Rabindrasangeet brought alive

The voice of Debabrata (George) Biswas has played a major role in immortalising Tagore's songs. KISHORE CHATTERJI writes...

CALCUTTA MAY have changed its name to Kolkata, but the cultural heart of the educated Bengali has not changed. For instance, more than 50 years after his death, Rabindranath Tagore and his songs, called ``Rabindrasangeet,'' have not lost their sanctity. In May, Kolkata celebrates Tagore's birthday and ``Rabindrasangeet'' is rendered in concert halls, radio centres, television channels, at millions of homes and by the man on the street. This immense popularity has been achieved by the sustained efforts of singers like Pankaj Mullick, Hemanta Mukherjee, Suchitra Mitra and Kanika Banerjee. But the voice that made Tagore's songs one of the city's cultural highlights was that of the late Debabrata (George) Biswas.

George Biswas began his recording career way back in the early 1940s with the 78 rpm medium. His voice has captivated the lovers of this genre through extended play records, long playing records, cassettes and now compact discs. Today there are more CDs of this charismatic singer than any other ``Rabindrasangeet'' singer. In order to understand why George Biswas is such a phenomenon, why he is a great singer a knowledge about the background to the art of Rabindrasangeet is necessary.

As a song writer, Tagore was unique because he set his own words to music. This was also the case with his contemporaries like D. L. Roy, Atul Prasad Sen, Rajanikanta and the younger Nazrul Islam. They were all poet composers. Schubert is often compared to Tagore. But Schubert as a composer was different from Tagore because he did not write the lyrics. Other song writers of the West such as Hugo Wolf, Mahler and Brahms also gave music to other people's words. Tagore, however, was a writer and a philosopher who musically expressed his feelings about life, nature and death through songs.

Singing Tagore is difficult because the right balance must be kept between the words and the tune. George Biswas with his long association with the Brahmo Samaj where at prayer meetings and weddings Tagore's songs were sung regularly developed the right spiritual mind set to understand the Tagore philosophy. Coupled with this was his experience of singing in the Indian People's Theatre movement which helped him to develop the qualities of drama, modulation and rhythmic declamation which enabled him to present Tagore's songs with the right pauses, emphasis and nuances.

By the time Tagore's birth centenary arrived in 1961 and the Tagore boom began, the song writer had in George Biswas the singer who could project both his spiritual depth and dramatic thrust. This was possible because George, with his training in theatre and chapel, could pronounce the words with tremendous gusto and feeling. In short, George Biswas injected life and vivacity in Tagorean interpretations. His robust, bold, manly voice gave a resounding wake up call to Rabindrasangeet which pumped new life into a genre which was going to sleep.

Debabrata Biswas bowled me over when I first heard him in my college days at the time when Tagore's centenary was being celebrated. I had been singing `Rabindrasangeet' all my life learning the songs meticulously from my grandmother Sunayani Devi, who was Tagore's niece. But George came as a new experience. Like K. L. Saighal, and Pankaj Mullick, George had a voice which simply cannot be copied though many professional singers have tried. Two of his pupils, Swapan Gupta and Arghya Sen have not copied him but achieved fame. It was Arghya Sen who in 1969 took me one day to George Biswas' house.

The great singer led a simple life in a one-room ground floor flat in Gariahat, one of Kolkata's most popular residential areas. He was very polite and sang a few songs. I remember there were books and music all over the place and the room was so untidy that Debabrata Biswas reminded me of Beethoven. For me it was a pilgrimage to the shrine of an icon I worshipped.

The so-called purists and pundits and the Vishwabharati Sangeet Board which officially controls the recording of Rabindrasangeet created difficulties for George claiming that his interpretations were more Georgian than Tagorean. This prompted the singer to write a book about his Tagorean views and towards private recordings which have sustained his popularity.

And George seems to have had the last laugh. For the fans who kept his singing career alive through private recordings have helped the current crop of CD manufacturers to release a treasury of rare George songs which have flooded the Kolkata shops. And more are promised.

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