A snatch of euphoria

Interview with Pradipto Sengupta whose dancing fingers on the mandolin have created magic in several hit Bollywood numbers

The yellow mustard fields of Punjab swaying gently in the wind. Amid stands Shah Rukh Khan, mandolin in hand. Tujhe dekha toh yeh jana sanam. The rest is DDLJ history.

I warm up to Pradipto Sengupta, whose dancing fingers on the mandolin created the magic of that Jatin-Lalit composition. My intention? To know about mandolin and its journey through India’s musical landscape. Pradipto, one of the leading mandolin players of India, has played for the who’s who of the music industry.

Though well established in the Bengali music industry in Kolkata, Pradipto arrived in Mumbai as an aspiring musician. “29th of January 1989 changed my life.” Manohari Singh, the legendary saxophone player, introduced him to R D Burman.

For Pradipto, there was no looking back. R D Burman — ‘Pancham-da’ to the entire musical fraternity — used Prodipto’s masterly playing of the mandolin in some of his most memorable compositions, like Tumse milke aisa laga, Jaipur se nikli gaadi and numerous others.

As I cozied up over the next hour, Pradipto turned out to be an encyclopaedia on the instrument. “Mandolin originated in Italy and belongs to the ‘lute’ clan of string instruments,” he said. His eyes lit up as he narrated the journey of his loved instrument. The immediate family of mandolin consists of mandola, octave-mandolin, mando-cello and mando-bass. Pradipto described each one as if introducing a member of his own family.

Journey to India

Mozart and Vivaldi themselves played mandolin and composed mandolin concertos. Mandolin was well entrenched in Western classical music. The Irish, however, gave it a country flavour with their unmistakable Celtic cadence.

Mandolin sailed across the Atlantic, got adopted into various musical genres in the US and became the darling of Bluegrass music. The multiple-Grammy winner Chris Thile, icon of Bluegrass, is a testimony to that.

The instrument seeped into India through a small band of Baghdadi Jews who came around the two World Wars and settled here. Their descendants, Abdul Rahim Taghioff and Issac David — David Saab to the music industry — were well-known in the 1930s and became regular mandolin players with composers like Pankaj Mullick and Shankar Jaikishan. The Hemant Kumar hit song from the film Chhabili — Lahro pe lahar — starts with Issac David’s nimble plucking of the mandolin.

A presence in popular numbers

“The Shankar-Jaikishan duo have used mandolin to the hilt,” said Pradipto. In the song Aa ab laut chalen from the iconic 1960 Raj Kapoor movie, Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hain, mandolin melds with the grand violin orchestration, yet stands out with its own distinctive sound. In another blockbuster, Anari, the bouncy track of mandolin accentuates the skipping steps of Raj Kapoor in the unforgettable Kisi ki muskurahato pe ho nisar.

“When in Kolkata, I played for several Bengali songs including those of Salil Chowdhury,” said Pradipto. “Salil-da was an absolute master”. Mandolin tunefully meandered into his compositions. Recall the allure of Aaja re pardesi. “Do you know who played the mandolin in Salil-da’s Aaha rim jhim ke ye pyare pyare? Laxmikant-ji of Laxmikant–Pyarelal fame. He played mandolin for several composers including Salil-da and S D Burman.”

“I was privileged to play in some of the most popular songs of our times,” said Pradipto. And the list is a chartbuster. Mehndi lagake rakhna, Tum pas aye, Bole choodiya bole kangna …. the list is endless. The more recent Mere lashke kamar has surpassed all previous records.

Though groomed in Bengal and now thick into Bollywood, Pradipto has constantly delved with music of all parts of the country and of around the world. “In my early days in Kolkata, the city was also the hub of the music of Assam and Odisha. I played so many times for Bhupen Hazarika, the musical doyen from Assam. Bhupen-da had a unique take on music and had such a fine sense of using mandolin to bring out the aroma of the soil.”

“U Srinivas had put mandolin on the classical pedestal,” he continued. “At the popular level, Ilaiyaraaja, C Aswath, A R Rahman, they all have been using mandolin in their compositions.” I quizzed him on this. He smiled and said, “Just play Rahman’s Jai ho in your head. You first hear the euphoric mandolin before you hear the voice.”

Into the future

“When I started to learn mandolin, there was hardly anyone to teach. Now, there are so many.” Pradipto has four mandolin albums under his belt. But, his contribution doesn't stop there. He has started the yearly Mandolin Festival in India, a gigantic effort, bringing musicians from all over the country. The hugely successful fourth edition in Goa last February had international mandolin stars like Carlo Aonzo and classical guitarist Lorenzo Bernardi participating.

“Some of my students are between 12 and 15. You must listen to their playing,” said Pradipto. It’s a long road ahead. But the future appears to be bright.