Rai Chand Boral (English: RC Boral; born- October 19, 1903, Calcutta, British India; died- November 25, 1981) was a famous composer of Hindi films. He is credited with introducing ‘playback singing’ in Indian cinema. Along with this, Boral ji also has the credit of making the first musical cartoon film. The three cartoon stories produced by him are ‘Bhuler Sheshe’, ‘Lakh Taka’ and ‘Bhola Master’. R. C. Boral was inspired to make cartoon films from famous comedian Charlie Chaplin’s film ‘A City Lights’, which he watched 40 times. The credit for honing, enhancing the talent of famous singer Kundanlal Sehgal and introducing him to the people of India also goes to R. C. Goes to Boral only. R for his special contribution to Hindi films. C. Boral was also honored with ‘Sangeet Natak Akademi Award’ in the year 1978 and ‘Dada Saheb Phalke Award’ in 1979.
birth and education
R. C. Boral was born on October 19, 1903 in a famous musical family of Calcutta (present day Kolkata). His father’s name was Lalchand Boral, who was a classical musician. He was famous for the musical instrument Pakhawaj. The atmosphere at home was musical, that is why Boral got a musical environment since childhood. On the advice of Pandit Vishwanath Rao and the famous Sarod maestro of Gwalior Gharana, Hafiz Ali Khan, he took lessons in playing tabla from Ustad Majid Khan.
beginning of career
R. Musician Pankaj Malik became a close friend of C. Boral from the beginning of his career. Both of them entered films in 1928 and composed music for the silent films made at that time. Later, when Hindi cinema started in 1931, he also started composing tunes and providing playback singing opportunities. How respected a person Boral Saheb was as a musician can be gauged from the fact that S. Of. Musicians like Pal, Khemchandra Prakash and Pannalal Ghosh took music lessons from him.
While working in ‘New Theatres’ of Kolkata, R. C. Boral also started using the amplifier in music along with the sound engineer Mukul Bose, who was the brother of Nitin Bose. In this series, he achieved another achievement, that was to give sound effects with musical instruments. The film ‘Mohabbat Ke Aansoo’ released in the year 1932 was directed by R. Not only was it the first film composed by C. Boral, it was also adorned with the acting of the famous Kundanlal Sehgal. The film ‘Chandidas’ (1934), starring Sehgal, is counted among Boral ji’s most successful films. The song “Ek Bangla Bane Nyara” sung by Kundanlal Sehgal in the film ‘President’ (1937) is still popular among R. It is counted among the best works of C. Boral and Sehgal.
start of playback singing
Musician R. C. Boral, Pankaj Malik and Nitin Bose are credited with introducing playback singing in Indian cinema. There is an interesting incident related to the beginning of playback singing in Hindi films-
“The route on which Nitin Bose used to go from his house to ‘New Theatres’ every day, was on the same route as the house of musician Pankaj Malik. That’s why Nitin Bose used to pick up Pankaj Malik from near his house every day, take him to the studio in his car and drop him. Like every day, Nitin Bose was calling him by honking his car’s horn. This was having no effect on Malik and he thought that perhaps there was no one in the house. Then Pankaj Malik’s father went to the room and told him that Nitin Bose was late at the gate. Waiting for you. Hearing this, Pankaj Malik came running to Nitin Bose and said – “I would like to apologize, I would like to sing with him while listening to the record of my favorite English songs.” Was busy. That’s why I couldn’t hear your car horn.
Nitin Bose discussed this incident in ‘New Theatres’. C. Boral and while discussing with him, gave him a suggestion – “Why don’t we try something new. Just like Pankaj was singing with that song, in the same way the song can also be recorded first. With this We will not have to compromise with the voices of the actors and actresses. We will have the option to record the songs in the voices of any melodious trained singers and later during the shooting, they will be able to portray the characters in the film. more interesting R. C. Boral completely agreed with this idea. He composed the first song for the film ‘Dhoop Chhaaan’ (1935) which was being made at that time. Sakoon”, in which the lead vocal was by K.C. Dey and the chorus was by Parul Ghosh, Suprava Sarkar and Harimati. Its recordist was Mukul Bose, who was also a member of Nitin Bose. Mukul Bose also worked as a sound printer in Hindi cinema. C. Boral, while the credit for being the first playback singer goes to K. C. Day was given.
Bhishma Pitamah of Music
Composer Anil Biswas R. C. Boral was called Bhishma Pitamah of music in the Indian film industry. Along with ‘New Theatres’, Boral ji was also appointed head of the music department in ‘All India Radio Company’ (Akashvani). He also conducted the stage orchestra in the silent cinema films ‘Chosher May’ and ‘Chor Kaante’. By using cello, flute and organ along with harmonium and violin in these orchestras, he also gave a new and attractive form to the stage orchestra.
important facts
Perhaps very few people know that the film ‘After the Earthquake’ made in 1935, which was based on the terrible earthquake that hit Bihar in 1934, was composed by R. It was C. Boral. Boral ji had made Kedar Sharma sing a song of this film, which was written by him. The lyrics of the song were- “Come, Chameli, tell me one thing…”. This song got a lot of fame in those times. This song was felt to touch the folk style of Bihar. Another special thing in this film was that famous actor Raj Kapoor played an interesting role of a child artist in it. Similarly, the music of the film ‘Vidyapati’ produced under the banner of ‘New Theatres’ in the year 1937 was also composed by R. C. Boral, which was based on the love triangle between King Shiv Singh of Mithila region of Bihar, his wife Queen Lakshmi and poet Vidyapati. All the songs of this film were written by Kedar Sharma, which was composed by R. C. Boral had decorated it with his musical taste. The songs of the film ‘Vidyapati’ were categorized as the most successful music of that time. This was the same film which established Kanan Devi as an actress as well as a successful singer.[1]
awards and honors
R in Indian cinema. For the unprecedented contribution of C. Boral, he was given the title of ‘Saraswat Mahamandal’ in the Music Conference held in Lucknow in 1930. In the year 1978, he was also awarded the ‘Sangeet Natak Akademi Award’ and in 1979, the highest honor of the Indian cinema world, ‘Dada Saheb Phalke Award’.
demise
R., who made valuable contributions to Indian cinema and gained fame as a musician. C. Boral died in Kolkata on 25 November 1981.
