Bhromor
Anasua Chowdhury
Prime Music; Rs 45

Anasua Chowdhury has already made a name for herself in Bangla Adhunik songs with some hits to her credit. This album shows that she is not a misfit in the world of Rabindrasangeet either. Anasua has a light, sharp and sensitive voice which she modulates intelligently. Ore bhai, phagun legechhe, Sahe na jatana (Side A) and Gharete bhromor elo (Side B) make for pleasant listening. Anasua commendably taps into the devotional depth of Morey bare bare phirale.

mon metechhey
Keya Chattopadhyay
Supani; Rs 40

Keya Chattopadhayay has a deep, full voice with a suave meditative touch in her gayaki, which is particularly suitable to Rabindrasangeet singing. She soulfully renders the Basanta numbers like Ore aamar mon metechhey, Eei udashi hawar, Mor beena othe (Side A) and Emni kore jay jodi din (Side B). The expansive mood of Bipul taranga re is efficiently captured, too. However, Keya doesn’t always seem eager to vary her reflective singing mode even when some exuberant numbers like Prane khushir toofan and Mor bhabanare call for that.

Arnab Bhattacharya

jalchhobi
Pallab Ghosh
Prime Music; Rs 42

Jalchhobi has eight songs sung by Pallab Ghosh and he calls it ‘Notun Bangla Gaan’. The lyrics are too simplistic at times. Sample this Srabano dhara jal e thhoi thoi/Pakhi ra kade bole nir koi or this, Badolo dine chil ashe neme.... The music is also kept simple so that it goes with the flow. The real grace is Pallab himself. Some of the better songs are Megh chokhe tomake dekha, Aajo khuji shei shakal bikel tor joto swapno, Jani jani tumi and Dure kothae.

shiuli phool
Dipak Rudra
Bhavna; Rs 40

It’s his love for Rabindrasangeet that reflects in every song he sings. Dipak Rudra’s Shiuli Phool has 10 Tagore songs. His choice of songs include Hridaye chhile jege, Amal dhabalo paale legechhe, Aaji Sharat tapone, Aakash hote khoslo tara, Tomar mohon roope among others.

palash re, tor agune
Soma
FF;CD Rs 49

The album has eight Bengali modern songs sung by Soma. She does a good job here and has the voice to carry the fast-paced, catchy numbers like Tumi jodi jante, Raateri eeije nesha as also the slow romantic numbers like Ke jano duti chokhe hai, Jaani jaani eshobi bhul. Most of the songs are quite well written and put to fitting music.

Madhuparna Das

bangla baithakigaan
Basabi Dutta
SaReGaMa; CD Rs 145

Lyrically, Baithakigaan are essentially humorous or satirical with a curious mixture of the religious and the social. The CD has three of Nidhubabu’s songs of which Lukiye bhalo bashbo tare evokes laughter with its naughty lyrics. Basabi Dutta renders it well. The other two, Amar emon je hobe and Jar praan tar kaachhe, are devotional with Basabi’s classical rendition in full flow. The rest of the numbers are regular except Ki karo ki karo Shyam (Dayal Chand Mitra’s lyrics) again full of light banter. The choice of songs could have been less devotional to make it more Baithaki.

Anasuya Basu