PROBASHI- A Cultural News Magazine Volume 2 Issue 1 | Page 43

Probashi- Cover Story

Probashi- Cover Story

Interview with Goutam Ghose
Lalon ` ‐ a sufi and a baul from 19th century Bengal which gave me the plot for the film. I did further research including visit to Bangladesh to meet Lalon scholars and went to
Khustiya, Lalon’ s birth place. Lalon ' s liberal values upholding Hindu‐Muslim composite culture in the milieu of 19th century Bengal’ s social environment is indeed fascinating. You have given music for almost all your films. Music is central to Moner Manush, how did you adapt Lalon’ s song for the film?
Yes I have given music for all my
films except for two films Gudiya
and Patang where I collaborated
with Arthur
Gracias a
Calcutta Jazz
musician now based in
Perth. For
Moner
Manush we had to keep in
mind that
Lalon used to sing his
philosophy and it was critical that
we get this aspect right. Lalan ' s
songs
have
been
scarcely
documentedd
except
for
some
pioneering
work by people like
Sudhin Das.
Being in oral tradition,
the tunes have changed.
I met with
Abdul Karim Shah, a senior fakir
more than
90 years old, and listened carefully to the style of singing from Lalon ' s gharana. After listening I recomposed some of
Lalon songs, so that the tune stays true as possible to Lalon
' s original compositions.
Only songs performed in the style of Lalon ' s gharana would do justice to his songs in my film.
It is said that Rituporno
Ghosh also wanted to do Moner
Manush and in fact also approached
Sunil
Gangopadhyaya for the rights. Yes that is true but when Sunilda told him that I was doing the film,
Rituporno very gracefully accepted.
Gautam
Ghose with copy of
Probashi‐
Indeed an honour for us
Manik
Bandopadhyay
( Podda last year after studying at
Nodir Majhi), Samaresh
Majumdar
Drummer’ s
Collective. He assisted
( Kalbela), and
Moner
Manush me as the second unit
( Sunil
Gangopadhyay
).
This cinematographer on my latest film generation of writers are fading
Shunno Onko. away. Are we getting new crop of
We have taken a lot of your time, writers to fill the gap? one last question. With success one
Yes certainly there are very good tends to get remote.
However we new writers who have come up. find you so down to earth. How do
Only time will tell if they can reach you manage this? the stature of great writers Bengal I manage this because I do not like has producedd. three words
STAR,
VIP and
We are to understand your
CELEBRITY children are into creative fields.
You have adapted works of some of the best writers into films like
My daughter
Anaandi is a corporate advertisement film maker. My son
Ishaan just returned from
New York
Interview conducted for
Probashi by
Sudipto
Sengupta and
Amit
Mukherji