Kolkata: Times Music launches album Folk Studio-The Ballads of Bengal

The album, which was launched at Starmark's Quest Mall outlet, is produced by Santosh Giri and contains 10 songs penned by legends such as Lalan Fakir, Hasan Raja, Radharaman Dutta and others, and sung by Mithu Monfokira, the lead vocalist of folk fusion band, Monfokira.

During the the 'musical adda' following the launch, Mishra recalled how singer Mithu Monfokira had caught producer Santosh Giri's and his attention during a programme at Kolkata's Academy of Fine Arts.

The music album followed.

For the album, Mishra said he chose to retain the originality of the songs and emphasised on the orchestration part.

"The less we disturb the old songs, the more we help these songs to live on," said Mishra.

Film director Kamaleshwar Mukherjee too acknowledged Mithu's mellifluous voice. She has sung for his films such as Khawto and Mukhomukhi.

Mithu Monfokira regaled the audience with one of the popular numbers, “Krishno Preme Pora Deho”, as well as a few others from the album.

Choreographer Sudarshan Chakravorty, who is currently working with themes such as 'Feminity in the male body' and 'Econama' said folk music is an important part of his work.

"What I like about this album is that the root has not been distorted," he said. "The songs are not alienated from the rich culture of India and Bengal and therefore bound to attract listeners from both home and abroad."

Also present at the launch were litterateur Nabaneeta Dev Sen, folk song mentor Nurul Islam Khan aka Babu Fakir, Bhaskar Monfokira, album producer Santosh Giri, Gulab Gang director Soumik Sen and Biplab Upadhyay from Times Music.

The celebrity singers and other guests also harped on the importance of buying the legitimately sold music products and not give in to music piracy or illegally download the songs from the internet.

(Reporting by Shilpa Salwan)