Copyright all rights reserved by Trishula Das 2016
From the Soul and Soil of India
Babukishan (Baul Guru) is a born Musician/Mystic/Poet/Author/Sanskrit-ist/Baul Tantric/Yogi from a long living lineage. Lovers of love who sing Baul songs, Baul Kirtan, Kirtan "devotional Bhakti Yoga songs", Bhajan's, about Radha/Krishna & Kali/Shiva and all things Sanatan Dharmic. As a Scholar, Mystic Master of a Living Tradition he has been traveling worldwide for more than 40 years performing and teaching Baul Sadhana. Today it is easy to travel around and talk about the traditions of India, in the early decades of Babu's travels performances and teaching there were no cell phones or internet, it was an arduous task of letter writing and correspondence a huge accomplishment during earlier times.
Babu has a BA in Indian Philosophy & Masters degree MA in Indian Music from Calcutta University. He has grown up with the Legendary Musicians, Poets, Creative Talent including (actors filmakers directors all well known artists), Politicians and Political Leaders of India, Yogi's, Tantrics, Guru's and Spirituality of India. Rare in that from birth he received Darshan and initiations from the greatest, known and unknown spiritual leaders (Saints, Sadhu's, Swami's, Guru's, Tantrics, Siddha's from the early 1960's) Babu has experienced an India that does not exist today he provides a rare view of a time lost to a new world, a time loaded with mystical secrets that have never been revealed. A person Babu loved dearly was his uncle who was a Calcutta Supreme Court Judge Babu met him when he was 8, he also was one of Babu's many Guru's. Now this was not just any Supreme Court Judge he was a Jyotishi (Vedic Astrologer) and his predictions were bang on but he never wanted anybody to know about him, therefore, at this point I can not say his name. He had predicted many things for Babu's life one being that he would met and marry me. He also predicted many decades before that Pranab Mukerjee would be President of India and all has come true. Babu and his Uncle would travel India and test different spiritual leaders in India as to their authenticity, they both were experts at finding the truth and finding fakes using both intellect and mysticism.
Babu is a Award winning Bollywood Music Composer for (Indian Cinema) composing music from an early age. Spending 13 years as a personal close friend to RD Burman. RD Burman was Babu's Indian Cinema Guru.
www.babukishanbollywoodinstitute.weebly.com
Babu has been a cultural representative of India since the early 1970's. He has preformed with Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, George Harrison and many more. Living many lifetimes in one lifetime. He also was a monk for 12 years as a Ramakrishna Monk in the Ramakrishna Order in Calcutta. Babukishan aka Krishnendu Das is an expert Master of Indian Music, India, Yoga, Tantra, Vedanta, Sanskrit from the soul and soil of India.
Born in Suri Birbhum W Bengal into the lap of Sri Nabani Das Khappa Baul and Brajabala Dasi and raised by his Grandparents until Nabani's Samadhi in 1969. This is when Babu reunited with his birth mother and father (Purna Das Baul and Manju Dasi) in Calcutta. Then he began his 12 years of living at the Ramakrishna Mission as a Monk. All of the Swami's at the Ramakrishna Mission knew Babu was a Baul they let him keep his hair and allowed his to keep his own personal Baul practices because Ramakrishna loved Bauls, he considered Baul to be an OCEAN of Devotion & wisdom. Ramakrishna said, he wanted to be born a Baul in his next life. When it was time for Babu's initiation to become a Swami Sanaysin in the Ramakrishna Mission his father Purna Das Baul did not allow it and pulled Babu out of the Mission, thus began Babu's career as his fathers personal manager. Babu composed mostly all of his fathers successful music recordings. Many years later Babu departed Bengal for residence in Bombay working on his own career as a Music Composer and Film Designer. Baul to Bollywood to Canada. Babu has traveled all over India many many times starting from a young age, later with his father and many more.
Author - Trishula Das
Babukishan (Baul Guru) is a born Musician/Mystic/Poet/Author/Sanskrit-ist/Baul Tantric/Yogi from a long living lineage. Lovers of love who sing Baul songs, Baul Kirtan, Kirtan "devotional Bhakti Yoga songs", Bhajan's, about Radha/Krishna & Kali/Shiva and all things Sanatan Dharmic. As a Scholar, Mystic Master of a Living Tradition he has been traveling worldwide for more than 40 years performing and teaching Baul Sadhana. Today it is easy to travel around and talk about the traditions of India, in the early decades of Babu's travels performances and teaching there were no cell phones or internet, it was an arduous task of letter writing and correspondence a huge accomplishment during earlier times.
Babu has a BA in Indian Philosophy & Masters degree MA in Indian Music from Calcutta University. He has grown up with the Legendary Musicians, Poets, Creative Talent including (actors filmakers directors all well known artists), Politicians and Political Leaders of India, Yogi's, Tantrics, Guru's and Spirituality of India. Rare in that from birth he received Darshan and initiations from the greatest, known and unknown spiritual leaders (Saints, Sadhu's, Swami's, Guru's, Tantrics, Siddha's from the early 1960's) Babu has experienced an India that does not exist today he provides a rare view of a time lost to a new world, a time loaded with mystical secrets that have never been revealed. A person Babu loved dearly was his uncle who was a Calcutta Supreme Court Judge Babu met him when he was 8, he also was one of Babu's many Guru's. Now this was not just any Supreme Court Judge he was a Jyotishi (Vedic Astrologer) and his predictions were bang on but he never wanted anybody to know about him, therefore, at this point I can not say his name. He had predicted many things for Babu's life one being that he would met and marry me. He also predicted many decades before that Pranab Mukerjee would be President of India and all has come true. Babu and his Uncle would travel India and test different spiritual leaders in India as to their authenticity, they both were experts at finding the truth and finding fakes using both intellect and mysticism.
Babu is a Award winning Bollywood Music Composer for (Indian Cinema) composing music from an early age. Spending 13 years as a personal close friend to RD Burman. RD Burman was Babu's Indian Cinema Guru.
www.babukishanbollywoodinstitute.weebly.com
Babu has been a cultural representative of India since the early 1970's. He has preformed with Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, George Harrison and many more. Living many lifetimes in one lifetime. He also was a monk for 12 years as a Ramakrishna Monk in the Ramakrishna Order in Calcutta. Babukishan aka Krishnendu Das is an expert Master of Indian Music, India, Yoga, Tantra, Vedanta, Sanskrit from the soul and soil of India.
Born in Suri Birbhum W Bengal into the lap of Sri Nabani Das Khappa Baul and Brajabala Dasi and raised by his Grandparents until Nabani's Samadhi in 1969. This is when Babu reunited with his birth mother and father (Purna Das Baul and Manju Dasi) in Calcutta. Then he began his 12 years of living at the Ramakrishna Mission as a Monk. All of the Swami's at the Ramakrishna Mission knew Babu was a Baul they let him keep his hair and allowed his to keep his own personal Baul practices because Ramakrishna loved Bauls, he considered Baul to be an OCEAN of Devotion & wisdom. Ramakrishna said, he wanted to be born a Baul in his next life. When it was time for Babu's initiation to become a Swami Sanaysin in the Ramakrishna Mission his father Purna Das Baul did not allow it and pulled Babu out of the Mission, thus began Babu's career as his fathers personal manager. Babu composed mostly all of his fathers successful music recordings. Many years later Babu departed Bengal for residence in Bombay working on his own career as a Music Composer and Film Designer. Baul to Bollywood to Canada. Babu has traveled all over India many many times starting from a young age, later with his father and many more.
Author - Trishula Das
Calcutta University sent Krishnendu Das aka Babu Kishan as a representative to The International Symposium of World Philosophy New Delhi, at the Vijyan Bhavan in the 1980's. He was always representing Baul and Indian Philosophy all over the world at Universities at a very young age, he has been there and down that.
This is the monk Krishnendu aka Babu Kishan.
Babu Kishan is a Sanskrit Scholar in the regular Book tradition to the Masters Level and he is a Oral Sanskritist. He traveled all over with renowned Sanskrit Professor Dr Roma Choudhry of Lady Brahman College, Calcutta University, Tagore University she was a well respected lecturer all over the world and now it is if this history has just become obsolete.
This is the monk Krishnendu aka Babu Kishan.
Babu Kishan is a Sanskrit Scholar in the regular Book tradition to the Masters Level and he is a Oral Sanskritist. He traveled all over with renowned Sanskrit Professor Dr Roma Choudhry of Lady Brahman College, Calcutta University, Tagore University she was a well respected lecturer all over the world and now it is if this history has just become obsolete.
Babu Kishan aka Krishnendu Das and his friends in Mumbai 2008!
Author Amitav Ghosh, Poet Prabodh Parik .
Author Amitav Ghosh, Poet Prabodh Parik .
Babukishan with film Director Shyam Benegal/ 2008.
#baulguru
www.babukishan.org
#baul #bengal #birbhum #performingarts #baulofbengal
#babukishan #shyanbenegal
#baulguru
www.babukishan.org
#baul #bengal #birbhum #performingarts #baulofbengal
#babukishan #shyanbenegal
Babukishan & his Grandfather & Guru The Legendary Baul Guru Avadhuta Sri Nabani Das Khappa Baul
Satsang:
The ancient art of Indian Storytelling from within an Oral Tradition, by Master Mystic Storyteller Musician Babukishan Das, Sanskrit scholar born in the oral tradition & learned at the school level in his 12 years as a Vedic Monk in the Ramakrishna Order and also at the University level BA & Masters level Sanskrit. Sanskrit from the soul and soil of India. Oral Tradition and Shastra. It is rare in this world that one can compare the oral tradition & the book tradition because much is lost in book tradition by itself. To say Oral Tradition does not negate book tradition it adds to it, as much is lost in translation.
