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Bollywood’s Bong bond

Neel Dutta infuses techno tunes into classic Bengali music

photo: S. SUBRAMANIUM

new notes Neel Dutta

He is in his early 20s. In Kolkata’s film industry, he is known as the ‘rebel’. But being the son of famous Bengali singer and scriptwriter Anjan Dutta, he sometimes gets away with things that connoisseurs take with a pinch of sal t and the young generation laps up.

Meet Neel Dutta. After having scored the music of the recently released film The Bong Connection, which can best be defined as ‘Bengali classic and remix’, he is all set for listeners’ reaction to Bow Barracks Forever, releasing soon.

The older generation of Bengalis ‘accuse’ Neel of tampering with Rabindra Sangeet by attempting to mix it with different musical instruments. In The Bong Connection, for instance, if Swapan Basu sings the original Ben gali track “Sujan Manjhi Re”, the senior Dutta pairs up with Usha Uthup and brings Jazz elements in “Tumi Na Thakle”.

Reasons Neel, music in Kolkata hasn’t moved like its literature, cuisine and art. It has a lot to do with the Bengali psyche. There is an earnest desire among the new generation to break away from too classic a music. I am just trying to do that without diluting the class. There is a lot of humour among Bengalis which never reflects in their music. In both The Bong Connection and Bow Barracks I have tried to do that. For example, I have added a lot of t echno-sounds to Tagore music. Though the songs in Bow Barracks are very original Elvis Presley types, at places I have treated them contemporarily.” Neel has formed a band called The Music Folk with his father and three more mem bers on bass, keyboard and drums. While Anjan is the lead singer and plays the rhythm guitar, Neel is the lead guitarist. The band’s debut album Not Just Jazz was a hit. “We go to several places dominated by the Bengali community and sing the ‘remix’ version to get the audience responses. It only shows how desperate they are now to break free in music too.”

He will shortly make his entry as a music director in Hindi films with BBD and Junction.

RANA SIDDIQUI

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