A musical exchange between folk bands

It was music to the ears when folk melodies by city-based band Dohar and a Hungarian folk band performed on Wednesday evening at an auditorium in Santoshpur. Baul singer Parvathy Das Baul took the initiative to bring together the folk bands of both the countries for a musical exchange. “It’s important to enrich ourselves, by knowing the culture of the west or any other country.I feel, through music many people can come together, and the boundaries will break. This will create a connection amongst the hearts of the people of various countries,” said Parvathy Das Baul.

Ritacheta Bhattacharya, wife of the late vocalist of Dohar, Kalika Prasad Bhatacharya, who was also present at the event, said, “Such events will surely create an impact on Bengali music. The repertoire of Dohar has already influenced Bengali music. Though Dohar performs in a group, they never claim themselves as a band. The reason behind that is Dohar never sings self-composed songs. Rather, they sing the songs of farmers, labours, sailors
and others.” Tunde Farkas, vocalist of the Hungarian band, said, “We met Parvathy during a performance in Kolkata. We really liked the idea when she proposed to join hands with Dohar and perform together. Both these bands are trying to revive their age-old traditional songs.”