Babukishan is from a family of Sanskrit-ist both oral & academic, his Grandfather on his mothers side Dr. Jogesh Das was a Professor of Sanskrit at Dhaka University then India. His Baul Guru and Grandfather on his fathers side Nabani Das Khyappa Baul was an oral Sanskrit and a Master of Tantra & Ayurveda including indigenous herbs, healing and Tantric Siddha techniques. Nabani was a Master Tantric Yogi Avadhuta, poet, singer, musician and Baul Saint. He has had many Sanskrit manuscripts and Shastra. Some say Bauls are illiterate, this is so far from the truth a complete misunderstanding of who the Vaishnava Bauls are.
To a British educated proper English speaking Bengali, Bauls may have appeared illiterate because they did not speak English. Bengali's were so busy trying to impress the British to be accepted. The Bauls stayed far from the British and preferred to be seen as illiterate as this is part of their technique in preserving their secrets, they actually have elaborate techniques to test the insincere, they accept all in need of help but actually takes a lifetime or many lifetimes to become a Baul Guru or Master Tantric Baul.
A Baul's cause is Love "Prem" A Baul is a Rasa Lila Mystic, a Yogi, a Bhakti Yogi a "Tantric" Baul includes all of Sanatan Dharma, Bauls are the Ocean of Devotion.
The Vaishnava Bauls are Sanskrit speaking people in the oral tradition that being said, it does not mean they do not read the Shastra in Sanskrit or have Shastra, they adhere to the Bhagavad Gita, Purana's, and Upanishads.
Vaishnava Bauls sing the poetry of Jay Dev, they have kept his poetry alive and hold a huge Baul Mela "the Joy Dev Mela" in Kenduli at the RADHAVINOD TEMPLE OF JOYDEV-KENDULI. Kenduli is a small village by the River Ajoy in the district of Birbhum in West Bengal, India. The Bridge that crosses over the river is called "The Nabani Setu" after Nabani Das Khyappa Baul. The village is famous mainly because :
a) It was the home-village of famous poet JOYDEV who was the Poet Royal at the court of the King of Bengal Lakshman Sen of the SEN dynasty (11th-12th century AD)
b) It is here that Joydev wrote his famous book “Gita Govinda”.
c) The Bauls have been holding their Joy Dev Baul Mela there since the beginning.
The Vaishnava Bauls are the ancestors and lineage of Sri Nityananda of Ekkchakra Birbhum W Bengal India. Nitai was a Baul an Avadhuta. This lineage are followers and ancestors of Nitai. The Vaishnava Bauls respect Chaitanya, but they follow Nitai as they have followed Baul for thousands of years before Chaitanya. Baul Vaishnavism has been around for thousands of years before Chaitanya. The Vaishnava Bauls are the original indigenous Hare Krishna singers and dancers of Ekkchakra Birbhum W Bengal and their ancestor was Nityananda of Ekkchakra it is important to make this distinction because Nitai was also a great friend and teacher of Sri Chaitanya and much is what is written today is not an accurate account of history.
We are in possession of many never released Sanskrit writings, manuscripts and books that have never been seen by the public they are held within this tradition. They will be released over the coming years as they need careful translation as we do not want to put an English cultural lense over this tradition for example using the term demi god to explain Devata is a gross mistranslation of Sanskrit and a Gross misunderstanding of Devata. We are not in the business of collecting devotee's or temple building we only want to preserve what we know for future generations. Bauls had ashrams where they wrote poetry, they were also wandering sadhu's both male and female, musical poetic Bhakta only interested in Divine Love. Remember Bauls respect and hold the feminine as the highest they puja Radha first. Our cause is to preserve the legacy and heritage of the Vaishnava Bauls of Birbhum W Bengal India the lineage of Nitai.
Vaishnava Bauls sing their simple Baul songs in Bengali and dance their whirling mystic dance, to be near a Baul as they sing and dance it to receive their darshan (auspicious blessing) .
Sat the highest eternal truth, Sanga in the company of the wise. Babukishan is a Master of profound ancient Indian teachings, deep esoteric wisdom. Wisdom from the soul and soil of India, including Indian Philosophy, YOGA, TANTRA the stories of all the Devata, VEDANTA, WISDOM teachings, Dharma teachings, the art of oral storytelling. Babukishan first learned this as early as one can learn from his Grandfather and Grandmother Sri Nabani Das Baul and Brajabala Dasi who raised him from birth. He was taught the art of hearing and remembering through sound vibration, through Sanskrit.
The teachings of this Vaishnava Baul Lineage of Nabani Das Baul and Brajabala Dasi, and others that Babukishan has had direct initiation into including, the Ramakrishna order where Babu was a monk for 12 years in the Ramakrishna Order, Sri Anandamayi Ma, Sri SitaRamDas Omkarnath and many others unknown in the West from Bengal and all over India. Babu has attended all the Kumbha Mela's since the early 60's first traveling with his Grandfather (Sri Nabani Das Khyeppa Baul) and has had darshan all over India with some of the greatest minds, Saints, Sadhu's, Swami's ect.. from 1960 up to now.
Babukishan has been a cultural representative of India for 40 years traveling worldwide through the Government of India (Sangeet Natak Academi "Indian National Academy of Music Dance and Drama" and ICCR "Indian Council of Cultural Relations" He is from a thousands of years old lineage, and is a holder of that lineage (born into) in a Guru Shishya Parampara Lineage, which is a wisdom keeper of Yoga, Tantra, Bhakti Yoga, Bauls are MYSTICS. Vedic, Purnaic, Tantric Scholar & Master Indian Musician, Poet and Philosopher. 30 years in Bollywood as a music composer, and filmaker, where he produced music for many of spiritual Guru's all around India. There is a new concept in the west that Lineage is just this generation or the past generation which is not accurate it is a rather fluffy concept . A lineage when talking about Yoga Tantra ect.. means a long long line... of hundreds if not thousands of years of preserving and passing down orally a line of teachings. It is not just this lifetime it is multiple lifetimes...
Babu has taught Bengali Culture at hundreds of Cultural Programs and Universities around the world since the 1970's . During this period he has done an unlimited amount of Humanitarian work both in earthquake, tsunami zones around the world, in India Babu was always involved in feeding the poor.
He has done fundraising concerts for Bangladesh starting in the 1970's in London, to Hurricane Katrina, to the 2004 Tsunami in Indonesia where he was when the Tsunami hit, yes he was actually in Indonesia and lived through the tsunami which had a makor huge impact on his life even until this day. He grew up in the smashen burning grounds of Tarapith of Tarapith however, the power of Maa and the Tsunami was the biggest smashen ground.
Babu has raised money for temples including Ramakrishna Mission, Gaudiya Math and Iskcon all around the world and fo humanitarian projects both in India and abroad. He does not like me to say but his accomplishments are astronomical if I do not say who will, he certainly won't and as his wife it is my duty to tell people who Babukishan is (Trishula Sandi Das).
Babukishan is the leading authority on his culture, Indian Music and his Baul Sampradaya. Most of what scholars and others are writing about Baul is completely wrong. Baul is both dual and non dual philosophy. The Divine Feminine Radha, Kali is always worshiped first, they include all aspects of Indian Philosophy, Tantra, Yoga, they are the greatest of devotional poets and Bhakti Yogi's. Universalists they include all, shunning caste, creed and the rules and regulations of othodox religion. They are the original "Peace Makers" of Bengal. Soul Love Prema are the highest, Bauls are Lovers of Love...they forsake all for LOVE, they are 'The RASA LILA MYSTICS'..
His father Purna Das is the first Indian Vocalist to travel outside of India. First to Russia in the 1950's, then to America in 1967 as a guest of Bob Dylan's in Woodstock New York, Allen Ginsberg the Legendary Beat Poet, was instrumental in bringing the Bauls of Bengal (as in Purna Das Baul and Lakshman Das Baul sons of Nabani Das Baul) to America, he loved Nabani Das Khyeppa Baul and had taken him as his Baul Guru back in the early 1960's on his travels to India and wanted to bring Nabani, who is known as the one and only "KHYAPPA BAUL" but he would not go so he sent his son's.
Babukishan's father received the Nada Bramha Award from the Janganatha Temple in Puri and the Orissa State Government, only 2 other people have received this award Lata Mangaskar and Ravindra Jain.
In 2013 Purn Das Baul was awarded Pandma Shri Award for his years of outstanding talent as a Indian Vocalist, he is the only Baul ever to receive this award, the only Baul to be a Padma Shri ever.
Mystical & Esoteric Oral Living Lineage (Sanskrit) "Kundalini, Nadi's, Chakra's, Pranic Healing & Stuble Body" Healing and rare upaya's direct from the villages of Bengal. Ayurveda, & Jyotisha, ancient authentic practices (Sadhana's) from the Soul and Soil of India for the true seeker.
This lineage is a lineage of Nada Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Authentic Classic Tantra (Kali Sadhana) from the soil of Tarapith. Baul is rare because they are Vaishnava but they incorporate Tantra, Tantric Buddhism and Sufi.
Baul Philosophy, Yoga Philosophy, Vedanta, Tantra
Baul History - Baul Yoga - Baul Tantra -Vayu Dharma-Sanskrit both oral and academic.
Bauls are known as:
"The Wind Catchers" &
"The Honey Catchers" &
"The Rasa Lila Mystics"
Radha & Krishna reside in the Bauls heart just as Hanumanji "The Son of the Wind God" holds Sita and Ram in his heart.
Bauls are devottee's like Hanuman and Hanuman is the biggest devotee or Bhakti Yogi.
Bauls are the biggest devottee of Radha & Krishna and the biggest Bhakti Yogi's.
Baul means Vayu Tula to raise the vital airs (Vayu).
Va and Ba are interchangeable in Bengali. Va is Ba.
Ba (ul is to raise the vital airs), therefore, pranayama an important part of being a Baul pronounced Baaoool, Baul is based on Sanatan Dharma, Baul is an inner esoteric tradition, they are not othodox nor do they believe in rules and regulations, they only believe in the Soul.
