Tagore music becoming popular: Sen

Affirming the popularity of Rabindra Sangeet exceeds any other genre of music, noted Tagore song exponent Sraboni Sen said this has its pitfalls also.
"True that Tagore music is becoming immensely popular, finding more and more acceptance among the audience every passing day. We all know how Tagore's numbers are drawing more and more listeners, many from the young age group, from FM programmes," Sraboni told PTI at a 'Bengali Gold Music' recording on a leading FM channel here.
"But this has led to one consequence. We are witnessing lots of tinkering with the basic parameters, the 'swaralipi'. Many a time I don't understand if at all listening to Rabindra Sangeet, and this is happening with popular numbers," Sraboni, who was awarded the BFJA award for the best female playback singer for rendering 'Amala Dhabala Paaley' in Rituparno Ghosh's 'Utsab', said.[

Sraboni attributed the rise in popularity in Tagore numbers to factors like the timelessness of the lyrics, the sesquicentennial year observance of the Bard's birth anniversary one year back which led to heightened interest in his songs and infusing Rabindrasangeet as playbacks in several present day Bengali flicks.
"And the way FMs are playing Rabindrasangeet, which can beat the popularity of any other song - classical, light classical, modern etc - it only serves the purpose of initiating more and more listeners.
"I recall how the 3000-strong crowd at a play ground went silent when I started singing before the start of a football tournament in Contai sometimes back," she said about the 'Bengali Old Music programme' aired on Big FM.

"Besides Rabindra Sangeet, tracks of the 50s-60s can never lose its flavor among the listeners cutting across all ages," she said about the Big FM programme.