Tagore Poems Compiled Into A CD for the First Time

BANGALORE: Giving music to poems can be a daunting task especially when it belongs to Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. He trusted one and only Pankaj Mullick, the late legendary musician for giving his poems the perfect mood it deserved and do justice. The heavenly combination of Tagore’s inspiring words and Mullick’s soulful music has now been compiled into a CD and published for the first time. The CD has been brought out by Saregama, titled ‘Ashruto Rabindranath’ and consists of eight profound songs.

“He was the only film-music-director who had been allowed by Tagore personally to set tune to his lyrics.

These songs were in the form of hand-written notations found in our family archives. Now we have restored it, digitized it and presented it in the form of songs,” Jhinuk Gupta, granddaughter-in-law of Pankaj Mullick told PTI. Jhinuk has given voice to the songs with her husband reciting excerpts from the original poems, which are in Bengali and English.

It is said when Tagore heard Mullick crooning one of his songs ‘Diner Sheshey Ghumer Deshey’, he announced that he was free to set tune to those writings of his which he would not be able to accomplish during his lifetime.

The album has the song’s full version and not an abridged version, as was there in the film, ‘Mukti’. The family is now on a mission to bring out all unheard renditions of the legendary musician. Another song ‘Bhogoban Tumi’ was composed when Mullick was requested by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, founder father of Bangladesh, to set to tune a couple of Tagore’s poems that would inspire and instill pride in every Bengali for their mother tongue.

The accompanying music used in the album is global in its soundscape, incorporating elements of gospel music, philharmonic orchestra, Arabic music and Tagorean music. Having composed over 5,000 songs in his 50-year-old illustrious career, Mullick has given a number of other hits like ‘Chale Pawan Ki Chaal’, ‘Yeh Kaun Aaj Aaya’, ‘Kaun Desh Hai Jana’ and ‘Pran Chahe Naina Na Chahe’.

(With PTI inputs)

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