Vaishnava Baul's are one of the oldest Bengali Bhakti Yoga traditions of Kirtan. This lineage originates thousands of years before their famous ancestor Sri Nityananda of Ekkchakra Bengal who was a best friend of Sri Chaitanya. The Kirtan and Bhakti Yoga tradition in Bengal comes from the Baul tradition. Sri Chaitanya leaned the tradition of chanting Hare Krishna from Nitai who was a holder of the oral tradition whose ancestors has already been doing the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra with song and dance for thousands of years.To the Vaishnava Bauls this was not just created 500 years ago, they had been going from village to village for thousand of years doing kirtan. Unfortunately the stories have been changed and distorted because of years and years of British and Muslim rule the oral tradition has been replaced with a book tradition of personal distorted opinion that actually in fact has no link to the original and what is not understood or perpetuated by outsider and outside interpretation lends itself to distortion especially by people who are collecting money, building temples and creating business's.
The essence of the Soul is feminine or Radha, Nari Shakti the heart or soul of the human is to meet with Purusa beloved Krishna to bring the two together in a loving ecstatic union within the heart of the Baul Sadhaka. We are all feminine in relation to the Divine.
A list of 'some' Baul Sadhana's or Practices:
Indian Music, Baul Music, Kirtan, Bhajan's, Mantra, Japa, Tapas,
Bauls are (Masters) of Sound Healing, Masters of Mantra, Bija Mantra's and Kirtan.
Tattva's, Sadhana's, Rupa's, Rasa's
Some say there are 25 tattva's in Vedanta, 36 tattva's in Shaivism,
God has 64 tattva's
Baul's are an ocean of tattva's
- Bhava Tattva- Bhakti Bhava- Bhava Sadhana
-Mysticism, Masters of the Subtle Body
-Samgita
- Guru Tattva - Manush Dharma - Manush Tattva
- Baul Sadhana - Niskama Prema Sadhana
- Nayika Sadhana - Rati Sadhana - Shakti Sadhana
- Car-cande Sadhana - Upanishad Wisdom
- Baul Poetry - Puranic Wisdom
The aim of the Bauls of Bengal is God Realization & Self Realization.
YOGA Union with the beloved in the heart of humanity. Unity of all of human kind, a Universal approach.
Their cause is one of Divine Love, they Bauls are lovers of Love.
Babu is the first Baul to write 3 Books on Baul dating back to the 1980's the last book was published by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar to be republished soon.
He spent much time with George Harrison and Ravi Shankar was like family to him and Babu was best friends with Ravi Shankar's late son Shubho Shankar rest in peace.
Babukishan has been interviewed on Television worldwide since the 1970's, and lectured at Universities around the world...... I'm compiling a list.
In 2005, UNESCO Declared the Baul Tradition a "Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity".
Baul & Tantric Buddhism:
As Buddhism flowed into Bengal the oral tradition of the Vaishnava Baul going back thousands of years added the best practices of Tantric Buddhism into Baul Sadhana. Baul Tradition is based on Sanatan Dharma and Indian Philosophy, their practices have always been a blend of Pure Bhakti and Tantra.
The Buddhist's who had freely practiced Buddhism for more than 4 hundred years in Bengal under the Pala dynasty of Buddhist rulers. However when the Pala Dynasty came under threat by the Islamic Mughal's around the (1200's) and as the Mughal's entered Bengal they forced the Hindu’s and Buddhist's to convert to Islam.
At the time the Buddhist were being forced to convert to Islam, the Othodox Hindu's did not give them refuge, they would not accept then back into the Hindu circles as they had already rejected the Vedas and their rituals rules and regulations. The Vaishnava Bauls accepted them into their community, the Vaishnava Bauls also accepted rejected Hindu’s and Sufi, they accepted anybody who was a reject from society or who was being persecuted, they accepted all who were being forced into conversion, they could find refuge with the Bauls. This is also, how the Bauls became Masters of hiding their wisdom teachings so that they could go on and preserve and avoid persecution. Very little Baul is taught outside of the Guru Shishya teachings and today many are still held secret teachings only for the prepared student. A Baul will test you before you are given secret teachings. Everybody can receive Darshan from a Baul in the form of their song and dance, however, the teachings are held secret for a good reason.
Baul & Sufi:
Sufi influences in Baul are apparent in the way that Bauls dance as they twirl like the Sufi Dervish's, the Baul's accepted Sufi’s into their community. A Baul was Sufi before Sufi existed and there are some who say Bauls are the original Sufi's based on Sanatan Dharma they behaved as Sufi's before Islam was even introduced to planet earth going back 5,000 years to Krishna. The Bauls are probably the biggest peace keepers as they accepted people into their community along with their practices, they allowed them to keep their practices, they do not believe in forcing others to conform. Other groups only talk about themselves the Bauls talk about all religions and accept all. This however, does not mean to be a Baul is simple as it takes at the very least 12 to a lifetime to learn Baul philosophy.
The Bauls were not immune from the difficult times of a history of invaders, they also were under threat of conversion, persecution. They also had to deal with fundamentalism of Orthdox Hinduism and they also had to adapt. The Bauls became very secretive of their knowledge, wisdom and practices, they adopted a distracting type of behaviour to mislead people.
You will find this secretiveness today among the Bauls. It takes years of trust before they pass on esoteric information or let you into their circle. Bauls are Guru's, Mystics and adepts at seeing right through a person they can see if your motive is pure or not, and if they suspect anything or figure out anything they will avoid you, they will disappear.
A Baul will test you to see if you are a fit student, to a Baul it is better to have no students rather than an insincere student. They will discourage you, their behavior can appear strange, that is why they are almost extinct, they really are not concerned about anything commercial and have been used by many people as have many indigenous peoples of the planet.
A Baul will not give information or practices out easily and in todays world of Marketing and making money from the Intellectual Property of India, Yoga and Tantra this is perhaps a good thing!! To understand Baul one must understand the paradox in all things..
The ancient art of Indian Storytelling from within an Oral Tradition, by Master Mystic Storyteller Musician Babukishan Das, Sanskrit scholar born in the oral tradition & learned at the school level in his 12 years as a Vedic Monk in the Ramakrishna Order and also at the University level BA & Masters level Sanskrit. Sanskrit from the soul and soil of India. Oral Tradition and Shastra. It is rare in this world that one can compare the oral tradition & the book tradition because much is lost in book tradition by itself. To say Oral Tradition does not negate book tradition it adds to it, as much is lost in translation.
Babukishan is from a family of Sanskrit-ist both oral & academic, his Grandfather on his mothers side Dr. Jogesh Das was a Professor of Sanskrit at Dhaka University then India. His Baul Guru and Grandfather on his fathers side Nabani Das Khyappa Baul was an oral Sanskrit and a Master of Tantra & Ayurveda including indigenous herbs, healing and Tantric Siddha techniques. Nabani was a Master Tantric Yogi Avadhuta, poet, singer, musician and Baul Saint. He has had many Sanskrit manuscripts and Shastra. Some say Bauls are illiterate, this is so far from the truth a complete misunderstanding of who the Vaishnava Bauls are.
To a British educated proper English speaking Bengali, Bauls may have appeared illiterate because they did not speak English. Bengali's were so busy trying to impress the British to be accepted. The Bauls stayed far from the British and preferred to be seen as illiterate as this is part of their technique in preserving their secrets, they actually have elaborate techniques to test the insincere, they accept all in need of help but actually takes a lifetime or many lifetimes to become a Baul Guru or Master Tantric Baul.
A Baul's cause is Love "Prem" A Baul is a Rasa Lila Mystic, a Yogi, a Bhakti Yogi a "Tantric" Baul includes all of Sanatan Dharma, Bauls are the Ocean of Devotion.
The Vaishnava Bauls are Sanskrit speaking people in the oral tradition that being said, it does not mean they do not read the Shastra in Sanskrit or have Shastra, they adhere to the Bhagavad Gita, Purana's, and Upanishads.
Vaishnava Bauls sing the poetry of Jay Dev, they have kept his poetry alive and hold a huge Baul Mela "the Joy Dev Mela" in Kenduli at the RADHAVINOD TEMPLE OF JOYDEV-KENDULI. Kenduli is a small village by the River Ajoy in the district of Birbhum in West Bengal, India. The Bridge that crosses over the river is called "The Nabani Setu" after Nabani Das Khyappa Baul. The village is famous mainly because :
a) It was the home-village of famous poet JOYDEV who was the Poet Royal at the court of the King of Bengal Lakshman Sen of the SEN dynasty (11th-12th century AD)
b) It is here that Joydev wrote his famous book “Gita Govinda”.
c) The Bauls have been holding their Joy Dev Baul Mela there since the beginning.
The Vaishnava Bauls are the ancestors and lineage of Sri Nityananda of Ekkchakra Birbhum W Bengal India. Nitai was a Baul an Avadhuta. This lineage are followers and ancestors of Nitai. The Vaishnava Bauls respect Chaitanya, but they follow Nitai as they have followed Baul for thousands of years before Chaitanya. Baul Vaishnavism has been around for thousands of years before Chaitanya. The Vaishnava Bauls are the original indigenous Hare Krishna singers and dancers of Ekkchakra Birbhum W Bengal and their ancestor was Nityananda of Ekkchakra it is important to make this distinction because Nitai was also a great friend and teacher of Sri Chaitanya and much is what is written today is not an accurate account of history.
We are in possession of many never released Sanskrit writings, manuscripts and books that have never been seen by the public they are held within this tradition. They will be released over the coming years as they need careful translation as we do not want to put an English cultural lense over this tradition for example using the term demi god to explain Devata is a gross mistranslation of Sanskrit and a Gross misunderstanding of Devata. We are not in the business of collecting devotee's or temple building we only want to preserve what we know for future generations. Bauls had ashrams where they wrote poetry, they were also wandering sadhu's both male and female, musical poetic Bhakta only interested in Divine Love. Remember Bauls respect and hold the feminine as the highest they puja Radha first. Our cause is to preserve the legacy and heritage of the Vaishnava Bauls of Birbhum W Bengal India the lineage of Nitai.
