Folk music of N Bengal on road to revival

Pramod Giri, HT, 5 October 2016, SILIGURI: Revisiting, reviving and preserving the folklore and folk music of North Bengal are the goals. Indian Edu-Cultural Foundation, a trust with its headquarters in Kolkata, has taken up the Herculean task of creating an archive of Nepali folk songs, Bhawaiya songs and Rabindra Sangeet with singers of the region.

The trust, registered two years ago, on Monday announced that it is scouting for singers to sing Nepali folk songs, Bhawaiya and Rabindra Sangeet in seven districts of North Bengal. The songs would be promoted digitally. Pulak Sarkar, a renowned Bengali musician and composer who is a member of the trust, said, “This is the first attempt in history to create an archive of Nepali folk songs, Bhawaiya songs and Rabindra Sangeet together. The trust is giving a platform to artistes to create a history of sorts by recording songs ranging from those hardly heard to new ones.

The idea is to preserve the songs and popularise them among the new generation.” Utpal Chakraborty, a lyricist and another member of the trust, said, “Singers from all corners of North Bengal would be scouted and each singer would be asked to sing two songs.”

The trust is planning to record and preserve 2,200 Rabindra Sangeets by engaging at least 1,000 singers. About 1,000 to 1,500 Nepali folk songs and similar number of Bhawaiya songs would be recorded.

Pradip Kar, president of the Indian Edu-Cultural Foundation, said, “The requisite expenditure will be borne by the trust itself and singers will have to pay nothing.”

The recordings will be done at different locations and musicians would be common for all three categories.

Siliguri-based Deokata Sangha has been given the task of scouting for Nepali folk singers and screening them before the recordings are done. It will take more than a year to complete the project.