Bengali Music...

Bengali is a wonderful language... sure, we may be obsessed with our 'sh' sounds, rolling everything into 'o's, and adding 'chi', 'che' or 'cho' to the end of every sentence, but in general, I think it is quite pleasant on the ears. I speak and understand it fluently and love its nuances and expressions.

Why then did I never get into Bengali music? I always prefered English or Hindi, and don't really enjoy Bong music at all... :( Every time my dad pops a Bengali music cassette into the tape player in our car (yes, we still have a tape player, CDs are too advanced for my dad), I cringe at the 'Adhunik' (modern) sangeet which he seems to love. For me, it sounds absolutely awful and the lyrics are in some cases quite ridiculous... Then we move onto the genre of Bangla rock which seems to be quite popular in Bangladesh. The problem with Bangla rock is that while the acoustics and getup is such that the songs sound like that they should be about death and destruction, the lyrics seem to be about love and peace... so I am not sure whether to laugh, cry, or change the channel.

Bengalis have a knack for music, and the region has really produced some of the greatest composers and musicians in the country. We can go back in time and the list is endless... Rabindranath Tagore, Nazrul Islam, Bankim Chandra, RD Burman, Hemantha Mukherjee, and Kishore Kumar, all the way to todays stars like Shaan, Abhijeet, Babul Supriyo or Shreya Ghoshal.

Classical Bengali Music, like Rabindra Sangeet or Baul Sangeet is phenominal for those who understand it, but it has its time and its place. For some reason, we seem to be lagging about 50 years behind or are badly out of place when it comes to modernizing Bengali music... on occasion, I hear the good Bengali album... I thought Anjan Duttas work in 'The Bong Connection' was quite decent, and 'Majhi Re' is a song which every so often pops into my head...

But I digress... to the Bongs reading this blog, am I a lost cause? Can you rescue my faith in Bengali music by recommending some nice songs, or will I be lost to the likes of Himesh Reshammiya for ever???