Vaishnava Bauls sing their simple Baul songs in Bengali and dance their whirling mystic dance, to be near a Baul as they sing and dance it to receive their darshan (auspicious blessing) .
Sat the highest eternal truth, Sanga in the company of the wise. Babukishan is a Master of profound ancient Indian teachings, deep esoteric wisdom. Wisdom from the soul and soil of India, including Indian Philosophy, YOGA, TANTRA the stories of all the Devata, VEDANTA, WISDOM teachings, Dharma teachings, the art of oral storytelling. Babukishan first learned this as early as one can learn from his Grandfather and Grandmother Sri Nabani Das Baul and Brajabala Dasi who raised him from birth. He was taught the art of hearing and remembering through sound vibration, through Sanskrit.
The teachings of this Vaishnava Baul Lineage of Nabani Das Baul and Brajabala Dasi, and others that Babukishan has had direct initiation into including, the Ramakrishna order where Babu was a monk for 12 years in the Ramakrishna Order, Sri Anandamayi Ma, Sri SitaRamDas Omkarnath and many others unknown in the West from Bengal and all over India. Babu has attended all the Kumbha Mela's since the early 60's first traveling with his Grandfather (Sri Nabani Das Khyeppa Baul) and has had darshan all over India with some of the greatest minds, Saints, Sadhu's, Swami's ect.. from 1960 up to now.
Babukishan has been a cultural representative of India for 40 years traveling worldwide through the Government of India (Sangeet Natak Academi "Indian National Academy of Music Dance and Drama" and ICCR "Indian Council of Cultural Relations" He is from a thousands of years old lineage, and is a holder of that lineage (born into) in a Guru Shishya Parampara Lineage, which is a wisdom keeper of Yoga, Tantra, Bhakti Yoga, Bauls are MYSTICS. Vedic, Purnaic, Tantric Scholar & Master Indian Musician, Poet and Philosopher. 30 years in Bollywood as a music composer, and filmaker, where he produced music for many of spiritual Guru's all around India. There is a new concept in the west that Lineage is just this generation or the past generation which is not accurate it is a rather fluffy concept . A lineage when talking about Yoga Tantra ect.. means a long long line... of hundreds if not thousands of years of preserving and passing down orally a line of teachings. It is not just this lifetime it is multiple lifetimes...
Babu has taught Bengali Culture at hundreds of Cultural Programs and Universities around the world since the 1970's . During this period he has done an unlimited amount of Humanitarian work both in earthquake, tsunami zones around the world, in India Babu was always involved in feeding the poor.
He has done fundraising concerts for Bangladesh starting in the 1970's in London, to Hurricane Katrina, to the 2004 Tsunami in Indonesia where he was when the Tsunami hit, yes he was actually in Indonesia and lived through the tsunami which had a makor huge impact on his life even until this day. He grew up in the smashen burning grounds of Tarapith of Tarapith however, the power of Maa and the Tsunami was the biggest smashen ground.
Babu has raised money for temples including Ramakrishna Mission, Gaudiya Math and Iskcon all around the world and fo humanitarian projects both in India and abroad. He does not like me to say but his accomplishments are astronomical if I do not say who will, he certainly won't and as his wife it is my duty to tell people who Babukishan is (Trishula Sandi Das).
Babukishan is the leading authority on his culture, Indian Music and his Baul Sampradaya. Most of what scholars and others are writing about Baul is completely wrong. Baul is both dual and non dual philosophy. The Divine Feminine Radha, Kali is always worshiped first, they include all aspects of Indian Philosophy, Tantra, Yoga, they are the greatest of devotional poets and Bhakti Yogi's. Universalists they include all, shunning caste, creed and the rules and regulations of othodox religion. They are the original "Peace Makers" of Bengal. Soul Love Prema are the highest, Bauls are Lovers of Love...they forsake all for LOVE, they are 'The RASA LILA MYSTICS'..
His father Purna Das is the first Indian Vocalist to travel outside of India. First to Russia in the 1950's, then to America in 1967 as a guest of Bob Dylan's in Woodstock New York, Allen Ginsberg the Legendary Beat Poet, was instrumental in bringing the Bauls of Bengal (as in Purna Das Baul and Lakshman Das Baul sons of Nabani Das Baul) to America, he loved Nabani Das Khyeppa Baul and had taken him as his Baul Guru back in the early 1960's on his travels to India and wanted to bring Nabani, who is known as the one and only "KHYAPPA BAUL" but he would not go so he sent his son's.
Babukishan's father received the Nada Bramha Award from the Janganatha Temple in Puri and the Orissa State Government, only 2 other people have received this award Lata Mangaskar and Ravindra Jain.
In 2013 Purn Das Baul was awarded Pandma Shri Award for his years of outstanding talent as a Indian Vocalist, he is the only Baul ever to receive this award, the only Baul to be a Padma Shri ever.
Mystical & Esoteric Oral Living Lineage (Sanskrit) "Kundalini, Nadi's, Chakra's, Pranic Healing & Stuble Body" Healing and rare upaya's direct from the villages of Bengal. Ayurveda, & Jyotisha, ancient authentic practices (Sadhana's) from the Soul and Soil of India for the true seeker.
This lineage is a lineage of Nada Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Authentic Classic Tantra (Kali Sadhana) from the soil of Tarapith. Baul is rare because they are Vaishnava but they incorporate Tantra, Tantric Buddhism and Sufi.
Baul Philosophy, Yoga Philosophy, Vedanta, Tantra
Baul History - Baul Yoga - Baul Tantra -Vayu Dharma-Sanskrit both oral and academic.
Bauls are known as:
"The Wind Catchers" &
"The Honey Catchers" &
"The Rasa Lila Mystics"
Radha & Krishna reside in the Bauls heart just as Hanumanji "The Son of the Wind God" holds Sita and Ram in his heart.
Bauls are devottee's like Hanuman and Hanuman is the biggest devotee or Bhakti Yogi.
Bauls are the biggest devottee of Radha & Krishna and the biggest Bhakti Yogi's.
Baul means Vayu Tula to raise the vital airs (Vayu).
Va and Ba are interchangeable in Bengali. Va is Ba.
Ba (ul is to raise the vital airs), therefore, pranayama an important part of being a Baul pronounced Baaoool, Baul is based on Sanatan Dharma, Baul is an inner esoteric tradition, they are not othodox nor do they believe in rules and regulations, they only believe in the Soul.
Vaishnava Baul's are one of the oldest Bengali Bhakti Yoga traditions of Kirtan. This lineage originates thousands of years before their famous ancestor Sri Nityananda of Ekkchakra Bengal who was a best friend of Sri Chaitanya. The Kirtan and Bhakti Yoga tradition in Bengal comes from the Baul tradition. Sri Chaitanya leaned the tradition of chanting Hare Krishna from Nitai who was a holder of the oral tradition whose ancestors has already been doing the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra with song and dance for thousands of years.To the Vaishnava Bauls this was not just created 500 years ago, they had been going from village to village for thousand of years doing kirtan. Unfortunately the stories have been changed and distorted because of years and years of British and Muslim rule the oral tradition has been replaced with a book tradition of personal distorted opinion that actually in fact has no link to the original and what is not understood or perpetuated by outsider and outside interpretation lends itself to distortion especially by people who are collecting money, building temples and creating business's.
The essence of the Soul is feminine or Radha, Nari Shakti the heart or soul of the human is to meet with Purusa beloved Krishna to bring the two together in a loving ecstatic union within the heart of the Baul Sadhaka. We are all feminine in relation to the Divine.
A list of 'some' Baul Sadhana's or Practices:
Indian Music, Baul Music, Kirtan, Bhajan's, Mantra, Japa, Tapas,
Bauls are (Masters) of Sound Healing, Masters of Mantra, Bija Mantra's and Kirtan.
Tattva's, Sadhana's, Rupa's, Rasa's
Some say there are 25 tattva's in Vedanta, 36 tattva's in Shaivism,
God has 64 tattva's
Baul's are an ocean of tattva's
- Bhava Tattva- Bhakti Bhava- Bhava Sadhana
-Mysticism, Masters of the Subtle Body
-Samgita
- Guru Tattva - Manush Dharma - Manush Tattva
- Baul Sadhana - Niskama Prema Sadhana
- Nayika Sadhana - Rati Sadhana - Shakti Sadhana
- Car-cande Sadhana - Upanishad Wisdom
- Baul Poetry - Puranic Wisdom
The aim of the Bauls of Bengal is God Realization & Self Realization.
YOGA Union with the beloved in the heart of humanity. Unity of all of human kind, a Universal approach.
Their cause is one of Divine Love, they Bauls are lovers of Love.
Babu is the first Baul to write 3 Books on Baul dating back to the 1980's the last book was published by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar to be republished soon.
He spent much time with George Harrison and Ravi Shankar was like family to him and Babu was best friends with Ravi Shankar's late son Shubho Shankar rest in peace.
Babukishan has been interviewed on Television worldwide since the 1970's, and lectured at Universities around the world...... I'm compiling a list.
In 2005, UNESCO Declared the Baul Tradition a "Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity".
Baul & Tantric Buddhism:
As Buddhism flowed into Bengal the oral tradition of the Vaishnava Baul going back thousands of years added the best practices of Tantric Buddhism into Baul Sadhana. Baul Tradition is based on Sanatan Dharma and Indian Philosophy, their practices have always been a blend of Pure Bhakti and Tantra.
The Buddhist's who had freely practiced Buddhism for more than 4 hundred years in Bengal under the Pala dynasty of Buddhist rulers. However when the Pala Dynasty came under threat by the Islamic Mughal's around the (1200's) and as the Mughal's entered Bengal they forced the Hindu’s and Buddhist's to convert to Islam.
