Elegy of a Bong in pain

Yesterday our French class was rocked by anguished wails in Bengali emanating from the floor. Since it is difficult to concentrate on French pronouns when a Bong gent is apparently being murdered in the basement to the accompaniment of rock guitars and a symphonic orchestra, the teacher went down to investigate.

Apparently a rock group from Bengal called Mohiner Ghoraguli was practicing in the basement of Alliance Française for their show on Saturday.

Nothing to be done: they were there at the invitation of the director. Back to the pronouns.

“Ouch! What was that?” said the teacher, slipping into English when a particularly gruesome note was struck.

“That,” I said portentously, as the only Bengali in the class, “was the sound of a Bong in pain.”

“It is indeed very painful…for the listeners.”

“Yes. Let this be a lesson to you. Never hurt a Bong. He is liable to hire a 21 piece orchestra and sing about it.”

After the class, I went down to the basement to investigate. The basement was bursting with Bongs wielding sundry musical instruments. As I suspected, there was a 21 piece symphonic orchestra and diverse rock musicians with guitar, bass and drums. Instructions were being yelled back and forth in Bong, and musicians were being harried. And music was being made. It was all very exciting sight, and very ‘Bong’, so I stayed on.

Actually, from up close, they didn’t sound half as bad. In fact, without the intervening layers of concrete, they were pretty good. The supremo seemed to me an interesting methuselahan figure in flowing white beard dyed fluorescent magenta and a dinky multicolor beret. After pack-up was announced, I corralled the man for an interview.
He seemed a bit depressed that I represented an obscure rock journal, but he relented eventually.

Methuselah’s real name was Ranjan Ghoshal. He was one of the original members of Mohiner Ghoraguli – touted as the first rock band in India. MG was started in Calcutta in 1975 by Gautam Chattopadhya, at a time when rock bands were unheard of in India. There were seven original members, playing a diverse range of instruments: guitar, drums, bass, double bass, cello, viola, and others. They aimed at an unusual sound, based on melody with influences from Bengali folk music. Their songs were exclusively in Bengali, and the lyrics strove to a new level of realism till then unknown in literary circles in Calcutta – talking about the dreams and anxieties of ordinary middle-class Calcutta youth, in ordinary street patios.
The name of the band, which means ‘Mohini’s Horses’, came from a phrase in a poem by the Bengali poet Jibananda Das. It was also used in the title of their first album: ‘Shombhigno pakhi kool au mohinir ghoraguli’. They released two more albums ‘AUB – Anjana Udanto Bostu’ which is basically Bengali for UFO, and ‘Drisghoman’.

They got to play as the only Indian band in the 1980 Jazz Fest at St Pauls Cathedral in Calcutta, but otherwise didn’t have much success – India wasn’t ready for them yet, and they disbanded in 82-83 to pursue their individual careers.

There was a revived interest in them in 1989-90, when indi-pop burst on the scene, and Gautam Chattopadhya released some of their old, unpublished music, and they started experimenting with music again. Unfortunately, Gautam passed away last year, leaving a vacuum.

The current show is a tribute to Gautam by the remaining original members of MG. They have been joined by a large team of young musicians, most of them students of Abharam Majumdar, one of the original members. They will be performing most of the old MG songs, and some new numbers, but most of the musicians will be new, and the singers will all be new.

Some of the important songs that they will perform are : ‘Hai Bhalobhasha’ (Oh Love!), Runaway, and ‘Shono Shodhajon’ .

They describe their music as a musical movement, and experimentation in melodic music ranging over rock, jazz, ethnic and folk music.

From what I heard, there should be a treat in store for Bangaloreans.