THE NEW ARNOB

What sets Arnob apart is the fact that he comes from a complete family of artists of diverse talents, and that he has grown up at Shantiniketon. This makes his foundation different from most others. Back when his family used to live downstairs from my house in Malibag, I first heard about Shayan Chowdhury Arnob as a youngster who studies as Santiniketon (he was visiting Bangladesh on holidays) and that he is extremely keen on music. I also heard that he is adept in playing the Sarengi, a rare musical instrument. Back then, I was working on a television drama serial, and I was looking for unique instrumentals for adding original background score to the drama, and was working with the late Nilufer Yeasmin on an original song. After listening to Arnob play, I was utterly and thoroughly impressed and he was interested in working with me. We worked for a few days in the studio, and Nilufer Yeasmin was as profoundly impressed with Arnob's musical talents as I was, and asked me, “Where did you find this young prodigy?” It was clear to me from very early on that Arnob was extremely talented and his musical creations would send ripples through the music industry. From my production, Sahana Bajpaie wrote the song, “Ekta Chele” (which became quite famous decades later in Shahana's voice) and Arnob sang it for me as a dummy. Although the song was meant to be sung by a girl, I liked the song on Arnob's voice so much that I wanted to use it that way in the drama (I would adjust the visualization to match the song). To the people, to his fans, Arnob is loved for his voice and for his singing, but if you ask him, he will tell you that, at heart, he is a more a music director and composer than a singer. In his own words, it's almost a tragedy that he is becoming more and more popular as a singer – he has been receiving an increasing amount of offers from from Kolkata and Bollywood, but all these offers are for Arnob the singer, not Arnob the music director. And he is entering the Indian film scene as a singer, but his ultimate goal will be to establish himself as a music director as well. Arnob has gone through many phases in life, and each phase has given him elements of maturity. He is more focused in terms of his life and in terms of his work, and that is the recipe of an artist that grows with time – who learns from the experiences in his life and grows diverse. In fact, Arnob's diversity will not remain limited to the world of music alone, in fact – he is also thinking about making films. He already has a story in mind and even a script. Maybe the time is not far away when we will know Arnob not only as a musician and singer, but also as a talented filmmaker.