A 78 rpm shellac record, with the song Amar sokol dukher pradip, sung by pre-Independence era artiste Bina Choudhury, credits “Rabindranath” for music and lyrics. There is no logo of Visva Bharati Music Board, a later-day mandatory feature.
A disc of the film Judge Saheber Naatni does not mention the artist’s name. The composer is “Kumar Sachin Dev Burman”. Above it, a single line has the words “Nostami dushtumi kore Mohoner gan”. “This means a character in the film, Mohon, gave lip to the song,” explained Sudipta Chanda, whose collection was the source of the exhibits on display at an exhibition at Wisdom Tree on Jatin Das Road that concluded last Sunday. “In those days, it was customary to credit a film song to the character, and not the singer.”
An EP record features Ei mom jochhonay sung by Uttam Kumar though the Nachiketa Ghosh song is known as an Arati Mukherjee hit. The other side has his dialogues.
A cover features a photo of a singing Suchitra Sen for her only album, set to tune by Rabin Chatterjee. “Covers of 78rpm discs carried only designs. Megaphone Record made an exception for her.”
Asha Bhosle’s first non-film Bengali release Jabo ki jabo na under R.D. Burman’s baton, Amit Kumar’s disc with his father Kishore’s music, Ranu Mukherjee’s songs directed by father Hemanta...there were several significant choices among the discs exhibited.
There were a couple of tributes too — of Sandhya Mukherjee to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, composed by Sudhin Dasgupta, and Shyamal Mitra to Uttam and Mohd. Rafi, who died barely a week apart in July 1980.
There were 23 posters of films with composers spanning from Pankaj Mullick to Bappi Lahiri.
Chanda pointed to posters of Kabuliwala with Pandit Ravi Shankar as composer, Atithi with Tapan Sinha as composer and Baksho Badal with Satyajit Ray as composer-cum-screenplay writer.
“Ray also created the lettering of the poster but did not design the poster itself,” pointed out Ray researcher Debasis Mukhopdhyay. He pointed out that though Nityananda Dutta had directed Baksho Badal, Ray had directed a sequence of Notir Puja in the film. “It was one of the two dance dramas of Tagore that he wanted to film, the other being Balmiki Pratibha.” A disc had two Ruma Guha Thakurta songs under the baton of uncle Satyajit Ray, both Tagore songs, one for Baksho Badal and the other for Monihara.
Mukhopadhyay, himself a collector, highlighted the difficulty of preserving film posters as they are printed on flimsy paper.
There were also film booklets, containing synopses, cast and crew, and lyrics, including one of Kal Tumi Aleya, where Uttam Kumar directed the music himself.
“This room contains so much history. We hope a visit would entertain and educate people and induce the youth to listen to the songs,” said Sanjib Acharya, the secretary of Serum Thalassaemia Prevention Federation, which had organised the exhibition.