Rare song by Pahari Sanyal to be launched

Singer Riddhi Bandopadhyay is just back from Dhaka, after delivering a stellar performance of her signature "Panchakabir Gaan" at an Indira Gandhi Cultural Centre concert. She is now all set to launch her latest album featuring songs of Atul Prasad Sen in November in Kolkata. The album, "Pronam", is a tribute to the veteran Bengali film actor, Pahari Sanyal. Though all the songs have been composed by Atul Prasad Sen, they have been sung by Bandopadhyay. One song has been rendered by Sanyal in the album.

This unheard song by Pahari Sanyal is going to be launched for the first time in CD format. Sanyal was a gifted singer who was a student of Sen in Lucknow and he excelled in singing thumris. Satyajit Ray used this song in his movie Aranyer Din Ratri but without music. "I work towards reviving Bengali heritage music and reaching them to younger audiences across the world", Bandopadhyay told Millennium Post. The CD was however launched by Bangladesh National Professor Anisuzzaman together with Jayashree Kundu, the Director of the IGCC in Dhaka recently.

Bendopadhyay has also been christened Panchakabir Kanya because her popularity in Europe, USA, Australia and Bangladesh to an extent hinges on "Panchakabir Gaan". The artist is now all set for her next concert at the India Habitat centre in New Delhi on November 5, where she will be delivering Panchakabir Gaan and songs from old Bengali plays as well.

Bandopadhyay is also working on Smriti Bismritir Gaan, a new concert featuring Bengali songs of yesteryears, featuring composers like Himangshu Dutta, Dilipkumar Roy, Pranab Roy and Kamal Dasgupta. This will be held at the ICCR in Kolkata on November 18. Other singers performing on stage on that evening will be Haimanti Shukla, Lopamudra Mitra, Debojit Bandopadhyay and Sudip Bandopadhyay. She is also taking her work as the Brand Ambassador of the Bengali Association of New Delhi quite seriously. The next event with them will be during the Book Fair in Delhi in March. Bandopadhyay also performed at the prestigious NABC concert in the US in July where she sang "Panchakabir Gaan" as well as patriotic Bengali songs.