Melodies from the mountains

Having grown up in Delhi with the Himalayas just a day-trip away, music composer Shantanu Moitra has always felt a strong affinity towards this majestic range. Little is actually known about the range at large and about life above a certain altitude.

To learn more about the mysterious terrain, Shantanu decided to undertake a 100 days’ journey there. What the composer found, along with the peace he had been searching for, was a wealth of inspiration for music and a freedom to compose what he liked —something he had been missing while making music for commercial films.

“I wanted to know what life is like above 14,000 feet. That was the lower limit that I set myself,” says Shantanu. “The entire span of the journey was to be from Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh. After finishing half the journey though, I felt that I needed to get some of the music in my head onto paper,” he adds. He will be expressing it in the form of a concert.

“The trickling of a brook or the story of a biryani seller (who kept his chulha burning during the military unrest in the Dras region so that the soldiers can smell ghar ka khana and feel comforted), all inspire melodies,” explains Shantanu.

Accompanying him for the concert are Ani Choing, who is a Buddhist nun and Kaushiki Chakraborty, who is taking vocalist Ajoy Chakraborty’s legacy forward as a classical singer. When asked about how he thought of the two vocalists, he says, “It was the contrast I saw between Himachal and Sandakphu. The difference shows you the diversity in the hills.”

Kaushiki says, “We come from very different backgrounds—both musically and culturally. It really is amazing how music connects people.”

Also on board for the project is flautist Ashwin Srinivasan, who has been collaborating with the composer since Parineeta (2005). “The sound of the mountain is incomplete without the flute. Through this music, I feel like we are experiencing his journey,” Ashwin says.

Shantanu also makes use of exotic instruments like the ukelele and charango, played by Ankur Mukherjee as well as sitar, played by Purbayan.