The World of Salil Chowdhury

Salil as a Lyricist

songs
Salil as a Lyricist

As I have mentioned earlier, Salil almost always wrote the lyrics of his Bengali songs. There are a few exceptions though, but not many. Salil wrote the lyrics for quite a few songs which were composed by others. He was so moved by the Marathi version of an Asha Bhonsle song composed by Hridaynath Mangeskar that he wrote the Bengali lyrics for that song (Jibono-o-gaan) and Asha recorded that in Bengali. In fact he wrote the lyrics for several songs composed by Hridaynath.
Salil also wrote a few songs under the psudonym 'Sudarshan'.

Lyrics: Salil

Nr	Song	Year	Singer	Music
LS1	Tumi aamaar na gaaoaa gaan	1953	Tarun Banerjee, Sanat Banerjee, Geeta Mekherjee and others	Based on a western hymn;arranged by Salil
LS2	Tumi kothaay	1953	Tarun Banerjee	Based on a western hymn;arranged by Salil
LS3	Champaa aamaar ogo sono	1954	Tarun Banerjee	Sudhin Dasgupta
LS4	Aandhaare lekhey gaan	1958	Sabita Banerjee	Nachiketa Ghosh
LS5	Sonaay dheke anga	1967	Geeta Dutta	Kanu Ghosh
LS6	Jaaknaa muchhey jaak	1967	Geeta Dutta	Kanu Ghosh
LS7	Oi path durey	1968	Asha Bhonsle	Hridaynath Mangeskar
LS8	Jibono gaan	1968	Asha Bhonsle	Hridaynath Mangeskar
LS9	De dol dol dol	1970	Hemanta Mukherjee and Lata Mangeskar	Hridaynath Mangeskar
LS10	Ogo maa gangaa	1970	Lata Mangeskar	Hridaynath Mangeskar
LS11	Baadol kaalo ghirlo go	1970	Lata Mangeskar	Hridaynath Mangeskar
LS12	Saade saatkoti bangaalir	1972	Manna Dey	Kanu Ghosh
LS13	O bhaai re bhaai	1972	Manna Dey	Kanu Ghosh
LS14	E din to jaabe naa	1975	Lata Mangeskar	Hridaynath Mangeskar
LS15	Naao go maa phool naao	1975	Lata Mangeskar	Hridaynath Mangeskar
LS16	Ogo Saathi (From the film: Bandi)	1977	Shyamal Mitra Sulakshana Pandit	Shyamal Mitra
LS17	Jaay ude mon	1988	Antara Chowdhury	Sanjay Chowdhury
LS18	Meghe meghe	1988	Antara Chowdhury	Sanjay Chowdhury
LS19	Dhoroniro parapaarey	1988	Antara Chowdhury	Sanjay Chowdhury
LS20	Chal maajhi	1988	Antara Chowdhury and Sabita Chowdhury	Sanjay Chowdhury
LS21	Kaamini kanyaa tumi	1992	Partho Ghosh and Antara	Sanjay Chowdhury
LS22	Jodi tumi	1992	Antara Chowdhury and Sanchari Chowdhury	Sanjay Chowdhury
LS23	Jaaninaa Kano	1992	Antara Chowdhury	Sanjay Chowdhury
LS24	Eso Bosonaa	1992	Antara Chowdhury	Sanjay Chowdhury
LS25	Puraano haaraano	1992	Antara Chowdhury and Sanchari Chowdhury	Sanjay Chowdhury
LS26	Aajkaal_aami_aar	2014	Lata Mangeshkar	Mayuresh Pai

Songs # 18 to # 20 were released in a cassette called 'Aamraa' along with some other Salil songs. These songs composed by Salil's youngest son, Sanjay are really excellent. He definitely has a unique style. 'Dharaniro Parapaarey' is one of the most interesting compositions I have heard. Later in 1992 he composed some more songs and Salil wrote the lyrics under the pseudonym 'Sudarshan'.
HMV has recently released a CD of Geeta Dutt's bengali songs and very callously they have attributed Salil as the composer of Geeta Dutt's two songs (#6 and #7). In fact the composer is Kanu Ghosh. This is not the only time HMV has made this faux pas with Salil's songs.
Hridaynath, a brilliant composer always admitted that his greatest inspiration is Salil and Salil also admired and liked Hridaynath's compositions. In fact, they worked together in the past when Salil wrote the lyrics for a number of songs composed by Hridaynath (see Lata's page and Hemanta Mukherjee's page for details). Salil was so moved by one of Hridaynath's marathi compositions that he wrote the bengali lyrics for it. The original marathi song was "jeeva lagaa" which became "jeebon gaan" in bengali. Salil wrote the lyrics for another superb composition of Hridaynath. This was "hee vaat door jaate" - which became "oi path durey" in bengali. Both superbly performed by Asha.
LS24 and LS25 has two Hindi versions in the TV film "Hamari Shaadi" with superb arrangement.
The newest surprise is Lata's "aajkaal aami aar" (LS26) recorded in 2014 when she turned 85 ! Quite an achievement really.