NEW YORK: Plagiarizing or lifting tunes is an old habit with Bollywood music directors. Old-timers like Bappi Lahiri and Anu Malik were legends in the game of copying melodies. From the newer lot of music maestros, it's the much-popular Pritam who leads the brigade.
Pritam usually takes caution when it comes to drawing his inspirations - he settles for lesser-known Arabic, Turkish, European and Latino bands. And maybe that's why it's difficult to pin him down. However, this time, he's in the dock for copying the creations of one of Kolkata's most revered bands.
The story begins when Magna Films, the makers of Bhram-An Illusion, starring Dino Morea, Milind Soman and supermodel Sheetal Menon approached Pritam sometime last year to compose the music for their film.
The music director, who was already on a high by then, agreed to be a part of the film. But for a long time, he kept giving the makers a chase, claiming that he was far too busy and that's why he was taking so long in composing the tunes.
The producers of the film paid him a hefty price and finally, after much persuasion, Pritam was ready with two songs. The film got ready for release and just sometime last week, a day before the film's music release function, all hell broke loose when one discovered that his song, 'Jaane Kyun' was inspired from a Bengali song.
On further investigation, one learnt that the 'Jaane Kyun' number, rendered in the film by Sonu Nigam, was a straight lift of a Bengali song, 'Ghare Pheraar Gaan', composed by the Kolkata-based band Mohiner Ghoraguli. Established in the 70s, Mohiner Ghoraguli was a Bengali music group from Kolkata.
Their music was a mixture of a wide variety of influences, including the Baul and folk traditions of Bangla and rock. They are sometimes also credited as the pioneers of the flourishing of Bangla bands in the new millennium.
On listening to the original track, it's clear that 'Jaane Kyun' from Bhram-An Illusion is a note-by-note lift of 'Ghare Pheraar Gaan' and Pritam, this time, has crossed all boundaries by crediting himself for a composition that was created by an Indian band.
Gautam Chatterjee has penned the lyrics for the original track, the soundtrack of which has been released on Asha Audio.
An official spokesman from Magna Films said, "We have paid Pritam for the music and we hope his compositions are original. In case they have been inspired from some other music, we hope he has taken permission for the same.
If not, we believe he should have taken permission before selling his music to producers as original compositions." With Pritam once again in the midst of a raging controversy, one wonders what justification he will give for this one.
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