Prosenjit, Hemanta, Babul: Song sung true

1968. Film Adwitiya. Sarbendra and Madhabi Mukherjee get romantic, lip syncing to Hemanta Mukherjee and Lata Mangeshkar?s Chanchal mon anmona hoy. 2005: Film Ekar Sansar. Prosenjit and Sayantani prance around with the same song on their lips, sung this time by Udit Narayan and Sadhna Sargam.

HMV is opening its archives to Bengali films. For starters, four songs from the golden repertoire of Hemanta Mukherjee will be reused in its own celluloid venture, under the Saregama Films banner. The three other songs being used are Bidhi re, e kheya baibo koto aar (Kheya, 1967), Muchhey jaoa dinguli (Lukochuri, 1958) and O akash sona sona (Ajana Shapath, 1963). The film, also starring Jisshu, Abhishek Chatterjee and Dipankar De, will have two new songs as well.

?People do not listen to new Bengali compositions. Old songs still rule their list of favourites. We are giving them the same tunes in a modern package,? says Haranath Chakraborty, director of Ekar Sansar. Since Bengali film music is in the doldrums, he says the risk is worth taking. ?The curiosity of watching their favourite songs picturised on the current stars will bring people to the theatres, while the evergreen tunes will ensure that they go back to buy the album as well.?

Arranger Madhu Mukherjee, who has worked with Hemanta Mukherjee, Manna Dey and Satyajit Ray, turns music director with this project. Returning from Mumbai after the recording, he emphasises that the basic nature of the songs has been left intact. ?It was technically impossible to keep the voices of the original artistes. Even if we tried to extract the voice from the mixed track, the liberties that the artistes took in those days with the tempo of a song resulted in fluctuations that cannot be matched with today?s fixed-tempo instruments,? he explains. This is why plans to keep Hemanta?s voice in the song O radhey tui thomke geli keno, of which the first stanza is being used, had to be aborted. Another advantage is getting more time to explore the song. ?In the 78 rpm records, composers were often rushed to finish off.?

HMV had experimented with this concept in Hindi earlier with Dil Vil Pyaar Vyar, for which some RD Burman compositions were re-arranged. One of the singers in that project was Babul Supriyo. In Ekar Sansar, he sings the most challenging track, Muchhey jaoa dinguli, other than a duet with Shaan. ?I have grown in the profession singing Kishore Kumar songs. I sang three of his songs for Dil Vil Pyaar Vyar. But what was challenging for me in this film is that I was given a chance to sing Hemanta Mukherjee songs. I know I cannot sing like him. So I have put in my own emotional interpretation.?

The Bengali music market is ruled today by cover versions. Acknowledging that this worked as an inducement for the experiment, Saregama Films spokesperson Debaroti Bhattacharya says: ?Our vast archive is a means of earning revenue. If this film is a success, we?ll be ready to share our songs with others.?