At the time the Buddhist were being forced to convert to Islam, the Othodox Hindu's did not give them refuge, they would not accept then back into the Hindu circles as they had already rejected the Vedas and their rituals rules and regulations. The Vaishnava Bauls accepted them into their community, the Vaishnava Bauls also accepted rejected Hindu’s and Sufi, they accepted anybody who was a reject from society or who was being persecuted, they accepted all who were being forced into conversion, they could find refuge with the Bauls. This is also, how the Bauls became Masters of hiding their wisdom teachings so that they could go on and preserve and avoid persecution. Very little Baul is taught outside of the Guru Shishya teachings and today many are still held secret teachings only for the prepared student. A Baul will test you before you are given secret teachings. Everybody can receive Darshan from a Baul in the form of their song and dance, however, the teachings are held secret for a good reason.
Baul & Sufi:
Sufi influences in Baul are apparent in the way that Bauls dance as they twirl like the Sufi Dervish's, the Baul's accepted Sufi’s into their community. A Baul was Sufi before Sufi existed and there are some who say Bauls are the original Sufi's based on Sanatan Dharma they behaved as Sufi's before Islam was even introduced to planet earth going back 5,000 years to Krishna. The Bauls are probably the biggest peace keepers as they accepted people into their community along with their practices, they allowed them to keep their practices, they do not believe in forcing others to conform. Other groups only talk about themselves the Bauls talk about all religions and accept all. This however, does not mean to be a Baul is simple as it takes at the very least 12 to a lifetime to learn Baul philosophy.
The Bauls were not immune from the difficult times of a history of invaders, they also were under threat of conversion, persecution. They also had to deal with fundamentalism of Orthdox Hinduism and they also had to adapt. The Bauls became very secretive of their knowledge, wisdom and practices, they adopted a distracting type of behaviour to mislead people.
You will find this secretiveness today among the Bauls. It takes years of trust before they pass on esoteric information or let you into their circle. Bauls are Guru's, Mystics and adepts at seeing right through a person they can see if your motive is pure or not, and if they suspect anything or figure out anything they will avoid you, they will disappear.
A Baul will test you to see if you are a fit student, to a Baul it is better to have no students rather than an insincere student. They will discourage you, their behavior can appear strange, that is why they are almost extinct, they really are not concerned about anything commercial and have been used by many people as have many indigenous peoples of the planet.
A Baul will not give information or practices out easily and in todays world of Marketing and making money from the Intellectual Property of India, Yoga and Tantra this is perhaps a good thing!! To understand Baul one must understand the paradox in all things..
Dr. Goel a pillar of Hinduism in Vancouver, and the first Indian Doctor to come to Canada presents Babukishan with" Nehru Humanitarian Award for 2012 in conjunction with University of British Columbia and The Goel Family Foundation""..this morning at Dr Goel's House because Babu could not make it to the Award Ceremony back in November he was still recovering...Babukishan has done an unlimited amount of charity for Humanity in India, Canada and around the world including the Tsunami in Indonesia in 2004...Pranams Babukishan for your 40 years as a Cultural Representative of India and World wide Humanitarian Work.. BabuKishan started doing Humanitarian work when he was 9 years old, playing in the Indian Music section for the Fundraising Concerts for Bangladesh in London....
Babukishan composed this tune and music to this Lalon Fakir song back in the 1980's. Bauls sing this Lalon Fakir poetry to Babukishan's Tune without knowing that nobody sang it previously.
When a Baul sings every Chakra opens that is their sadhana, they know the technique. Baul song and dance is meant to wake you up!! Their song is a Tantra, the Tantra of music, Nada Yoga, and this is passed from generation to generation, if you are with a Baul and you are not electrified you are not with a Baul, one should feel energized and electrified, Bauls are a wake up call, they awaken. Bauls are almost extinct and many who sing Baul songs are mere Baul singers who shorten the songs and have done any kind of Baul Sadhana which takes at least 12 years 24/7 with a Baul Guru. It is simple but only within the context of what Baul is. There songs are simple but laced with thousands of years of discourse.
His ear for music is magical, he has helped promote and develop many, many famous Indian singers of the 80's, 90's and on ward.. He has released music for many western artist in India. He composed all of his father "Purna Das Bauls" music, his father is the first Indian Vocalist to travel outside of India and preform all over the world and every corner of India. Babu is legendary, he has preformed in festivals to the highest concert halls, he has preformed on the soil of Bengal, in temples, to performances in front of Kings, and Queens, and most of the top spiritual guru's. He is truly a modern Baul of the world, who has wandered every corner of this planet.
Born a Baul on the soil of Bengal, into the lap of the Great Baul Saint Avadhuta Nabani Das Khyappa Baul, 12 years as a Vedic Monk at the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society in Narendrapur Kolkata.
Multi-instrumentalist, legendary Indian composer, energetic performer Babukishan, was deeply inspired by his guru Sri Nabani Das Baul and his parents. Babu is a Baul, sanskrit, vedic, tantric, scholar mystic. He is a Master of Indian Classical, Folk, Baul, and Indian Cinema Music. Babu is the first educated Baul outside of the oral tradition with a BA in Indian Philosophy, MA in Indian Music from Kolkata University. Babu has been traveling, preserving his Oral Living Lineage for 40 years.
Babu was born on the soil of Bengal into a long lineage of Bauls, he was clearly destined to belong to the world of music. His journey started in early, his first 8 years of life were spent living with his grandparents Sri Nabani Khyappa Baul, and Brajobala Dasi, learning, experiencing a deeply authentic spiritual Baul way of life. Babu was very blessed at the time because his grandfather being a famous Baul Saint Avadhuta carried Babu everywhere with him presenting Babu with many opportunities to many of the great Saints, Yogi's, Avadhuta's, Swami's, Naths and Tantrics of the 60's in India.
After his grandfather’s Samadhi, Babu moved to Kolkata, it was not easy for him to adjust to living with his family so he next 12 years at the RamaKrishna Mission, (Vedanta Society of India) in a very deep, and tough spiritual study. During the holidays Babu joined his mother Manju Das Baul, and father Purna Das Baul, playing, composing, and singing Baul music at global festivals, universities, on television, and world radio stations, traveling around the world.
Over the years Babu has learned to play some 15 different instruments, including Harmonium, Tabla, Dholok, Mandolin, Ektara, Khamak, Dotara, ect..and has studied with great teachers such as Nabani Das Baul, Purna Das Baul, Pandit Amarnath, Gyanprakash Ghosh, Mahapurush Mishra, Khokon Mukherjee, R.D. Burman.
He has learned both the classical, and folk music of India as well as western music, this knowledge has helped him to compose, and collaborate with some of the worlds top western musicians.
Babu has created more than 44 albums in different languages worldwide with reputed music labels as, Universal Music, EMI, Polygram Music, CBS, Star Music, Sony, HMV, T-Series, and he has composed for feature film music/back ground music, private albums, Documentary films. He has composed music for more than 150 musical film scores.
Babu’s professional career in music began with some of the 20th centuries greatest musician’s.
He toured with Bob Dylan’s The Band in their 1985 East and West tour. He has performed and recorded with music industry greats such as George Harrison, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Chakka Khan, Ravi Shankar, Zakir Hussain, Tom Petty, Miles Davis, Allan Fakir, Herbie Mann, Third World, Robbie Robertson, Garth Hudson, Ziggy Marley, R.D.Burman, and many others independently.
Babu puts this solid foundation in music to good use by composing and performing in all areas of India’s entertainment Bollywood films, and music industry as well as in a variety of venues worldwide. In keeping with his early dreams of developing his own unique style, he turned to the music of the Western world that he had become so familiar with in his early years of performance. His use of original Baul, and Indian rhythms combined with the Reggae produced his own brand of World music, of which Babu’s new age Bengali Folk Fusion is the result. Babukishan has held the title of Composer and Music director in numerous Bollywood films, and Indian televison’s Series in addition to composing and performing in countless CD”s.
As a International teacher, his vast experiences coupled with his gentle and supportive patience, quickly brings out the best in his students. He rewards that best by featuring his students in many of his own professional performances.
Babu doesn’t just play music ..he oozes music from his soul, and showers his instruments with that essence.
Babukishan has been a cultural representative for Baul culture around the world for more than 40 years.
Although Babu has achieved much success he knows that his dharma is the preservation, documentation, education as well as continuation of Baul festivals, and the writing of books regarding Baul philosophy, music, and Baul Sadhana to preserve this ancient culture. The poor Bauls in the village need help, food, medicine and a platform, a place to live, and learn Baul songs.. There were 22 Baul ashrams, and now there are only 2... The lineage Bauls are in danger of becoming extinct.
Babu also has a dream to help the real original Bauls struggling in the villages of Bengal to keep the tradition alive through creating a Baul foundation, and "BAVA" Baul Ashram and Vedic Academy.
BHAVA Baul Historical Ashram and Vedic Academy has been created to help preserve this very ancient Baul lineage. Babu has traveled all over the world and has seen how the world is changing at such a rapid rate, he understands that if the Baul lineage is not preserved its ancient roots will be lost.
I am posting this because Babukishan was a Monk in the RamaKrishna Order in Calcutta, not only was he born into an Oral Sanskrit Vaishnava Baul Tradition he is also very much related to Sri Ramakrishna..... this a movie of the Great Bhakti Saint of Calcutta W Bengal... Sri Ramakrishna Parmahamsa
“Behind the Screen © ” with Babukishan
My personal Salute to 100 years of Indian Cinema ©
I Salute 100 years of Indian Cinema and the history Bengal has played in its contribution to Indian Cinema! As a storyteller by ancient tradition and through my real life experiences in Indian Cinema I can tell the real stories of behind the screen, not from the internet, magazines, DVD’s, or from hearsay gossip. I was personally behind the screen for 35 years in Bombay and longer in Calcutta. I spent my early years in Bengal’s Cinema Industry, personally working with the people who started Indian Cinema. I have had the kind of experience that can only be told by someone who has been there, done that within the inner circles of the Indian Music and the Indian Cinema Industry. Thus, I start my inaugural, ‘Behind The Screen’ starting with some of my early experiences in Indian Cinema.
