History News Desk !!! Salil Chowdhury (English: Salil Chowdhury; Born- 19 November, 1923, West Bengal; Died- 5 September, 1995) was a great musician who decorated the Indian film industry with his melodious music. His musical songs still seem to echo in every particle of the air. He mainly composed music for Bengali, English and Malayalam films.
Salil Chaudhary, popularly known as ‘Salil Da’ in the film world, is known as the most experimental and talented musician. Salil Chaudhary is still in the hearts and minds of people through the melodious music of films like ‘Madhumati’, ‘Do Bigha Zameen’, ‘Anand’, ‘Mere Apne’. He used to create music by mixing the music of East and West, which was quite different from traditional music. Due to these qualities of his, he created his own unique identity in the hearts of the listeners.
Salil Chaudhary was born on 19 November 1923 in Sonarpur city, West Bengal. His father Gyanendra Chandra Chaudhary was a doctor in Assam. Most of Salil Chaudhary’s childhood was spent in Assam. From childhood, he was inclined towards music and wanted to become a musician. However, he did not receive traditional music education from any maestro. Salil Chaudhary’s elder brother used to work in an orchestra. Due to his association, Salil ji became well acquainted with all kinds of musical instruments. ‘Salil Da’ was very fond of playing flute since childhood. Apart from this, he also learned to play piano and violin. After some time, he came to Bengal to get education. Salil Chaudhary completed his graduation from the famous ‘Bangavasi College’ of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). He was married to Savita Chaudhary. He became the father of two daughters and two sons.
Meanwhile, he joined the ‘Bharatiya Jan Natya Sangh’. In the year 1940, the ‘Indian freedom struggle’ was at its peak. Salil Chaudhary also joined the campaign to liberate the country and for this he took the help of his songs. Through his musical songs, he used to create awareness among the countrymen. Salil used these songs as a weapon to raise his voice against slavery. His songs gave a new direction to the struggle of Indians against the British. In 1943, Salil ji’s musical songs ‘Vicharpati Tomar Vichar..’ and ‘Dheu Utche Tara Tootche..’ filled new enthusiasm among the freedom lovers, but later this song was banned by the British government.
In the fifties, Salil Chaudhary was successful in making his mark as a musician and lyricist in Kolkata. In 1950, he came to Mumbai to give a new shape to his dreams. At the same time, Bimal Rai was looking for a musician for his film ‘Do Bigha Zameen’. He was very impressed with Salil Chaudhary’s style of composing music and he offered Salil ji to compose music for his film ‘Do Bigha Zameen’. Salil Chaudhary gave his first music as a musician for the song ‘Aa Ri Aa Nindiya…’ of ‘Do Bigha Zameen’ released in 1953. After the success of the film, Salil Chaudhary gained a lot of fame as a musician.
After the success of the film ‘Do Bigha Zameen’, its Bengali version ‘Rickshaw Wala’ was made. The story and music direction of this film released in 1955 was done by Salil Chaudhary. After the success of the film ‘Do Bigha Zameen’, Salil Chaudhary became the favorite music director of Bimal Roy. After this, Salil Chaudhary played an important role in making Bimal Roy’s films successful by giving excellent music for his films. Most of Bimal Roy’s films are remembered even today due to Salil ji’s evergreen music.
Playback singer Lata Mangeshkar was Salil ji’s favourite singer. Salil Chaudhary’s music was adorned by the magic of Lataji’s melodious voice. If the singer of a song in a film of that era was Lataji and the music director was Salilji, then there was no doubt about the song becoming a hit. The superhit songs like ‘Aaja Re Nindiya Tu Aa…’, ‘Dil Tadap Tadap Ke Keh Raha Hai…’, ‘Itna Na Tu Mujhse Pyar Badha…’ etc. were made melodious by Lata Mangeshkar with the magic of her voice.
In 1958, Salil Chaudhary was awarded the ‘Filmfare Award’ for the best music director for Bimal Roy’s film ‘Madhumati’. In 1988, he was also awarded the ‘Sangit Natya Akademi Award’ for his valuable contribution in the field of music. This song “Ae mere pyare watan, ae mere bichde chaman, tujhpe dil kurbaan…” sung in the voice of playback singer ‘Manna Dey’ in the film ‘Kabuli Wala’ released in 1960 still brings tears to the eyes of the listeners.
In the 70s, Salil Chaudhary started feeling a bit strange about the glamour of Mumbai. Now he returned to Kolkata. Meanwhile, he also wrote many Bengali songs. Among them, ‘Surer Jharna’ and ‘Teler Shishi’ became very popular among the listeners. Salil ji gave music for about 75 English films in his four decade long film career. Apart from this, he also composed music for Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Gujarati, Assamese, Oriya and Marathi films. The great musician Salil Chaudhary, who mesmerized the listeners with the magic of his music for about four decades, died on 5 September 1995.
