"Sakhi Hum" hit maker Subhomita happy to be in Kolkata

Kolkata: Singer Subhomita is not planning to shift to Mumbai though her songs, especially "Sakhi Hum" in Rituparno Ghosh-starrer `Memories in March`, earned her country-wide fame. She said she was not sure how she would be accepted in Mumbai film world once she shifted her base. "I have grown in Kolkata and I don`t want to start from a scratch all over again," she told PTI. "The melodies and freshness of Bengali lyrics - their inward romanticism and tenderness will never be replicated elsewhere and I am too happy here to move," Subhomita said. She said after the launch of a duet music album ‘Dui Dugune Prem’ with singer Rupankar that she would accept offers if they did not require her to shift to another place. Two songs from the duet album "Mere Lala Aaj Na Jaio Jamunar" and "Mathura nagarpati kahe tum gokul jaao" have become hit on the net before the album`s release. She said she always wanted to cut an album with Rupankar, an established name in the Bengali music scene. Rupankar on his part said the songs have `unflabby`, contemporary lyrics, sung in a fluid style, tuning in to the tastes of the present-day listeners. The versatile singer, who sang playback to tracks in most of the new age Bengali films from ‘Baishe Srabon’, ‘Hemlock Society’ to the yet-to-be released ‘Namte Namte’, would not attribute most non-film music albums failing to make it to the top to proliferation of film music. "If the lyrics and melody strike you at the heart, then all types of music is okay. I feel all the flowers can bloom." He voiced strong opposition against the trend to download music from the net. "This is causing great harm to the music industry and you have to stop music piracy," he said. Mahua Lahiri of Asha Audio, which brought out the Subhomita-Rupankar duet album, said the company would launch this Durga Puja a private album of Shreya Ghosal`s Bengali songs after 10 years. Rupankar said "Dui Dugune Prem" harked back to the 70s and 80s when Asha Bhonsle and R D Burman and Lata Mangeshkar and Hridaynath Mangeshkar with their Puja releases lent a unique touch to the festive spirit. He and most people of those heady years recall with nostalgia how the people waited expectantly for the LPs or SPs of Kishore Kumar, the two Mangeshkar sisters and Manna Dey to hit the music stores. The songs used to blare from the loudspeakers along with their Hindi film hits from most Puja pandals unlike today. "Puja records and cassettes have given way to audio CDs, but all Bengalis` unexplained attachment to Puja and the things to go with it, like music, remain the same,? a beaming Rupankar said. PTI