best way to go about it is to let the music flow. Kaushikda’s film has this warm, palpable emotion, and it is brilliantly shot by Sirsha Ray. So the music has a lilting quality to it. And it has a mysticism to it, an unexplained grey area.

You have also composed a promo song, Apur paayer chhaap... The brief was that it should sound like a Bangla song from the ’60s and ’70s, and the song should have the smell of kaashphool, shonda gondho. Kaushikda wrote the lyrics and Arijit Singh rendered it beautifully.

Did Kaushik keep everything that you had composed?

I had used a shehnai in one piece, but Kaushikda discarded it. It was not going with the tone of the film. For this film I made it a point to have a classical sitarist on board, and Purbayan Chatterjee has done a fabulous job.