her schooling period. Mother Smt. Angurbala gave her the initial music lessons at home. She
cleared her Higher Secondary exam from Jadabpur Girl’s High School in 1973. She finished
MA in History from Jadavpur University in 1979. Presently she is working with a Nationalised
Bank in Kolkata.
Bipul Chakrabarty – was born on 25th March 1955 in Dhakuria in South Kolkata. His father
Sri. Ramanath Chakrabarty was a School Head Master. He too had a transferable job and as a
result Bipul too had to study in many schools. His early years were spent in Purulia, Bankura or
Districts of Norh Bengal. Presently he works at the Bokaro Steel Plant office at Kolkata.
The 70s in West Bengal were very tumultuous years. Bengal had become a cauldron of fire!
The Communist Party of India (Marxists) had split in to two. As if the Bengal was partitioned
again! This was on partition on Religious grounds, this time Bengal split on Political Ideology.
One party called themselves CPM and the other Naxals! The split in the Polity percolated right
down to Para (locality) levels. If this locality belonged to CPM, then the adjescent would belong
to Naxals! This was almost like today’s politics of capture in West Bengal!
In Kolkata of those days, you could hear frequent sounds of bomb-blasts and pipe-guns and
the sounding of Conch shells to alert people about the arrival of Police in the locality! Also
dropped frequently, dead bodies, in these Political battles! Ordinary people rushed back home
before dark. After darkness Kolkata streets were deserted and lifeless!
We had asked Bipul Chakrabarty, as to why he hardy had any photographs of himself of his
early days. His reply stunned us! He said that in the above circumstances, all around him, one
by one deadbodies of his friends were being discovered from gutters of Kolkata! He had to
write poetry being alert that any time a bullet may hit him or he may feel the jab of the cold
steel of a bayonet any moment! So he never thought that he would live to see this day! So he
never bothered to keep any photos!
By the age of nineteen, Bipul had already become quite famous as a Poet! So eminent
personalities like Poet Birendra Chattopadhyay or Poet Composer Salil Choudhury or
Hemango Biswas, all showered their affections on him. He set in tune Birendra
Chattopadhyay’s poems into popular songs. Hemango Biswas made green tea for Bipul with
his own hands,that he had brought from China. Thus we now miss Bipul’s photos with such
eminent personalities like Poet Birendra Chattopadhyay or Poet Composer Salil Choudhury or
Hemango Biswas.
. An Appeal - Many of Anushree-Bipul's old cassettes and songs are no longer available.
. We will be extremely grateful if you have them and if you share them with all in our site.
. We will mention your names here as a mark of gratitude. Also please send Anushree-
. Bipul's photos with eminent personalities such as Poet Birendra Chattopadhyay,
. Hemanga Biswas, Salil Choudhury and others if you have them.
Anushree’s formal music life started when she graduated from the famous school of Rabindra
Sangeet Academy called “Dakshini” on Kolkata in 1979. Anushree met Bipul in 1978 and with
some more enthusiastic boys and girls, formed a leftist music group called “Ganabishan”.
Bipul realised that poetry must never be restricted to partisan views and ideas only. It must
touch upon all aspects of the human life. So they formed another group named “Monon”
consisting of people mostly from Jadavpur area. Bipul and Anushree finally tied the knot in
1981 and eventually they started performing as a pair. A combination of Anushree’s strength
and melody in her voice and Bipuls powerful lyrics and tunes soon made them famous as
Anushree-Bipul.
The songs they sang in their youth, now has gone deep in the hearts and minds of the
Bengalis. Today their place is secured alongside Hemango Biswas and Salil Choudhury.
In an interview with us on 23rd Sept 2010 at his residence in Santoshpur, he told us about his
thoughts and ideas on “Gana Sangeet” or Group Songs. He said that though they inherited
the spirit from these Gana Sangeet, he was not too comfortable with only them. He wondered
who would speak or sing about other emotions and values of Human life. Only protests through
music was not enough. Also, only singing to the requirements of a political party becomes a
“cliche”, losing all its novelty. He felt that music must be spontaneous. If it complements a
political movement and the leadership finds it is rich enough to salute it, that’s great! Also if the
political leadership calls for a salute from the composer in his music for his greatness, that
takes a beautiful form.
