For the July 2022 issue of NCPA’s On Stage magazine, I was commissioned to write a tribute on Bollywood music composer Salil Chowdhury and interview his daughter Antara Chowdhury and contemporary composer Shantanu Moitra. As always it was a fulfilling experience learning about a personality whose contribution to Indian music is invaluable. Here’s the full piece as it appeared in the magazine…

A Composer’s Composer

Any mention of Salil Chowdhury inevitably makes use of one word to describe his multifaceted personality: genius. While he was more popularly known as the music director for Hindi, Bengali and Malayalam films, he was also a celebrated poet, scriptwriter, director, social activist as well as a composer for some of the most notable background scores in films. His exposure to Western classical music as a child and his activism as a youth informed all of his creative work. ‘Salilda’, as he was affectionately known in the Indian film industry, believed that the poet or artiste does not exist detached from society, but in fact is bound to it by a social duty. Music remained his chosen form of expression but one that was influenced, nurtured and honed by his curious mind which was ever-evolving, ever-embracing new ideas.
On 17th July, as part of the three-day Bandish festival, the NCPA will host a tribute to Chowdhury, curated by his long-time fan, contemporary composer Shantanu Moitra. Chowdhury’s unforgettable melodies will be performed by musicians from the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI) and a 20-member choir. Prominent artistes from the Indian music industry such as Shaan, Papon and Sadhana Sargam will sing at the concert. Chowdhury’s daughter, Antara Chowdhury, will sing some of her father’s tunes and share anecdotes about him. In a joint interview, Antara and Moitra spoke about the tribute concert they have planned and shared facets of the master’s personality in the capacity of a daughter and a shishya respectively.

The movement behind the man
Born in Assam in 1923, Chowdhury was greatly influenced by his father, Gyanendra Chowdhury, who was a doctor working in the tea gardens of Assam. His father organised and staged plays for workers in the region and spoke openly against the atrocities of British colonisers. As a young man, Chowdhury witnessed the Bengal famine of 1943 and World War II, and participated in the peasant movement of 1945. These events contributed to his artistic mission. He decided that he would make art that would protest against social and political injustice.
While in college, Chowdhury joined the Communist Party of India as well as the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA). To him, it was inexcusable to compose songs about love and beauty at a time when India was experiencing the oppression of a foreign rule and, among other things, famine. He composed songs for the masses and travelled all over the country with IPTA performing songs of protest and revolution. According to Moitra, “There are two kinds of revolutionaries: one who works with swords and ames and one who uses art.” Elaborating on how his revolutionary way of life influenced the family, Antara recalls, “Baba always said: You have come to this planet for a reason. You have to find out what your reason is.”

Music for the soul
Among the earliest influences of music in Chowdhury’s life were the Western classical records owned by his father. As a young child, he was familiar with symphonies of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. Antara recalls an incident that demonstrates his gift of music: “In Calcutta, his cousin had an orchestra called Milan Parishad. That’s where he saw an orchestra for the first time. They had a piano and Baba, as a six-year- old, started playing it. From then on, he started learning and reading [music] on his own.” In fact, he had the ability to pick up any instrument and play it to understand its sound to be able to use it in his compositions more effectively. Chowdhury was self-taught in Western and Indian classical music and could write notations of both forms effortlessly. It was a skill that he painstakingly honed by constantly educating himself. “We have books at home of harmonies, counterparts, orchestration, Indian ragas, and books on culture and the history of mankind. He studied all kinds of stuff,” says Antara.
Chowdhury’s foray into Hindi cinema happened through a story he wrote called Rickshawalla. His friend Hrishikesh Mukherjee recommended the work to director Bimal Roy, who, inspired by it, would eventually make the Indian neo-realistic classic Do Bigha Zamin (1953). Chowdhury also composed the music for the lm which initiated his journey as a composer in Indian cinema. Fans of Salilda’s music will remember the evergreen songs from films like Madhumati (1958), Jagte Raho (1956), Parakh (1960; for which he also wrote the script), Half Ticket (1962), Anand (1971) and Rajnigandha (1974).

