Monsoon melodies: Tollywood’s memorable rain songs etched in our hearts

Monsoon is here in Bengal and with the pitter-patter of raindrops, it brings a never-ending feeling of happiness, a relatively cool breeze, and obviously, nature drenched in rain. Lush, green, and alive — monsoon is a sight to anyone who loves nature and it has been utilised extensively in Indian cinema. Monsoon in Bengali cinema means passion, drama, romance, intensity and touching poetry. Expressing Indian cinema’s larger-than-life aspect, rain is one of the most preferred props of storytelling in Tollywood. Though music has always been a very personal choice, the love for these classic rainy numbers of Tollywood is perhaps universal.

This awe-inspiring musical treat is actually a popular rabindrasangeet which was used in ‘Hawa Bodol’. Beautifully sung by Saptarshi Mukherjee and Sahana Bajpei, it features all the lead characters in the film Parambrata, Raima, Rudranil and Neha Panda. The vivacious yet innocent rainy number supremely captured the essence of Bengali culture and tradition trapped in a modern world. This song too faced a critical response for its treatment with such a classic work by Tagore.

It’s another beautiful rendition from Shan and Shreya Ghoshal and no doubt one of the best compositions in Jeet Ganguli’s career. Featuring Dev and Koel, this romantic track from Premer Kahini a feeling of happiness, a cool breeze, and nature drenched in rain. This foot-tapping musical treat topped the chart for several years that time. Just like the soul-stirring track, the film also remains a turning point in Dev’s career.

The famous Rabindrasangeet Pagla Hawar Badal Dine was reincarnated in a remixed version in The Bong Connection, after the song came out of the control of the approval committee at Visva-Bharati. Shreya Ghosal and Nachiketa Chakraborty, with their superb voice and soul-stirring music composed by Bikram Ghosh, made the Bengali audience nostalgic. Although a portion of the traditional Bengali movie lovers didn’t welcome this remixed version of such a popular rabindrasangeet.

This 1979 release of ‘Devdas’ is one of the best and is still remembered for this classic song which is legendary Manna Dey’s unarguably one of the finest works. Featuring both Uttam Kumar and Soumitra Chatterjee, this is a classic example of monsoon melody. In Bengali version of ‘Devdas’ Soumitra Chatterjee plays the titular character while Uttam Kumar essayed out Chunilal’s character with the brilliant casting of Santu Mukhopadhyay, Sumitra Mukherjee and Supriya Choudhury.

This melody is a stroll down the wet lanes and corners of the city. You can’t miss this classic monsoon melody if you are a great fan of monsoon. Shreya Ghoshal’s mesmerizing voice will make you feel the pitter-patter of raindrops. Anyone who has watched Antaheen, definitely remembers this beautiful song. This Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury directorial deals with an endless wait beautifully wrapped in an almost poetic film narrative. In the movie, Radhika Apte was cast as Brinda, a journalist who comes close to an IPS officer Abhik Chowdhury but doesn’t know his actual identity. She manages to take an interview with him, but she walks a long way to ultimately recognize the IPS officer as her love. Brinda requests Abhik to meet, sadly the meeting never takes place.

Kaushiki Chakraborty and Shan did wonder in this semi-classical rain song which will give every Bengali movie lover an out-of-the-world experience with a soothing melody. Featuring Rudranil Ghosh as the central character it will surely touch your heart and it fits the film’s narrative. As an intriguing part of a thorny world, modern-day thoughts and expressions are apparently far from being simple and straightforward. There is so much filth you would notice everywhere. It's a sheer wonder how Anindya Bandopadhyay creates such an innocent film like Chaplin which is, arguably, the most remarkable debut of a Bengali filmmaker in recent times.