Kartick Das Baul

He is a filmi baul. Not only because he has lent his voice to Mangal Pandey or featured in Mira Nair?s The Namesake but also because Kartik Das Baul?s career began with a film.

?The year was 1979,? the diminutive, bearded man in saffron recalls. ?Bhaskar Bhattacharya was making a film for BBC and he was looking for a boy to play the opening scene of an apprentice baul practising with his guru. He selected me, an ordinary 15-year-old singing all kinds of songs in Hindi and Bengali with no intention of ever becoming a baul. Once the shooting was over, Bhattacharya took me to meet Deb Das Baul who became my guru.?

Did the family object? ?They couldn?t, because soon I was getting lots of assignments, travelling to Berlin for performances, earning money. Then I got married and had a son and a daughter? Now I am a full-time baul.?

But Das is not just any baul. He knows how to adapt and yet remain committed. He is ready to dabble in fusion ? a blend of baul, south Indian folk and Carnatic ? with Bonny Chakraborty and other members of Chennai-based Oykyotaan, which promotes folk music. He willingly sings Taake, Taake with Sukhvinder Singh and Kailash Kher at A.R. Rehman?s studio. But the songs of Lalan remain his favourite.

Bhattacharya has recently laid the foundation stone of an ashram near his home in Ghushkara, Burdwan, where baul songs will be preserved. ?My guruji writes songs on AIDS and illiteracy, but they are inspired by the immortal creations of Lalan, Bhaba Khepa, Nil Kanto Goshai and others. It is important to preserve and popularise what we have.?

?Bangla band members interact with us for a few days and then bring out albums where they lift entire songs and pass them of as original compositions,? rues Das.

The ashram, to be built on a 12-cottah plot, will house a performance arena, where basic baul instruments like dotara and khamak will be kept, so that ?anyone can use them?. There will also be an archive of baul lyrics. The archive may be later made available on a website, maintained by Oykyotaan.

At Rehman?s studio, Das had sung 10 songs before the composer, Javed Akhtar, Ashutosh Gowariker and Ketan Mehta. He feels that one of his songs ? Ananda bazare cholejao, bazare boshoti kore swarup rupe mon mojao ? may have inspired the bazaar song in Mangal Pandey.

In The Namesake, Das plays a fakir singing on a boat in the midstream. The song ? Maajhi baiya jao re, akul doriyar majhe amar bhanga nao ? wafts towards the shore where Tabu and Irfan Khan are. It had been a tough audition, but once the selection was made, Nair was ready to take Das?s suggestions regarding the most appropriate song.

Das had earlier sung for Subhadra Chatterjee?s Prohor and played the role of Bholai Shah (Lalan?s adopted son) in a Bangladeshi film.

There are no films for Das at the moment but he is busy attending festivals in India and abroad. Later this month, his second album will be released by Bhavna. ?It focuses on the baul songs that inspired Tagore,? smiles Das.