Palash Sen: Voices that don't have a character of their own sell in films

I feel blessed to be in Banaras
For singer, music composer and actor Palash Sen, a visit to Varanasi is always special but this time he is overwhelmed . The singer, who began his musical career from the city, which is also his home town, with the music album Dhoom Pichak Dhoom that fetched him a lot of popularity, is back again after sixteen years to shoot two legendary songs, Khaike Paan Banaras and Chalat Musafir Moh Liya rendered by him for a television channel as part of a show.These songs later will also be released as a music album by a music company . “I am wearing the same clothes which I wore for my first music video Dhoom Pichak sixteen years ago, pointing at a kurta and ghamcha. These are the only set of clothes from any of my music videos which I have kept as a memory so you can imagine how strongly I feel about about the place . How many people get the chance to come back from where they started .I feel that me and my band Euphoria are so blessed to start their journey from here. It is always believed that ki jisne Gangajal chakha hai he does something special. I want to believe that I have done something special or in the process of doing something special. In times when film music has taken over everything, our band, is the only non-film artist that is still doing things our way without making any compromises,” he says
We as a race should become more cleaner
An environmentalist at heart, Palash says, “that we Indians as a race should start being a little more cleaner .It is not only River Ganga that is polluted but every single river, lake , stream in the country is dirty .So we as a race should start thinking about the Nature and stop interfering with it otherwise it will boomerang on us . Few people know that River Ganga has the capacity to cleanse itself as it is the most oxygenated river and has a certain kind of bacteria that helps in preserving it. It is the effluents being thrown into the river that is causing the biggest damage which should be stopped strictly at the governmental level .As an artist I have done a lot of environmental songs to create awareness. Right now I am also doing a film Aisa Yeh Jahan, directed by national award winner documentary film maker Biswajeet Bora. The focus of the film is environment. It dwells on the conflict between the city and the village. How villages are much environment friendly while the city is turning heartless and is virtual concrete jungle . Apart from acting , I am also the music composer of the film,” he says.
Voices that don't have a character of their own sell in films Despite passionate about music , the talented singer says that there are several reasons that he is still not a film music guy . “It is the film that dictates the terms . If a film maker says, ki boss talk about this in the song, then the person writing the song has to write accordingly, no matter how ridiculous it is. The reason songs like Baby Doll Main Sone Di are being churned out. So we need to have some strong censorship laws to monitor what is being created. Moreover we don't have a music industry in our country what we instead have is a film music industry . Nearly all the film songs sound the same and these songs do not have a character of their own, which is really sad. Except for few songs, I have deliberately kept away from playback singing .Once you go playback in films your voice is not recognised but somebody's face is recognised .I was always a play- front guy rather than play back person. Moreover my persona is so strong in the mind of the audience that people from the film industry really never wanted me to playback for somebody. If I am singing for somebody in a film, people will instantly recognise that it's me who is singing. They are really looking for voices that don't have a character of their own. Everything in the film is being reduced to make the hero of the film important .I personally feel that the composer, singer, writer are important component of a film and contribute in selling a film but unfortunately no credit is being given to them. This is how it works in our country but I feel that this will change. People will rebel against this system as several young film makers with a different mindset are making a foray in films,” he says