Timir Baran Bhattacharya (1904-1987) had his initial training in clarinet from Rajendranath Chattopadhya and in vocal music from Radhika Mohan Goswami. Thereafter, he learnt sarod from Mohammad Amir Khan and finally from Allauddin Khan. He joined Uday Shankar’s dance troupe as music director in 1930 and travelled overseas as a conductor for the orchestra accompanying the troupe. He also presented sarod recitals during these tours.
He composed music for films, plays, ballets and dance-dramas. (For more details about his career, see The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Music of India [Vol III].)
In the seventh episode on the compositional work of Hindustani musicians for Hindi cinema, here is a closer look at Timir Baran’s involvement in the film music.
The first track is a song composed by Timir Baran and sung by Pankaj Mullick for the film Adhikar (1938).
The next track is from the film Rajnartaki (1941), which was made in Bengali, Hindi and English. According to the description accompanying the track, the song was sung by Mrinal Ghosh.
Geeta Dutt sings for the film Baadbaan (c.1954)
The next song sung by Asha Bhosale is also from the film Baadbaan.
This episode ends with a recording of Timir Baran’s sarod recital. He plays a composition set to the 16-matra Teentaal in the raag Bhairavi.
One of India’s leading tabla players, Aneesh Pradhan is a widely recognised performer, teacher, composer and scholar of Hindustani music. Visit his website here.
