Biggest challenge was to honour legacy of Pandit Ravi Shankar, says Avijatrik music director Bickram Ghosh

The music of Subhrajit Mitra’s upcoming film Avijatrik was launched in the presence of the cast, crew and producers in Kolkata on 6 November. Music director and percussionist Bickram Ghosh's team performed a track from the film as part of the programme.

Based on the last part of Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay’s novel Aparajito, Avijatrik picks up where Satyajit Ray’s last film in the Apu Trilogy, Apur Sansar (1959), left off. It has already earned recognition at 32 fest festivals worldwide and bagged numerous awards. Ghosh has received awards at the Montreal Independent Film Festival, Canada and Caleidoscope Indian Film Festival of Boston. While Pandit Ravi Shankar famously scored the original trilogy, his daughter — sitar player, producer, film composer and activist Anoushka Shankar — has played two pieces for the new film.

According to Ghosh, working for Avijatrik was a big challenge. When the musician first heard that Mitra was making the fourth film in the iconic series and wanted him to do the music, he got quite nervous. “I was in a dilemma, thinking whether it would be just to experiment with Satyajit Ray’s world-renowned film and Pandit Ravi Shankar Ji’s world-famous music composition. However, when I got the film for the background score, I got quite overwhelmed. It’s a beautiful film- a modern-day classic indeed,” said Ghosh.

For the music director, the biggest challenge was to carry on the legacy of Ravi Shankar. “He was my guru. I have spent 12 years of my life with him and played with him in around a thousand concerts. It was a period of learning and  privilege for me,” said Ghosh. When Shankar’s wife Sukanya Rajan first heard two or three pieces composed by Ghosh, she shared them on Facebook, writing, “Bickram has proved himself to be his [Ravi Shankar] true disciple.” For Ghosh, this was his biggest reward.

“I was happy to do what was expected of me and the journey was full of hard work and eventful. Subhrajit and I discussed each and every sound and piece of music. It was true happiness for me to work with all the instruments of Hindustani classical music, which is my forte. With the concert today, we want to remind everyone of the uniqueness of our classical instruments, and we hope to do more such concerts in the future,” he said, expressing his gratitude to the producers Gaurang Jalan and Madhur Bhandarkar.

Ghosh is hopeful that along with jury members of several film festivals and critics, regular cinema-goers will also love the music of the film. “Another big news for us is Warner Music Group is tying up with our film to bring the music to the market. We are honoured that our music will be archived by the company that has the music of many classic films," he said.

Avijatrik is slated to be released in theatres on 3 December.