Nachiketa, Srijato and Joy Sarkar collaborate for Subhra Paul's debut music album

Paul's debut music CD album - ‘Swapno Chokher Taray’ - contains five songs of which three have been written and composed by Nachiketa, and two written by Srijato and composed by Joy Sarkar.

The songs mostly deal with the emotion of love and yearning.

The album was launched in the presence of popular singer Haimanti Shukla, actor Hiran Chatterjee and veteran politician Madan Mitra.

Tapan Basu, who heads Ragranjani Media & Entertainment, said, “When I first met Subhra, when I first heard her voice I knew there was something unique in her voice, I approached Nachiketa and to my good fortune he agreed to work with us and afterwards the whole team came on board.

" I have been trying to put forward Bengali songs and artists all my life, with the advent of YouTube and other digital platforms it is becoming increasingly difficult to do so, because ultimately it is a business and we all have to survive, I hope the audience buys the CD and not listen to it on YouTube for free, it will give us the producers and talented artists like Subhra the motivation to do more work," said Basu.

Paul, who is living in Qatar for the past five years, and is an active member of International Centre for Music and Bangiya Parishad Qatar, said, “I miss Kolkata and Bengali music. This album is a reflection of my love for Bengali music and the love that I have for Kolkata and the people of the city. I hope the audience appreciates it and I get to do more work.”

From an early age Subhra has been learning music. Her first teacher was her mother Jayanti Bhadra. She has learned Hindustani Classical Music and other semi-classical genres such as Thumri, Dadra and Ghazals.

Appreciating Paul's singing, Haimanti Shukla  said, “When she sung today without the accompaniment of any musical instrument, I loved it; she has a lovely voice. I think that she is blessed that she got to work with such great musicians like Nachiketa and Joy on her first album. I hope she has learnt from them and this experience will help her throughout her career.”

Nachiketa talked about the amount of effort that Paul has put into this album, “I only rehearsed with her once or twice.  When she came for the recording, I was pleasantly surprised with her performance, she sounded so good. It was evident she had practiced hard.”

Joy Sarkar said, “What Subhra has delivered is beyond my expectation, I did not expect her to do so well, she has a strong training and that reflects in her voice.”

Actor Hiran Chatterjee,  Paul's friend for many years said, “I knew she was a great singer and sincerely hope that the audience buy the CD and not listen to the online version.”

The album is now available in stores for sale.

(Reporting by Tirna Chatterjee)