I got the opportunity to listen to V. Balsara's music at a musical evening organized by Narasinha College, Howrah. My father told me to attend the program and I did. I was studying keyboard under Tarak Roy. I used to live at Ichapur near Abasar Sammilani Club and this music teacher who was an ex-member of Sudhin Dasgupta band taught me music with love, patience, devotion and created an interest in music, which help me appreciate higher levels of music. I attended the program of V. Balsara and listened attentively the song played by him like "Ei Raat Tomaar Aamar," "Kuchh Naa Kaho"etc. He played the tunes in his keyboard specially made for his public performance named Univox. I was very much interested to learn keyboard from this person. I searched the telephone directory and got his landline phone number. I made the call and an attendant received the phone and told me about "Sourav," a music school at 20, Sarat Bose Road. This was previously known as Lansdowne. I used to go to this school and the fees was Rs. 100 for 2 days in a months. I learnt music there for eight months but left due to the pressure of my studies. At that time, I was studying Anthropology Hons.
On my first day in Sourav, Mr. Balsara asked me to play a tune in the cottage piano in the well decorated room of Sourav. I played "Aalo Aamar Alo," a song composed by Rabindranath Tagore. He was pleased and I got the admission. Then he used to give me notation in photocopied form and his assistant whom I later became a great fan, Prabir Banerjee, used to show me how the tune should be played.
Now I would love to share an article written in the Bengali newspaper "Dainik Statesman" published on April 3, 2005. As I saw that there are very few websites which goes into the life of this great musical genius, so I thought it would be a good idea to translate this article into English and let the music lovers around the world know someone beyond, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Vivaldi, etc. The page where the article was published is called "Bichitra." It was written on the basis of an interview by Indrani Roy. It was the last interview of the great musical genius.
V. Balsara wrote this article for "Dainik Statesman" before falling ill. The article was named "Sekaal Theke Ekaal" (Then and Now):
Times flies away very fast. I passed 66 years of my life in the world of cinema in which 16 years in Bollywood and 50 years in Tollywood. The question arises how did this world arose and who are responsible for it? When I first set my foot in Mumbai, at that time, Khan-sahibs and Ustadjis dominated the industry. Some brilliant examples are Khan Sahib Mustaq Hussain, Ustad Mandey Khan, Pandit Govind Ram, etc. The type of music changed with time. Musicians like Anil Biswas, Master Gulam Haider (Lahore), Naushaad, Hussein Lal Bhagat Ram, Sanchin Dev Barman, Hemanta Kumar came to the scene. Later Kalyanji and Anandji came. And finally came Shankar Jaikishen and Lakshmikant Pyarelal. Those who worked with Rajkapur's movies that are rich in melodious tunes. A revolution in music world came when Sachin Deb Barman entered the Bollywood. He changed the form of music totally in Bollywood. Late this trend was carried forward by Bappi Lahiri and later A. R. Rahman. Undoubtedly the film music became more developed and rich post A. R. Rahman. The new type of instruments changed the way music was created in the industry. As far as I remember, Gulam Haider first introduced Dholak. Ram Singh brought saxophone when Anil Biswas was the music director. When Basant Desai was the music director, Ramlal brought Sehnai. Banjo was brought by Kawas Lord. Clay Violin was brought by Kalyanji in the film "Naagin." Forbes introduced vibraphone, which was used in the song of Naushaad "Mohay Bhul Gaye." David brought an Arabian musical instrument for the music of Naushaad. Now I am going to discuss on the contribution of the sound engineers and recordists. The recordists have a great role to play in the movie industry. Previously a microphone was used in musical instruments and also by the singers. Instead of only one microphone, now every instrument has a microphone during the recording process. In 1955, a recordist named Satyen Chatterjee created an echo effect in a big container of water for the film named "Rater Andhokarey." G.P. Sen used stereo recording in 1975 in "Sound of Sitar." Previously if a singer or a musician performed a mistake, then the recording was repeated again and again till it reaches its stage of perfection. The method was not only a wastage of time but not also money. HMV used wax plate, which used to cost about Rs. 350. With the development of technology, we are now doing track recording and digital recording. If a musician or singer commit a mistake, then that area of the recording is deleted and recorded again. So the time and money are saved in this method. But there are dark side and bright sides of development. The musicians know that there fault will be corrected at the right point, so there is no need of repetition but in my opinion, the song loses its charm.