It was 1976 I was involved in the Bengali Cinema Industry, Satyajit Ray was my icon he was the legendary Godfather of Indian Cinema 1921 - 1992, the great genius creative Film maker of many talents. This story is of my first meeting with him, unfortunately, I never worked with him officially but spent much time with him at his home and on many other occasions. I called him by his nickname ‘Manik Jethu’ at first and then in future meetings I called him Manik Da.
When I was a child ‘Pother Pachali’ a Satyajit Ray film inspired me, the story was very much my own life story. I looked exactly like Apu the little boy in Pother Pachali. I started my life in the Bengali village called Suri, in Birbhum, a couple miles from Shantiniketan Bolpur, West Bengal. I was raised by Grandmother Brajabala Dasi and my Grandfather Naboni Das Baul a well known Avadhuta Baul Saint who was best friends with all the poets, musicians and intellectualist like Rabindranath Tagore. I arrived in Calcutta at an early age upon the death of my Grandfather and thus started a whole new chapter of my life.
Satyajit Ray was creative in every way I followed him through newspapers, television & radio and I watched him on BBC. He was not only a great Filmmaker but genius in every way, I am always attracted to genius people and I became a huge fan of his and during our friendship and meetings we would discuss everything.
The first time I talked to ‘Satyajit Ray’ he shocked me with his big bass voice, I became startled, he said ‘Hello this is Satyajit Ray, I didn’t answer because his voice was so deep and I had fear, “Who’s this”, he said, and I couldn’t answer. I was only a student and he was a huge name, for some reason he scared me so I hung up the phone. Here I was I finally I had obtained his personal phone number from Nimai Ghosh his personal photographer and now I couldn’t talk, my hero the great was Satyajit Ray was on the phone and now I couldn’t talk so hung up the phone.
A few months later the Governor General of Bengal invited my family to sing at India’s Independence Day Programme at Raj Bhavan in Calcutta. My family was a well known already famous lineage of musical singer, poets, and storytellers from Bengal. We have been culture representatives of India world wide for at least 50 years. My Grandfather Naboni Das Baul used to give singing and dance performances before thousands of people with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru while Nehru gave his public speech in India. Naboni Das was the dance and music teacher of Nehru’s daughter Indira Gandhi at Rabindranath Tagore’s University “Viswabharti” Shantiniketan, West Bengal. My father the world famous ‘King of the Bauls’ also, continued this tradition of doing performances all around India for Indira Gandhi, my parents were close personal friends of Indira Gandhi and I went on many of these hundreds of tours with them. We also did musical performances with Rajiv Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi and many more politicians in modern India, and I saw a side of India that many people never get to see and can only read mostly about in second hand stories.
Back to the story of Satyajit Ray, after the program at the Raj Bhavan there was a huge British style party, back in those days Calcutta still followed the British style. It was only one of the hundreds of these type of gathering I attended throughout India so I was used to meeting all the stars and higher ups in India and this gathering was no different it included all well known Bengalis and others from all over India as I recall some of the people attending were Raj Kapoor, Nargis, Sunil Dutt, Dilip Kumar, S D Burman, R D Burman, Biswajit, Uttom Kumar, Suchitra Sen, Aparna Sen, Dulal Guha, Shakti Samanta, Hrisikesh Mukherjee, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna, Ravindra Jain, Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, Pramod Chaki, Salil Chowdhury, Asit Sen, Komal Bose, Soumendra Roy, Bansi Chandra Gupta, Footballer Shyam Thappa, P K Banerjee, Ravi Shankar. They were the who is who of the 1970’s.
Master Film maker Mrinal Sen, who was like a family friend said to me, “hey Babu, how are you doing, are you doing anything new these days,” I just stared at him with a blank face, my glance was else where because there in front of my eyes, was Satyajit Ray, my hero he was super duper tall, dark skin with a white kurta, his arms were so long they appeared to hang all the way to his knees. Mrinal Sen then realized my problem I was in awe as he knew how I idolized Satyajit Ray. Right there on the spot he introduced me. Mr. Ray appeared to be 6 feet 7 inches tall and towered over me. Mrinal Sen immediately introduced me, saying “Manik da (Satyajit Ray), this is Babu, eldest son of our Purna Baul, and thus that was my first meeting with the great Satyajit Ray thanks to Mrinal Sen.
Satyajit Ray said, yes I have read some of Babu’s writing and poetry in my magazine. I was a prolific writer of short stories, poetry and hundreds of Bengali and Hindi songs back in the day. I used to regularly write in ‘Sandesh’, whose editor was none other than Satyajit Ray. I also, was editor for the famous British style Calcutta Coffee House’s ‘Liitle Magazine’ when I was student of Calcutta University, where I met some of the biggest genius mind of that era.
Satyajit Ray then invited me for a morning tea at his house where he lived beside the Hindustan Hotel. Wow, incredible a face to face with the Legend. I am used to meeting and hanging around with many of legends but Satyajit Ray’s my dream. He was a superb creative and this meeting was only to have a quick tea but it lasted many hours as we talked about everything along with his wife Vijaya Ray and son Sandeep.
I told Satyajit Ray about the day I called and hung up the phone on him and we all laughed, he said to me, “don’t call me jethu anymore I am your Dada as now I was in his shelter and now we can talk as family!!!” This is a name of respect in Bengal and I felt honoured. Every wall in his home was covered with his own paintings, millions of dollars worth of painting done by Satyajit himself, he had huge shelves full of books. He was not only a genius film maker, a great musician, awesome piano player, unbelievable painter, artist, storyteller, he had a great camera sense, location sense, and of course superb sense of setup of characterization in every film that he did. Every film he did became an epic, he was the Director who did not need any stars in his films because he was the star, he knew every angle of film making. I have seen people from all over the world come and only hope to visit with Satyajit Ray. Even Steven Spielberg’s ideal was Satyajit Ray. Most Film Maker’s Ideal is Satyajit Ray, they dream to be like him.
Jaya Bhaduri Bachchan tried hard to get work for Amitabh Bachchan early in his career, she tried to get him acting jobs in at least one of Satyajit’s films. However, it never happened because Satyajit Ray said, he did not have any character to fit him at the time. Finally Satyajit used Amitabh’s voice commentary for his controversial film ‘Satranj ki Khilari’, this is when Amitabh worked as medical representative in Calcutta and side by tried many times as a voice commentator for Calcutta Radio Center and failed many times. Oh God Amitabh Bachchan who had the best voice for dialogue deliver ever in Indian Cinema history, and when he became star in film industry, and he is one of my favourite actors when I was in college. I worked for Amitabh Bachchan as a consultant and promotion manager for his company ABCL in Bombay in the 1990’s and I worked on several film projects with him.
The meeting with Satyajit Ray inspired me more towards Indian Cinema. I was already a Writer, Poet, Musician, Composer, and had a name in Bengal from a very early age, in 1976 I already was awarded the Youngest Composer ever in Indian Cinema and had composed award winning music for Bhupen Hazarika, Arti Mukherjee, Shakti Thakur, Banashree Sengupta, Zakir Hussain, Pandit Ravi Shankar and obviously with my parents, Manju Das Baul and Padma Shri Baul Samrat Purna Das. I had already introduced dozens of singers to the Bengal and Bombay film industries.
Those were the day when I used to attend Satyajit Ray’s film shoots and music recording, unfortunately, I never tried to get work for myself as my main goal was to get Satyajit to record one of my father’s songs and the funny thing was Satyajit never liked my dad. My dad was famous but had a huge ego as did Satyajit Ray, my dad was Congress and Satyajit Ray was Communist and his best friend was the Communist leader Jyoti Basu, it was sort of complicated because Jyoti Basu’s wife was a fan of my father and friend of my Uncle the now President of India, Pranab Mukherjee who obviously is Congress. By the way my dad did not like my politics either because I was the Leader of Calcutta University’s SFI Student Federation of India which was a communist organization.
After my introduction into the world of film making and Satyajit Ray I started my own film making by making a couple of documentaries, and gave them to the National Doordarshan to telecast. People used to say if you meet Satyajit Ray that means you are in with the completely biggest Indian Cinema, he himself was a film institute and I learned by observation. I was the first Indian independant film maker to film and introduce to the Indian audience films of Disneyland, Universal Studio’s and many more film documentaries taken outside of India, back in those day there were very few Indians that lived outside of India. My Dad actually was the first famed Indian vocalist to travel outside of India starting in the in the 1950’s, he was invited to America in 1967 by the legendary American Beat Poet Allen Ginsberg because Ginsberg loved my Grandfather Naboni Das Baul and Naboni was Ginsbergs Guru. There are many many stories and this is another whole story of historical events of the 1960’s, of my dad jamming and staying at Bob Dylan’s place in Woodstock for 6 months. Poets are always drawn to Poets it does not matter the language it is the soul of poet and the soul of music. It has been said many a times my Dad is the Bob Dylan of Bengal. You can see my Dad and my Uncle on Bob Dylan’s album cover of John Wesley Harding released by Columbia Records.
When Satyajit Ray was on his dying in 1992 Sophia Loren presented him with the Oscar for Lifetime Achievement at the Academy Awards, he could not attend, however, it was my very close family friend Dilip Basu who accepted the award for him from Sophia Loren and brought it from Los Angeles to Calcutta. We worked so hard to make all these arrangements it was a very exciting time.
Yes 1976 was a pivotal year for me, it was life changing to say the least. One day my friend Montu Da gave me a guest pass to a Hindi Film Premier. Montu Da was the owner of Calcutta’s famous old Cinema Hall called ‘Basushree’ in South Calcutta. The guest pass was for a Hindi film “Do Anjane”,remake of Uttom Kumar’s Bengali Cinema, this was the first time I attended a Hindi Film Premier. I was already involved with Bengali film, I had composed music for couple Bengali films and more than dozen private albums for HMV but had never been to a Hindi Film Premier.
