“...that’s the thing with music though right - language doesn’t matter at all, if it moves you it moves you” wrote actor and singer Saba Azad in her recent Instagram post, featuring her cover of Satyajit Ray’s timeless classic Maharaja Tomare Selam (from the 1969 film Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne).
The actor, who is the niece of late theatre activist Safdar Hashmi, also reminisced about how she came across Ray’s music. “Sick at home with no energy to do much else than sing - when I was a smol my parents got me the cassette tape for the soundtrack of the classic Ray film “Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne” soon after we watched it at a festival. At the time I didn’t understand Bangla at all, even so, it very quickly became my favourite cassette tape and I learnt every lyric of every song (however mispronounced and incorrectly - pls forgive me) on the album - yep, without understanding a word of what it meant - that’s the thing with music though right…” she wrote.
Saba’s cover also received comments from her rumoured boyfriend Hrithik Roshan. The Krishh actor couldn’t help but write “You are an extraordinary human” in comments, to which Saba replied, “and you are the kindest.” Actor-director Konkona Sen Sharma too reacted to the post, appreciating Saba’s Bengali pronunciation.
The Instagram reel managed to garner 157K views within a day.
Saba, who debuted in the 2008 Bollywood film Dil Kabaddi started her acting journey in Safdar Hashmi’s theatre group Jana Natya Manch. She soon also found her calling in music and paired with musician Imaad Shah (also Naseeruddin Shah’s son) to form the electro-funk band Madboy/Mink in 2012.
Here are some other music marvels by Saba to kickstart your Tuesday:
Check out the OG Maharaja Tomare Selam, sung by Anup Ghoshal and Rabi Ghosh, here.