Folk tales
Raghu Dixit has proved that folk-rock numbers have a market outside Bollywood and can be sung in a pub, like he did in Kolkata. Over to Mathures Paul The arrangement for any Raghu Dixit composition is quite tight, making it impossible for any instrument to be left out, especially the violin that lends his songs an element of pathos. You are taken away from bustling city scenes to paddy fields caressed by a gentle breeze or sand dunes on which a group of folk musicians play. The arrival of Dixit (combined with Avial) marks another (after AR Rahman) beginning to an era of south Indian musicians setting new standards, only this time it’s not in the sphere of Bollywood. The eastern region with Rupam Islam, Skinny Alley and Neel Dutt is also stealing the spotlight from musicians settled in Mumbai or Delhi. Raghu Dixit Project has been around for years but Kolkata hasn’t heard them, primarily because labels have refused to market folk-rock and Dixit was never interested in “filmy” music. It ...