Arjun Charan Samal. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Tired of the current trend in devotional music, Arjun Charan Samal has come up with a music album in praise of Lord Jagannath.

His new creation is called Dinabandhaba (friend of the poor), another name for Lord Jagannath.

A composer, singer and ardent music lover, Samal hopes that people will take note of his music during the rath yatra, with the market already flooded with what he referred to as “dual-meaning songs, touted by distributors as marketable ones”.

Speaking during the launch function of his album, Samal said: “The music album has many bhajans written by both professional and amateur lyricists. But I’m sure the language and depth of feeling in these songs will touch the hearts of the listeners.”

Well-known lyricists too appreciate Samal’s depth of thought.

“If you have heard Michha maya bhara e sara duniya kehi nuhenapanara song from the Oriya film Suna Sansara, you will understand Samal’s depth of feeling,’’ said lyricist Radhashyam Patra. “There are eight songs in the music CD; all of them attempt to revive the good old tradition of Oriya bhajans,” he added.

Samal’s inspiration was an elderly woman he met in Puri.

“I have made several modern and devotional music albums before. There have been more than 25 releases of devotional songs so far. But this time, I was inspired by an elderly woman I met in Puri a few days back. While I was in the holy city, she gave me some of her writings, just to have a look at them. She told me that as she is not highly educated she could not write in a structured manner. When I went through the pages, I could not believe how well she had written. I composed my first song instantly,’’ said Samal.

The song Sundara Tume Sundara by Usharani Mohapatra was the inspiration for Samal to start work on his latest production.

He had been dissatisfied with the kind of music that was being churned out, many of them under the tag of bhajans. So commercial was the aim of the albums that Samal was disgusted with them. They motivated him to do something different.

“I think even the distributors are not interested in distributing quality bhajan albums. So, I gathered together a small group of friends and made it my mission to popularise good songs on our own,’’ Samal said.

Several veteran writers and music lovers too appreciate Samal’s efforts. “Dinabandhaba was the result of such an effort,” eminent writer and thinker Prof. Chandrasekhar Rath said.

“Good quality music, especially devotional songs, can have a profound effect on people. They can have a long-lasting impression on the psyche,” Rath added.

Ex-bureaucrat and lyricist Gangadhar Mohapatra said: “People must try to get involved in good music so that the entire entertainment industry change their strategy in the future. Our overall contribution helps the music industry to survive and so we have to change.”

While Samal has given his voice to Nilagiri Jagannath, Sundara tume sundara and Subhra prabhate, Manasi Sundar Ray, Pratima Panda, and Soma Karmakar have chipped in with five songs.