22 May,2011 09:23 AM IST | | Yoshita Sengupta
A Kolkata DJ dared to remix Rabindra Sangeet with trance beats. Did he make it out alive? Sunday Mid Day made a call to Birmingham to find out
That he has talent, is a matter of debate. That he has nerve, isn't. Abhishek Das is known to friends and music-lovers in Kolkata as DJ Abhishek, and his Unique Selling -- dangerous -- Proposition is that he remixes Rabindra Sangeet (pronounced Robindro shonggit). "Rabindra Sangeet is not about the music, it's about the lyrics. The words have soul," says the 30 year-old, who sat in Kalyani, a small town in Nadia district of West Bengal, lending a new avatar to a school of music that most Bengalis believe is too sacred, if not perfect, to tamper with.u00a0u00a0u00a0
Composed by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, the songs that reflect a mix of Indian classical music and folk traditions demand an educated listener to appreciate its lyrical complexity. For most Bengalis, what the DJ does is close to blasphemy. Embarrassed, his family scoffed at his efforts, while furious listeners from the community threatened him on the Internet. For him, however, his remixes are a "form of worship".
"A year-and-a-half ago, I played for a crowd of close to 1,500 people at an engineering college fest in Bhubaneshwar. When a Rabindra Sangeet remix was on, everyone in the crowd sang along," says the DJ who now shuttles between Birmingham and Kolkata, after shifting base to the UK in 2005. Gradually, he gathered a fan base and DJs complimented him on his brave and novel idea.
Abhishek began experimenting with music at a time when DJing was unheard of in middle-class Indian families. A self-taught DJ and composer, Abhishek's curiosity for remixes was piqued when he heard a cassette of Bally Sagoo's Bollywood remixes back in the 1990s.
He bought himself a computer, downloaded a sound editing software, and tried his hand at adding his own beats to popular Hindi and Bengali songs. He'd convert old LPs into digital format, add trance or R'n'B beats, or those of Indian instruments, and throw open his creations to debate before an open audience by uploading his work on Napster, a free online music service.
When DJing offers poured in from cities across India and abroad, he bought himself the equipment, and kicked off his career at Kolkata clubs before giving audiences in Mumbai, Pune, Nepal, Bangladesh and Birmingham a feel of his work. Abhishek's music reflects Arabian, African and Chinese influences, and a heavy reliance on the tabla, sarangi and sitar have gained him a fan base in the West. He is happy with the response, even if traditionalists spew fire. "If I wasn't a DJ, I'd have been a clerk somewhere," he shrugs.
