About

PROFILE – Brief:  Moni is an Indian folk singer and music researcher who specialises in the traditional folk music of Bengal. Best known for his vocal archiving of the rare folk genres and in narrating bygone tales of Bengal’s riverain culture; his work has been appreciated globally.

He hails from Hingalgunj; a sleepy river village in the southernmost West Bengal, Indo-Bangladesh border. He came to Kolkata for pursuing higher education- when he felt the tug of his roots and pulsed the need of disseminating, researching and vocal archiving the rare folk genres of his countryside like Bhatiali, Baul, Murshidi, Marfati, Sari, Jari, Islami, Dhuaa, Bhawaiya; moribund village hymns (Pallygiti) and transcendental verses.

As an outcome, the Boatmen Band –‘Majhi Mallah’ was formed. Embodying ‘mystic river’ as a theme -the band shares the story of an imaginary journey of a band of boatmen travelling from north to south Bengal; – describing the ever changing pace of river stream & the pattern of music along with it; –different regions-landscapes- creations of different genres that the land has produced over the time. The band bridged a gap between the age old tradition and new interpretations – opening a threshold to the global audience, to whom this traditional music was largely obscured.

Saurav has carved a niche in the hearts of national and international audiences through his illustrious performances in the Coke Studio @ MTV, Jaipur Literature Festival, Sound Trek @ Fox Traveller, Guest performance @ 57th Idea Filmfare Awards, Celtic Connections festival, Scotland; Alchemy festival, London; Les Orientales festival, France… .

 

PROFILE – Detail: Singer of traditional folk songs of Bengal, Saurav Moni hails from a village in the rural hinterland of Sunderbans in West Bengal, on Bangladesh border. He travels among the boatmen, peasants and wandering minstrels of the two Bengals ( West Bengal and Bangladesh) – picking up songs. He retains the purity of timbre, tune and diction even when he performs for audiences widely varying in taste and location.

He straddles the genres of Sari, Jari, Murshidi, Marfati, Dhuaa, Bhawaiya and Baul, though Bhatiali is his primary genre of work. His expertise lies in telling the tales of the meandering river as it goes from upstream to downstream. Moreover it also involves the endless journey of a man on a boat which serves as a typical metaphor of his life. His narrative, thus connected by rivers, takes a shape and intensity that never appears repetitive because of his ability to constantly innovate and change.

Even as he takes his music to the cities of Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi and beyond, performs in front of large, unacquainted audiences of Europe, tries to bridge the gap with a generation in the sub-continent that is only communicable through the MTV- network (he was one of the performers on the first show of MTV- Coke Studio), his voice never wavers from a deeply melodious, soulful tonality.

His formal education (an M.A. in History from Jadavpur University, Kolkata) has enriched him greatly in his pursuit. Other than being a singer-interpreter-researcher he is also a well-known vocal archivist that has in its own term added enormous value to his region-specific genre of singing. He conserves and performs the traditional songs which are mostly unrecorded and almost on the verge of extinction.