Songs of peace and devotion - Nobonita Chowdhury

Songs of peace and devotion
Newcomer Nobonita Chowdhury is wowing the audiences with her vivacious renditions of the mystical songs of Lalon. Faizul Khan Tanim finds that her music, despite using modern instruments, is filled with meaning and, creates an atmosphere of peace

If you inject DNAs’ of devotion, a good voice and passion for music into one’s bloodstream, a Nobonita might be the result. At the moment, there are many artistes singing Lalon’s music, but only a few from them will stand out. In this compilation titled, Ami Jontro Tumi Jontree, Nobonita’s pronunciation is clear, there is great affection in her singing and she seems absorbed in the pulse of Lalon and the mystic Man. It’s like, while listening to the album, you are experiencing live music. The voice creates an ambience; moreover, the modern instrumentation by Ayub Bachhu makes the numbers attractive. This compilation is more like a tale - a story of the creator’s basic words and instructions through the vision of Lalon. Nobonita puts it this way: ‘Lalon always emphasises on how important human beings are and what power our souls have, so, I chose the songs to advocate that theory. On top of that, if you mistreat others, and if you cannot value them then there is no way you can actually value God...you have to appreciate the power we have to actually appreciate the wonder of God.’ Track number three, Kon naamey dakiley tarey has to be the best song of the album and passes a universal message for all the other songs. The sound of her voice and the composition are dense, filling and intense. She takes inspirations from Lalon and weaves an aura of reverent melody. The gist of the song stands like this: quite often, we become confused as to what name we should use to communicate with God, or what name, if used properly, God will hear us. Then, suddenly, Lalon says that actually it doesn’t matter what name we are using to address our creator – it’s Allah in Arabic, Khodatala in Farsi and God to the Christians and, in the end, it’s all the same. What you need to do is do some ‘soul searching’. The album starts with the amazing Shotto bolo shupothey cholo, ends with the serene Amon manob jonom, and in between contains Shomoy geley shadhon hobena, Khomo Oporadh, Shadhur jugol choroner dhuli, Kobey hobey shojol borosha, Itorpona karjo amar, Bhobey manush guru nishtha jaar and Paap punner kotha – one hour two minutes and fifty-four seconds of proof that, deviating from the general use of Aktara and Dotara, the use of guitars, Tabla, violin and other percussion instruments has not robbed the ageless songs of their depth.

*Article first published on Daily New Age August 17 issue