A gifted storyteller
His composition style, heavy on the use of harmonies and other international music influences, was equally informed by his background as a writer. “He always insisted on reading the script of the lm before composing for it,” says Antara. Lata Mangeshkar once said about him, “Over the course of my life, I have worked with over a hundred music directors. Of these, perhaps only ten understood both music and the cinema. And of these ten, Salil was the foremost.” On his distinct style, Moitra says, “He let his compositions ow and didn’t worry whether people will understand them or not. He was fearless. The use of chorus and choir in songs is a Western thing. When you want to convey something deep, you use gospel. For example, Salilda’s song, ‘Jaago Mohan Pyaare’ [from Jagte Raho] is about a man searching for his soul but he has used a choir for silence, honesty, rootedness.” Antara also af rms the use of Western elements in his compositions. Take the landmark Bengali song ‘Surero Ei Jhar Jhar Jharna’, originally sung by her mother Sabita Chowdhury in which, Antara says, a three- part harmony was used for the rst time in modern Bengali music. He was called a composer’s composer by music director Naushad. Moitra, who agrees, explains, “Salilda’s level of composition was so high that it’s almost like how Harvard University grads are best equipped to understand a management module. Songs which Salilda created were best understood by other creators.”
Equally noteworthy is Chowdhury’s contribution to the background score of Indian films, especially at a time when music was used mainly to accompany chase sequences or climax scenes. “You
need a totally different skill set to compose a background score,” explains Moitra. “First and foremost, you have to be a damn good storyteller. Salilda was essentially a storyteller.” Often his background tunes became so memorable that filmmakers insisted on creating full-length songs from those short pieces. Antara recalls in an anecdote: “The iconic song ‘Aaja Re Pardesi’ from Madhumati was actually first used as the theme music in Jagte Raho that appears in the film each time the character of Raj Kapoor is thirsty and searching for water. Lyricist Shailendra insisted on using this tune to create a song.” In a similar instance, the background piece during the scene in Anand when Rajesh Khanna dies while listening to the tape, was used to create the song, ‘Koi Hota Jisko Apna’ on the insistence of Gulzar for his film Mere Apne (1971).

A nurtured dream
The concept of the tribute show is not a recent idea but the final germination of a dream that Moitra has nurtured for years. Ever since his first encounter with Chowdhury’s music as a sixth grader watching Madhumati, Moitra has been enraptured by the maestro’s music and has imbibed knowledge by listening to his songs. “I have learned from far, like Eklavya. I’ve never met him. When I first listened to [the songs of] Madhumati, they blew my mind. I knew something extraordinary was happening in terms of chord, movement, obligato, song structure. I could also sense that this could easily be music from any other part of the world; this was world music.”
Has organising the tribute concert been a difficult task, especially since he considers Chowdhury his guru? “In a way my job is easy because the work is already done. What’s important for me is to keep in mind that every composition has its own grammar. I just have to understand and highlight the central idea in the song and then I’m home. That evening is about coming together and trying to understand who this man was. I’m also excited because every singer that I’ve asked [to perform at this concert] finds it very challenging that they’ll be singing a Salil Chowdhury composition… There are hardly any challenges left and if a concert like this makes them stop and say, ‘Oh, I need to rehearse this properly’, that’s a great step forward.”
Antara, who will be performing a few of her father’s songs, says her purpose in life is to take her father’s music to the next generation. In addition to teaching his songs to young kids, she has also begun archiving his writings and songs in collaboration with the University of Chicago.
Excited about performing Chowdhury’s music at the NCPA, Moitra feels that the best way to keep the composer’s legacy alive would be if a young child who follows him Googles the maestro’s works and upon hearing a song like ‘Dil Tadap Tadap Ke’ will be moved in the same way that Moitra was moved decades ago. In the words of Salil Chowdhury, “Music will always be dismantling and recreating itself, and assuming new forms in reaction to the times. To fail to do so would be to become fossilised. But in my push to go forward I must never forget that my heritage is also my inspiration.”