In Kolkata, the streets are alive with the sound of music

The annual Street Music Festival gives buskers and roadside artistes the visibility they deserve.

Md Ibran plays his flute at one of the editions of the Kolkata Street Music Festival. | Photo Credit: By Special arrangement

Md Ibran, 30, sells flutes that he makes himself on Park Street, one of the more fashionable neighbourhoods of central Kolkata. Standing at his spot on the pavement, next to a well-known restaurant, Ibran plays his music to passers-by. Seduced by its sweetness, many pause to listen before moving on.

Ibran has been playing and selling his flutes on Park Street for more than 10 years now. Earlier, he used to move from one neighbourhood to another in the outskirts of the city with his music and instruments. He makes the flutes in the evening and binds them to various scales in the morning. By 9 am, he is at his spot on Park Street. Ibran learnt his trade from his father and will pass it on to his son.

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The annual Kolkata Street Music Festival was started two years ago. | Video Credit: Reporting by Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhyay; Edited by Razal Pareed

“The programmes or gigs that I get are from people who like what they hear when I am playing on the street,” he told Frontline. He plays tunes mostly from films and traditional Bengali songs, including Rabindrasangeet. Sometimes, he gets hired to play at weddings or private parties, but these gigs are hard to come by. On a good month, he makes Rs.10,000, but the income is uncertain and insufficient to support a large joint family.

At Golpark in south Kolkata, 27-year-old Nilanjan Saha has been selling sandwiches from his bicycle on the pavement outside the Ramakrishna Mission Institute while playing the guitar and singing. He calls his unique three-year-old project “Musical Sandwich”.

Two patachitra artistes, Kalapana Chitrakar and Nooruddin Chitrakar, narrate stories accompanying their patas at Kolkata Street Music Festival 2022. | Photo Credit: By Special arrangement 

“The concept behind this project is to create a street music hub in Kolkata,” he said. He used to carry out this project almost daily until the COVID-linked lockdown happened, and since then it has come down to once a week. The rest of the time he is trying to make a living as a musician.

“I cut down on the sandwich aspect of the project when I realised that the business side of the venture was taking up too much time and my music was getting neglected. My two partners left when we were not making enough money to sustain the project,” Saha said. He had to work for a while to keep his project alive, but of late he has gone back to music.

There are many like Ibran and Saha who make a living playing music on the streets. For some the lockdown and economic downturn have led to the loss of permanent live gigs in restaurants and bars; for others it is a compulsion born of an unwavering commitment to their art.

Nilanjan Saha with his “Musical Sandwich”. | Photo Credit: By Special arrangement 

They now have a platform to showcase their talent: the annual Kolkata Street Music Festival, started two years ago by music events creator Sudipta Chanda. “We were looking to organise something unique when we observed that buskers in the city were growing in number. They were young and wanted to promote street music but had no platform. They played outside Metro stations, on busy streets, wherever there was a regular crowd. I felt that they could all be brought together for an annual show. I also wanted people to know about these talented but unheralded musicians,” Chanda told Frontline.

Getting centre stage

For the musicians this has been a much-needed opportunity not just to showcase their talent but also to get hired for gigs. “Playing here gives me the most satisfaction. Not only do I get a captive and appreciative audience, I also get people taking my contact number in case they need me for a private party or function,” said Ibran. Saha agreed: “There are many street musicians in Bengal, and this should be their exclusive platform,” he said. Of late, busking is getting popular outside Kolkata as well, particularly among the educated youth. “The more we support this, the more the ground beneath their feet will get stronger,” Chanda said. He pointed out that street performances in which music plays an integral part are an old tradition in Bengal. With the Street Music Festival, he wants to bring the traditional and the contemporary under one roof. “There are traditional forms of street art like bahurupi [quick-change artists who dress up as mythological characters] and band party [group of liveried musicians who play music at events like weddings], and there is contemporary music on the street performed by the youth. This festival attempts to create a bridge between the two,” said Chanda.

Traditional arts

Fifty-year-old Dhaneshwar Das Bairagya is a bahurupi who wanders from village to town performing under various disguises. He may stay for several days in a particular place, playing a different mythological character each day. In return he gets money, sometimes food. He used to work as a medical salesman before becoming a bahurupi.

Dhaneshwar Das Bairagya performs as a bahurupi at Kolkata Street Music Festival 2022. | Photo Credit: By Special arrangement 

“My father Subol Das Bairagya is an internationally acclaimed bahurupi. I took it up because I realised someone will have to carry on this tradition after he is gone,” Dhaneshwar told Frontline. He has performed in each edition of the Street Music Festival, and this year too, he and his father, along with a few dhakis (traditional drummers), enacted the role of Durga and Shiva. “I have never had the opportunity to perform on such a stage and we are very grateful. We got projects from people who liked our show,” Dhaneshwar said.

At the third edition of the Kolkata Street Music Festival, held on December 24, a variety of genres were presented before the audience, including band party music, pother gaan (songs of the road), Western pop songs, folk music, bahurupi performance, patachitra (scroll painting), and others. Chanda said that the project had a few hiccups initially but has taken off in the past two years. “Since it was not a starry affair, at first people were apathetic. But now we are getting more and more support from those who want to celebrate the talents of the unsung heroes of our culture,” Chanda said.

Well-known singers like Sidhu (the frontman of the popular Bengali band Cactus) and Riddhi Banerjee have played at the event to show their solidarity. Chanda believes that through such festivals, busking can be labelled as an art form and the State government may be persuaded to reserve a place for street musicians.

The Crux

• Street musicians of Kolkata have a platform to showcase their talent: the annual Kolkata Street Music Festival, started two years ago by music events creator Sudipta Chanda.
• For the musicians, this has been a much-needed opportunity not just to showcase their talent but also to get hired for gigs.
• The Street Music Festival wants to bring the traditional and the contemporary arts under one roof.
• At the third edition of the Kolkata Street Music Festival, held on December 24, a variety of genres were presented before the audience.
• Chanda believes that through such festivals, busking can be labelled as an art form and the State government may be persuaded to reserve a place for street musicians.