Mantu Da introduced me to all the stars some of whom I had met before. It was amazing the public was so hungry to see them in person as was I. Meeting them talking to them sipping tea, eating Bengali snacks like ujjola’s ’chanachoor’, rasgulla with Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha, Prem Chopra, Mithun Chakraborty was enlightening. I also knew the story writer of that film “Niharanjan Gupta”, Nabendu Ghosh, Editor Bimol Roy, and Director Dulalda who was the well known Dulal Guha.
In 1976 the movie Hansaraj was made and released, I had previously in 1974 published a cover story about my father’s life in a magazine, Ajit Ganguly the famous Film Director had read my article, he wanted to meet me so he came to my home in South Calcutta, he was searching for something new, a different story for film. I already knew Ajit Ganguly from Birbhum he had a great love and was a devotee of my Grandfather. Ajit Ganguly had worked with the likes of Uttom Kumar, Utpol Dutt, Aparna Sen and many more big name from Bengal, he was from Birbhum. Many great talents were from around my village and were close friends, as was the popular Hindi/Bengali Film Director Shakti Shamanta who directed Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha, Rakhi many more. Shakti Shamanta was from next to Birbhum in Burdwan District and he started off as a simple primary school teacher, he was another legendary Film director/producer of Indian Cinema. Therefore, we knew them all of them personally and they regular guest at my family home.
Ajit Ganguly came to my house signed my story, the story I had written of my father’s life and now Ganguly he was going to make a movie about it. He gave me a small signing amount for my story, and gave me a pen and told to keep writing, we talked continuously for days, including my father in the discussions. Ajit Ganguly made history for this Bengali film Hansaraj in sales, the story of my father’s life in the movie called ‘Hansraj’ a life of a Baul. This film was a huge commercial success and opened the Bengali Film market to new actors as the film did not use famous stars.
Bombay’s Rajshri one of the leading Indian film distributor, owner of 100’s of cinema halls famous for their ability to introduce new actors, and had stars like Salman Khan, Amal Palekar, Mithun Charkaborty, Madhri Dixit. Rajshri also,bought the rights to my story and made a film with new faces, the film was called ‘Sawan ko Ane Do’. The conditions I stipulated were that my father would be the Music Composer, my father is not a music composer but I am and how it worked was I would compose the music for him and give his name because back then it was all about my father, I did everything for him and his name. Anyhow, because of circumstances we did not do the music for the movie, I was disappointed and there was nothing I could do at the time because we had gone on tour to Australia. To be fair Rajshri Production’s owner waited for us but in the end Raj Komal did the music composition the leading roles were played by Arun Govil and Zarina Wahab ( Suraj Pancholi’s Mom, Suraj is the controversial X boyfriend of the late Jiah Khan).
Later in my life I did work with Rajshri Productions, composing many albums and doing a lot of background music for film, I was also a consultant for Rajshri’s music division. One of my greatest works as a music design consultant for them was Salman Khan’s first film, Maine Pyar Kiya.
Indian Cinema started in Calcutta, it was India’s Capital before independence, and Calcutta’s port was India’s number one Port City, after the British occupied Calcutta it was developed to look like a second London and Bengalis became their right hand making some in Bengal half British. The British found Bengalis to be intelligent, trustworthy, politically strong, artistic, educated and they used the Bengalis to keep their foundation alive through their control.
The British started cultural activities like night club, opera, theatre, classical concerts side by side with the Bengalis involvement. Bengal was called India’s ‘land of culture’ and birth of Indian Cinema!!! ‘New theatres’ started up were everywhere . The people worked and became legendary including Bimal Roy, Nitin Bose, S Mukherji, Tara Chand Barjatya, Dada Shaheb Phalke, Prithiraj Kapoor, Timir Boron, Pankoj Mallick, Rai Chand Boral, Promotesh Barua, Kanonbala, Pahari Sanyal, Hiralal many more....then Bombay Talkies in Bombay.
Dada Saheb Phalke worked in Calcutta and became a very prominent name in Hindi but his soul is in Marathi Film. At that time the technicians and musician were almost all from Bengal. Bimal Roy was the one of the Big Boss’s of Indian Cinema. He was the guy who changed Indian Cinema’s scenario, he worked in both places, Calcutta and Bombay. ‘New Theatres (P) Ltd’ in Calcutta and the starting from ‘Bombay talkies’ as writer, editor, director and producer. I know Bimal Roy well and his family, his son Joy Roy was my best friend.
© Copyright, all rights reserved by Babukishan and B Network 2013
An excerpt from Babukishan’s forthcoming Book, Behind the Screen of Indian Cinema © No part of this story may be reproduced without the consent of the author or publisher of Babukishan
My personal Salute to 100 years of Indian Cinema ©
I Salute 100 years of Indian Cinema and the history Bengal has played in its contribution to Indian Cinema! As a storyteller by ancient tradition and through my real life experiences in Indian Cinema I can tell the real stories of behind the screen, not from the internet, magazines, DVD’s, or from hearsay gossip. I was personally behind the screen for 35 years in Bombay and longer in Calcutta. I spent my early years in Bengal’s Cinema Industry, personally working with the people who started Indian Cinema. I have had the kind of experience that can only be told by someone who has been there, done that within the inner circles of the Indian Music and the Indian Cinema Industry. Thus, I start my inaugural, ‘Behind The Screen’ starting with some of my early experiences in Indian Cinema.
It was 1976 I was involved in the Bengali Cinema Industry, Satyajit Ray was my icon he was the legendary Godfather of Indian Cinema 1921 - 1992, the great genius creative Film maker of many talents. This story is of my first meeting with him, unfortunately, I never worked with him officially but spent much time with him at his home and on many other occasions. I called him by his nickname ‘Manik Jethu’ at first and then in future meetings I called him Manik Da.
When I was a child ‘Pother Pachali’ a Satyajit Ray film inspired me, the story was very much my own life story. I looked exactly like Apu the little boy in Pother Pachali. I started my life in the Bengali village called Suri, in Birbhum, a couple miles from Shantiniketan Bolpur, West Bengal. I was raised by Grandmother Brajabala Dasi and my Grandfather Naboni Das Baul a well known Avadhuta Baul Saint who was best friends with all the poets, musicians and intellectualist like Rabindranath Tagore. I arrived in Calcutta at an early age upon the death of my Grandfather and thus started a whole new chapter of my life.
Satyajit Ray was creative in every way I followed him through newspapers, television & radio and I watched him on BBC. He was not only a great Filmmaker but genius in every way, I am always attracted to genius people and I became a huge fan of his and during our friendship and meetings we would discuss everything.
The first time I talked to ‘Satyajit Ray’ he shocked me with his big bass voice, I became startled, he said ‘Hello this is Satyajit Ray, I didn’t answer because his voice was so deep and I had fear, “Who’s this”, he said, and I couldn’t answer. I was only a student and he was a huge name, for some reason he scared me so I hung up the phone. Here I was I finally I had obtained his personal phone number from Nimai Ghosh his personal photographer and now I couldn’t talk, my hero the great was Satyajit Ray was on the phone and now I couldn’t talk so hung up the phone.
A few months later the Governor General of Bengal invited my family to sing at India’s Independence Day Programme at Raj Bhavan in Calcutta. My family was a well known already famous lineage of musical singer, poets, and storytellers from Bengal. We have been culture representatives of India world wide for at least 50 years. My Grandfather Naboni Das Baul used to give singing and dance performances before thousands of people with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru while Nehru gave his public speech in India. Naboni Das was the dance and music teacher of Nehru’s daughter Indira Gandhi at Rabindranath Tagore’s University “Viswabharti” Shantiniketan, West Bengal. My father the world famous ‘King of the Bauls’ also, continued this tradition of doing performances all around India for Indira Gandhi, my parents were close personal friends of Indira Gandhi and I went on many of these hundreds of tours with them. We also did musical performances with Rajiv Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi and many more politicians in modern India, and I saw a side of India that many people never get to see and can only read mostly about in second hand stories.
Back to the story of Satyajit Ray, after the program at the Raj Bhavan there was a huge British style party, back in those days Calcutta still followed the British style. It was only one of the hundreds of these type of gathering I attended throughout India so I was used to meeting all the stars and higher ups in India and this gathering was no different it included all well known Bengalis and others from all over India as I recall some of the people attending were Raj Kapoor, Nargis, Sunil Dutt, Dilip Kumar, S D Burman, R D Burman, Biswajit, Uttom Kumar, Suchitra Sen, Aparna Sen, Dulal Guha, Shakti Samanta, Hrisikesh Mukherjee, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna, Ravindra Jain, Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, Pramod Chaki, Salil Chowdhury, Asit Sen, Komal Bose, Soumendra Roy, Bansi Chandra Gupta, Footballer Shyam Thappa, P K Banerjee, Ravi Shankar. They were the who is who of the 1970’s.
Master Film maker Mrinal Sen, who was like a family friend said to me, “hey Babu, how are you doing, are you doing anything new these days,” I just stared at him with a blank face, my glance was else where because there in front of my eyes, was Satyajit Ray, my hero he was super duper tall, dark skin with a white kurta, his arms were so long they appeared to hang all the way to his knees. Mrinal Sen then realized my problem I was in awe as he knew how I idolized Satyajit Ray. Right there on the spot he introduced me. Mr. Ray appeared to be 6 feet 7 inches tall and towered over me. Mrinal Sen immediately introduced me, saying “Manik da (Satyajit Ray), this is Babu, eldest son of our Purna Baul, and thus that was my first meeting with the great Satyajit Ray thanks to Mrinal Sen.
Satyajit Ray said, yes I have read some of Babu’s writing and poetry in my magazine. I was a prolific writer of short stories, poetry and hundreds of Bengali and Hindi songs back in the day. I used to regularly write in ‘Sandesh’, whose editor was none other than Satyajit Ray. I also, was editor for the famous British style Calcutta Coffee House’s ‘Liitle Magazine’ when I was student of Calcutta University, where I met some of the biggest genius mind of that era.