He had a vision to start an alternative musical stream parallel to the main stream. He says that
just as we have Main-stream Cinema and Art Films, Main-stream Theatre and Group Theatre
or Main-stream Magazines and Little Magazines, why cant we have an alternative Music/Songs’
stream? He says that They had brought out their first album “Amra Hanti Jekhane Mati” at the
Kolkata Book Fair of 1991. It sold like hot cakes. There were others like them who had come
out with alternative music too. Salil Choudhury had come out with an album too, at that time.
But the Little Magazines maintained silence about them and the Main-stream press like
Ananda Bazar Patrika was quit to appreciate their worth. Thus snatching away most of them in
to the main stream! There were singers like Suman Chattopadhyay (now Kabir Suman),
Nachiketa, Anjan Dutta and others, who are now part of the main stream.
Composer and Poet Bipul Chakrabarty not only sang against the system but also protested
against people belonging to the left movements, who carried out deplorable acts like burning
the National Flag or pulling down statues of great personalities like Ishwar Chandra
Vidyasagar.
Anushree-Bipul has composed tunes and sung many of the poems of Poets Birendra
Chattopadhyay, Al Mahmood, Amitabha Gupta, Joy Goswami, Nirmal Halder, Ranjit Gupta,
Partha Bandyopadhyay, Bishwambhar Narayan Deb etc.
They stood beside the struggling workers of Kanoria Jute Mill. They sang to raise funds for
mentally and physically handicapped. They sang for cancer patients. They sang for the victims
of cyclone Aila. They sang for the Juktibadi movement. They have been invited to sing at
functions organized by Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad. They have sung on the occasion of Martyr
Masterda Surya Sen’s anniversary. They have sung at the centenary celebrations of Paul
Robson. The list is unending.
Bipul had also composed tunes for poems written by the Chhattisgarh Labour leader Shankar
Guha Niyogi, who was killed for his uncompromising movement against corruption and
injustice.
They have been giving the Bengalis a very mature, positive and thought provoking music since
their early youth. Now there is a whole generation of people of their own age group, who have
grown up into 50s singing Anushree-Bipul’s songs! Their songs have graced functions of the
Left movements for decades! We have come across hoards of singers who have grown up
singing their songs without knowing that it is Anushree-Bipul’s song! They probably think that
such spirited songs could have been composed only by Hemango Biswas or Salil Chowdhury!
Such a pair, whose music has dominated the leftist stages for decades, who are still very much
active in the present times as composer and singer, can only be termed as LIVING LEGENDS!
This page is not yet complete! We wish to add, with your co-operation, more information about
Anushree-Bipul and some more of their songs, which they had composed and sang at the
invitation of individuals or groups or were composed during some movement or other but have
never been recorded.
We are greatly in debt to Anushree and Bipul Chakrabarty as they have provided us with a lot
of matter on this page and above all their valuable time.
Other Links and Websites for Anushree and Bipul's Songs, Poetry and Blogs:
- http://www.esnips.com/web/folkways4sStuff
- http://bipulchakraborty.blogspot.com (Bipul Chakrabarty's Blog)
- https://www.milansagar.com/kobi/kobi-bipulchakrabarty.html (Bipul Chakrabarty's Poetry)
- http://sculpturepage.blogspot.com/ (Anushree & Bipul at an exhibition of sculpture by Alakananda Sengupta)
- http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/nU3qFV2SRRoxMV7FMuX8mw (Bipul Chakrabarty at the 10th year
. anniversary of Airom Sharmila's Hunger strike against repressive laws in Manipur)
Contact :
3 Avenue East (First Street), Modern Park, Santoshpur, kolkata 700075.
E-mail : anushree_bipul@rediffmail.com
Mobile : +919831127563
Contact us :
E-mail : srimilansengupta@yahoo.co.in
This article was written after an interview with Anushree and Bipul on 23rd September 2010
The interview was conducted by Manas Gupta and Milan Sengupta on behalf of Milansagar.
.
Anushree Chakrabarty - was born on
18th June 1957. Father Amulya Kumar
Das had a transferable job and hence
she went to a number of schools during