When Baba mentioned to me last week that a Bengali/North-East Indian folk music band was going to be in town to play and tickets were for free, I could see that this is something he wouldn’t like to miss.
He knows a lot about Bengali folk, my father. Perhaps because he spent much time with my grand-father who was a theatre-artiste visiting the quaint Calcutta-based music festivals and experienced the ‘Baul’ culture in its might and glory.
Although I have been quite impressed by the dedication that the Coke Studio series have shown to the rich Indian folk music culture, there was never really much concentrated on the Eastern part of the country.
This Friday’s show by Surma Dohar was a great attempt – but I believe that the fact that this group is still in its formative stages and very young can be attributed to the reason why they took cover behind commonly known songs and didn’t even use a dotara – a mandolin like string instrument which forms the heart of this music form.
There aren’t too many examples of modern-day Baul songs, but several original instruments are used in this song, making it quite delightful.