Bangla Films with Interesting Music Info in Title Cards
What kind of information can be found about film music from a movie’s title card? Everyone will counter saying, “What's the big deal? It has the names of the lyricist, composer, and singers!" We will say that there is even more than that. Just think of the variety and amount of information one can find if they want!
For example, consider the 1935 film "Mukti". That was the first time Rabindra Sangeet was used on the cinema screen outside of Rabindranath's stories. Subject to Visva-Bharati's approval, a list of the songs being used is provided. Such lists and mentions of Visva-Bharati's approval could be seen in the title cards of Bengali films for many years after that. But all that began with “Mukti”.
As a well-known sample title card showing the names of the lyricist and composer, we have chosen the film "Shohor Theke Dure”. There, the lyricists are two—Nazrul Islam and Sailen Roy—and the composer is Subal Dasgupta.
For title cards introducing singers, our selection is "Shapmochan”. In this case, the name of DV Paluskar shines most prominently at the very top. Following him are Chinmoy Lahiri, Hemanta Mukherjee, Shyamal Mitra, and Pratima Banerjee in that order.
For instrumental accompaniment, renowned groups of instrumentalists were once regularly called to lend their services for Bengali films. A very familiar name on Bengali film title cards, for instance, is "Sur O Sree Orchestra”. For reference, the title card of the film "Rajkannya" deserves a look.
The recording phase follows the creation of the music. Bengali recordists have worked in Bombay, and recordists from Bombay have also worked for Bengali films. On the title card of "Monihar”, the name of Shyamasundar Ghosh from Tollygunge is present, along with three from Bombay. Among them is Robin Chatterjee, who was from Bengal too.
There was extensive use of folk music in Ritwik Ghatak's "Titas Ekti Nodir Naam”. The contribution of music collector Harlal Roy was separately acknowledged in the title card.
"Surer Akashe" is a hit music-heavy film of the 1980s. The evidence of entering the cassette era, moving past vinyl records, too is captured in the title card of that time. The copyrights of both records and cassettes too are mentioned there.
Taking a separate music director for background score is very common nowadays. That was not the case earlier. In the film, "Swetpathorer Thala”, the title card separately mentioned Alokanath Dey for being in charge of the background score.
At the very beginning of Anjan Dutt's film "Madly Bangali”, which explores the world of Bengali band music, we find a tribute to the cult band Mohiner Ghoraguli in the title card. Music director Kalikaprasad Bhattacharya had passed away prematurely before the film's release. The title card of the film, "Bishorjon", begins with a homage to his memory.
Is it wrong to call the title card a treasure trove of musical information?