Bollywood songs transcend language barriers and unite listeners across regions, acting as a shared cultural heartbeat in India. These songs reflects everyday struggles, celebrations, love stories, and collective aspirations of the middle class and diverse communities. For Bishwanath Chatterjee, a veteran music scholar from Nagpur, the Bollywood songs are integral part of his life. The veteran, who is also known as ‘Walking Encyclopedia of Hindi Film Music’, preserves rare and authentic references related to the history of Hindi film music, including songs, singers, music composers, lyricists and instrumentalists. He plays a vital role in making these songs immortal by preserving these songs and ensuring that the golden eras of Indian cinema are never forgotten.

 

There are only few people in the country who have done this work to make an archive of all songs. Chatterjee has devoted his life to preserving the legacy of Hindi film music, a cultural thread that transcends barriers of religion, sect and region to unite Indians. His contribution to the study of Hindi film music is an invaluable resource documenting its history. Chatterjee, a resident of Kabir Nagar, has made a significant contribution to a six-volume encyclopedia of Hindi film songs covering the period from 1930 to 1985. He authored the fifth volume and played an important role in the compilation of the other volumes as well.

 

The Encyclopedia included songs by R D Burman, O P Nayyar, Shankar Jaikishan, Kishore Kumar, Sudhir Phadke, Khayyam, Madanmohan, Vasant Desai and Gulzar, were edited by Chatterjee along with Vishwas Nerurkar. Eighty-year-old Chatterjee recognised this passion when he was in school. He liked the song ‘Na Tum Hame Jaano’ sung by Hemant Kumar. He tried to get its lyrics. He also collected information about the composer and lyricist of the song. Then he came to know that a song is not just about the singer, but the hard work of many people behind it. The journey commenced from that song. Thereafter, he started keeping records of every songs he liked. Later, this obsession grew and he started searching for each song.

 

 

Vidarbha Sahitya Sangh and Rashtrabhasha Pariwar are jointly conducting a felicitation function of veteran music scholar Bishwanath Chatterjee on October 29 at Shrimant Baburao Dhanwate Sabhagruha, behind Wockhardt Hospital, Shankar Nagar. The programme will be held at 5.30 pm onwards. Senior litterateur Dr V S Jog will preside over the event. Dr Girish Gandhi, President, Vidarbha Sahitya Sangh, and Suresh Agrawal, Secretary, Rashtrabhasha Parivar, will be the chief guests.