Satyajit Ray then invited me for a morning tea at his house where he lived beside the Hindustan Hotel. Wow, incredible a face to face with the Legend. I am used to meeting and hanging around with many of legends but Satyajit Ray’s my dream. He was a superb creative and this meeting was only to have a quick tea but it lasted many hours as we talked about everything along with his wife Vijaya Ray and son Sandeep.
I told Satyajit Ray about the day I called and hung up the phone on him and we all laughed, he said to me, “don’t call me jethu anymore I am your Dada as now I was in his shelter and now we can talk as family!!!” This is a name of respect in Bengal and I felt honoured. Every wall in his home was covered with his own paintings, millions of dollars worth of painting done by Satyajit himself, he had huge shelves full of books. He was not only a genius film maker, a great musician, awesome piano player, unbelievable painter, artist, storyteller, he had a great camera sense, location sense, and of course superb sense of setup of characterization in every film that he did. Every film he did became an epic, he was the Director who did not need any stars in his films because he was the star, he knew every angle of film making. I have seen people from all over the world come and only hope to visit with Satyajit Ray. Even Steven Spielberg’s ideal was Satyajit Ray. Most Film Maker’s Ideal is Satyajit Ray, they dream to be like him.
Jaya Bhaduri Bachchan tried hard to get work for Amitabh Bachchan early in his career, she tried to get him acting jobs in at least one of Satyajit’s films. However, it never happened because Satyajit Ray said, he did not have any character to fit him at the time. Finally Satyajit used Amitabh’s voice commentary for his controversial film ‘Satranj ki Khilari’, this is when Amitabh worked as medical representative in Calcutta and side by tried many times as a voice commentator for Calcutta Radio Center and failed many times. Oh God Amitabh Bachchan who had the best voice for dialogue deliver ever in Indian Cinema history, and when he became star in film industry, and he is one of my favourite actors when I was in college. I worked for Amitabh Bachchan as a consultant and promotion manager for his company ABCL in Bombay in the 1990’s and I worked on several film projects with him.
The meeting with Satyajit Ray inspired me more towards Indian Cinema. I was already a Writer, Poet, Musician, Composer, and had a name in Bengal from a very early age, in 1976 I already was awarded the Youngest Composer ever in Indian Cinema and had composed award winning music for Bhupen Hazarika, Arti Mukherjee, Shakti Thakur, Banashree Sengupta, Zakir Hussain, Pandit Ravi Shankar and obviously with my parents, Manju Das Baul and Padma Shri Baul Samrat Purna Das. I had already introduced dozens of singers to the Bengal and Bombay film industries.
Those were the day when I used to attend Satyajit Ray’s film shoots and music recording, unfortunately, I never tried to get work for myself as my main goal was to get Satyajit to record one of my father’s songs and the funny thing was Satyajit never liked my dad. My dad was famous but had a huge ego as did Satyajit Ray, my dad was Congress and Satyajit Ray was Communist and his best friend was the Communist leader Jyoti Basu, it was sort of complicated because Jyoti Basu’s wife was a fan of my father and friend of my Uncle the now President of India, Pranab Mukherjee who obviously is Congress. By the way my dad did not like my politics either because I was the Leader of Calcutta University’s SFI Student Federation of India which was a communist organization.
After my introduction into the world of film making and Satyajit Ray I started my own film making by making a couple of documentaries, and gave them to the National Doordarshan to telecast. People used to say if you meet Satyajit Ray that means you are in with the completely biggest Indian Cinema, he himself was a film institute and I learned by observation. I was the first Indian independant film maker to film and introduce to the Indian audience films of Disneyland, Universal Studio’s and many more film documentaries taken outside of India, back in those day there were very few Indians that lived outside of India. My Dad actually was the first famed Indian vocalist to travel outside of India starting in the in the 1950’s, he was invited to America in 1967 by the legendary American Beat Poet Allen Ginsberg because Ginsberg loved my Grandfather Naboni Das Baul and Naboni was Ginsbergs Guru. There are many many stories and this is another whole story of historical events of the 1960’s, of my dad jamming and staying at Bob Dylan’s place in Woodstock for 6 months. Poets are always drawn to Poets it does not matter the language it is the soul of poet and the soul of music. It has been said many a times my Dad is the Bob Dylan of Bengal. You can see my Dad and my Uncle on Bob Dylan’s album cover of John Wesley Harding released by Columbia Records.
When Satyajit Ray was on his dying in 1992 Sophia Loren presented him with the Oscar for Lifetime Achievement at the Academy Awards, he could not attend, however, it was my very close family friend Dilip Basu who accepted the award for him from Sophia Loren and brought it from Los Angeles to Calcutta. We worked so hard to make all these arrangements it was a very exciting time.
Yes 1976 was a pivotal year for me, it was life changing to say the least. One day my friend Montu Da gave me a guest pass to a Hindi Film Premier. Montu Da was the owner of Calcutta’s famous old Cinema Hall called ‘Basushree’ in South Calcutta. The guest pass was for a Hindi film “Do Anjane”,remake of Uttom Kumar’s Bengali Cinema, this was the first time I attended a Hindi Film Premier. I was already involved with Bengali film, I had composed music for couple Bengali films and more than dozen private albums for HMV but had never been to a Hindi Film Premier.
Mantu Da introduced me to all the stars some of whom I had met before. It was amazing the public was so hungry to see them in person as was I. Meeting them talking to them sipping tea, eating Bengali snacks like ujjola’s ’chanachoor’, rasgulla with Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha, Prem Chopra, Mithun Chakraborty was enlightening. I also knew the story writer of that film “Niharanjan Gupta”, Nabendu Ghosh, Editor Bimol Roy, and Director Dulalda who was the well known Dulal Guha.
In 1976 the movie Hansaraj was made and released, I had previously in 1974 published a cover story about my father’s life in a magazine, Ajit Ganguly the famous Film Director had read my article, he wanted to meet me so he came to my home in South Calcutta, he was searching for something new, a different story for film. I already knew Ajit Ganguly from Birbhum he had a great love and was a devotee of my Grandfather. Ajit Ganguly had worked with the likes of Uttom Kumar, Utpol Dutt, Aparna Sen and many more big name from Bengal, he was from Birbhum. Many great talents were from around my village and were close friends, as was the popular Hindi/Bengali Film Director Shakti Shamanta who directed Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha, Rakhi many more. Shakti Shamanta was from next to Birbhum in Burdwan District and he started off as a simple primary school teacher, he was another legendary Film director/producer of Indian Cinema. Therefore, we knew them all of them personally and they regular guest at my family home.
Ajit Ganguly came to my house signed my story, the story I had written of my father’s life and now Ganguly he was going to make a movie about it. He gave me a small signing amount for my story, and gave me a pen and told to keep writing, we talked continuously for days, including my father in the discussions. Ajit Ganguly made history for this Bengali film Hansaraj in sales, the story of my father’s life in the movie called ‘Hansraj’ a life of a Baul. This film was a huge commercial success and opened the Bengali Film market to new actors as the film did not use famous stars.
Bombay’s Rajshri one of the leading Indian film distributor, owner of 100’s of cinema halls famous for their ability to introduce new actors, and had stars like Salman Khan, Amal Palekar, Mithun Charkaborty, Madhri Dixit. Rajshri also,bought the rights to my story and made a film with new faces, the film was called ‘Sawan ko Ane Do’. The conditions I stipulated were that my father would be the Music Composer, my father is not a music composer but I am and how it worked was I would compose the music for him and give his name because back then it was all about my father, I did everything for him and his name. Anyhow, because of circumstances we did not do the music for the movie, I was disappointed and there was nothing I could do at the time because we had gone on tour to Australia. To be fair Rajshri Production’s owner waited for us but in the end Raj Komal did the music composition the leading roles were played by Arun Govil and Zarina Wahab ( Suraj Pancholi’s Mom, Suraj is the controversial X boyfriend of the late Jiah Khan).
Later in my life I did work with Rajshri Productions, composing many albums and doing a lot of background music for film, I was also a consultant for Rajshri’s music division. One of my greatest works as a music design consultant for them was Salman Khan’s first film, Maine Pyar Kiya.
Indian Cinema started in Calcutta, it was India’s Capital before independence, and Calcutta’s port was India’s number one Port City, after the British occupied Calcutta it was developed to look like a second London and Bengalis became their right hand making some in Bengal half British. The British found Bengalis to be intelligent, trustworthy, politically strong, artistic, educated and they used the Bengalis to keep their foundation alive through their control.
The British started cultural activities like night club, opera, theatre, classical concerts side by side with the Bengalis involvement. Bengal was called India’s ‘land of culture’ and birth of Indian Cinema!!! ‘New theatres’ started up were everywhere . The people worked and became legendary including Bimal Roy, Nitin Bose, S Mukherji, Tara Chand Barjatya, Dada Shaheb Phalke, Prithiraj Kapoor, Timir Boron, Pankoj Mallick, Rai Chand Boral, Promotesh Barua, Kanonbala, Pahari Sanyal, Hiralal many more....then Bombay Talkies in Bombay.
Dada Saheb Phalke worked in Calcutta and became a very prominent name in Hindi but his soul is in Marathi Film. At that time the technicians and musician were almost all from Bengal. Bimal Roy was the one of the Big Boss’s of Indian Cinema. He was the guy who changed Indian Cinema’s scenario, he worked in both places, Calcutta and Bombay. ‘New Theatres (P) Ltd’ in Calcutta and the starting from ‘Bombay talkies’ as writer, editor, director and producer. I know Bimal Roy well and his family, his son Joy Roy was my best friend.
© Copyright, all rights reserved by Babukishan and B Network 2013
An excerpt from Babukishan’s forthcoming Book, Behind the Screen of Indian Cinema © No part of this story may be reproduced without the consent of the author or publisher of Babukishan
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