It was a very delicate job and intimidating as well: Debojyoti Mishra on Aparajito music

The music of Anik Dutta’s

Aparajito

is special and will remain special to musician Debojyoti Mishra’s heart forever. Not just because he has composed the music and people loved it, but because of the way he had to do it.

Around the same time that Anik Dutta approached him for the film,

Debojyoti

was writing a book on Satyajit Ray as a composer. “The research helped me a lot. Satyajit

Ray

had his own musical world and was a great composer. So, as soon as Anik approached me, I knew I wanted to capture that world in the film,” Debojyoti said.

One of the biggest challenges he faced that the music of Pather Panchali, which was composed by none other than Ravi Shankar. “It was kind of intimidating because I knew my work will be compared with his at some point. Besides, Pather

Panchali

is a part of world cinema and is used as a text for students and teachers across the world. That was a huge pressure,” he added.

So, based on his basic idea of capturing Ray’s music sensibility, he started composing and he had to take delicate calls on how much of Pather Panchali's music to keep and how much to create on his own. “Anik gave me creative freedom and I have used instruments like setar, tarsanai and flute. I’ve also sought inspiration from Bach and Beethoven because Ray was very fond of them. I have also used orchestral scores. Besides, I had wonderful musicians working with me,” Debojyoti added.