Movie Marvel: Salil Chaudhary : Also composer and scriptwriter

Miran Trivedi Salil Chowdhury, a veteran Bengali and Hindi cinema composer, took film music to new heights in the seventies by providing melodious music for several films including director Rishikesh Murkhi's 'Anand' and Gulzar's 'Mausam'. Film director B. R. Chopra is also remembered for his unique background score in the songless film 'Kaanoon'. Salil Chaudhary's honeyed music has touched the hearts of listeners from children to elders. Salil Chaudhary is fondly called Salilda by many fans. He spent his childhood in the green hills of Assam. His father was a forest department officer. Salilda was interested in music, musicians and musical instruments from childhood. He could play flute, piano and violin in Hindustani and Western musical instruments by himself without formal musical training. Salilda listened a lot to Western classical music masters Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Chopin as Kansen and got inspiration for melodious music from them. Apart from this, he also mastered Hindustani classical music. Two Bengali songs banned by the British As a student at Calcutta University, Salilda's heart was filled with patriotism and he began writing songs against the British. Two of his popular compositions for the 'Quit India' movement in the forties 'Bicharpati Tomar Bichar' and 'Dheu Taldi Kara Tuchhe…' were banned by the British regime. Salilda found himself joining the rural communist peasants in the villages of Bengal in the freedom movement of India. In 1940, he joined an organization called 'Indian People's Theater Association' (IPTA). There he composed many songs like 'Songs of Awakening'. He also became involved in writing scores for musical squads in rural Bengal. He tried to unite people through collective songs. These early experimental compositions were created from a creative fusion of Western classical music, Indian classical and traditional folk music. Noted Bengali film directors Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen used Salil Chowdhury's music to convey the spirit of the Bengali theater movement of the forties in 'Komal Gandhar' and 'Akaler Samsaney'. Pathbreaking Sound Track After creating a new genre of music in 1950s, Bangla became involved with the film industry for a while and won the hearts of the masses by composing many popular Bengali film songs. Then he set foot in the elusive city of Mumbai. At that time, the golden age of Hindi film music began. Salilda composed the path-breaking soundtracks of renowned film director Bimal Roy's films 'Madhumati' and 'Do Bigha Zameen' and Rishikesh Mukherjee's 'Musafir'. Salilda rendered memorably poignant music in 'Madhumati'. He won the Filmfare Award for Best Music in 1958. During this period Salil Chaudhary had to go into hiding due to his communist activities. Homecoming Salil Chaudhary returned to Kolkata in the late seventies as the dawn of melodious music began to set in Bollywood. With the moral support of his lyricist-wife Sabita and daughter Antara, he continued to compose modern songs in Bangla. His songs gained popularity. Poet, playwright and scriptwriter Salil Chaudhary's poetry and music were included in the postgraduate course for Bengali students at Rabindra Bharati University in Kolkata. His poem 'Unusual' is simple and straightforward. A collection of his unpublished Bengali poems was published posthumously by his second wife, Sabita, 'The Poems of Salil Chaudhary'. In 1983 he produced a solo album of poetry. In it, we can hear composer Salildan as a poet, his own poems with his own background score. His Bengali short stories 'Dressing Table', 'Sunya Puron', 'Orunodoir Pathey' (a Bengali translation of the Irish drama 'The Rising of the Moon') etc. were critically acclaimed. Salilda was also an excellent script writer. He wrote the script for film director Bimal Roy's award-winning classic film 'Do Bigha Zameen' (Rickshawala in Bengali). His other film scripts include 'Pinjare Ka Panchi' in Hindi, 'Parakh' and 'Chinna Ninna Mudduve' in Kannada. Salilda's name still tops the list of composers who have worked in various Indian languages ​​including Assamese, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and Hindi. The versatile composer's evergreen songs like 'Suhana Safar Aur Ye Mausam Hasi…', 'Zindagi Kaisi Hai Pehli Haie…' or 'Kahi Door Jab Din Dhal Jaye…' have made him immortal. Later we will talk about the events related to the life of Salil Chaudhary.

Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).