Kolkata :

When Bickram Ghosh and Sonu Nigam hit it off as collaborators four years ago, little did they know that a moment of creative spark will land them in the race for Oscar. The soundtrack of ‘Jal’, a film based in the Rann of Kutch, scored by the duo with a horde of Kolkata musicians on board, has been shortlisted for Oscar.

The soundtrack has several Kolkata musicians behind the scenes — such as keyboardist Indrajit Dey who has done the melody programming, and folk singer Dipannita Acharya, among others. This is also a first for Ghosh, who has featured in a Grammy-nominated album so far.

“The producer is excited as the movie has been shortlisted in the best feature film category as well. We have featured an international artist like Greg Ellis and the soundtrack has several Kolkata fingerprints on it. Shamik Guha Roy is the recordist along with Pramod Chandorkar in Mumbai. The sound is a marriage of Gujarati folk and voice music,” said Ghosh.

“Sonu is overjoyed. We collaborated first in 2010 and our album will be launched this week,” he added. The race is against masters like A R Rahman, who has two film scores on the list, and the legendary Hans Zimmer.

Dey, who has programmed the score for the melody, said: “It’s a marriage of desert folk and symphony and even oral percussion.” When asked about his chances, he replied: “It’s all about taste. There is folk raga music… I am more used to classical fusion and I find desert fusion closer to the heart and the grassroots. This could be an advantage in the race to the Oscars. Dipannita, who excels in various folk forms, has a god-gifted Gujarati folk texture and the effect is amazing.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kolkata / by Shounak Ghosal, TNN / December 13th, 2014