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A profile of Romen Barua
In the keenly-competitive world of Assamese cinema, ensuring a
conspicuous position as a film- maker, an actor or even as a musician is a
pretty tough job. For, there are a fairly good number of talented people in
almost every sphere of performing arts in the industry. But Romen Barua
has succeeded in achieving that status which some of his contemporaries
in the same line have failed to achieve. That is, assuring a durable place
as a musician in the regional cinema. After all, he has the talent of
immaculately composing and directing music and appropriately tuning it
with the spirit of the situation. The result of which is some heart-rending
and entertaining music.
Romen Barua started off his film career, as a play back singer, and did
play back singing for several Assamese feature films -- Smritir Paras,
Lokhimi, Mak Aru Morom, Lachit Barphukan and Amar Ghar -- under the
music direction of his elder brother, noted film-maker cum actor, Late
Brojen Barua. But today he is more popular and better known as a
music director than as a singer. For, ever since he had taken over the
independent charge of music-direction from his elder brother in 1968, he
concentrated more on this aspect of creative art than on doing any more
play back singing.
Till date, he has been creating music for countless Assamese films,
including two Bengali ones (Monima, 1974-75 and Dadu Nati Ebong Hati, 1978-79).
Of which Antony Mur Nam directed by Nip Barua, in 1987, had
earned him laurels for his brilliant music-composition. Unfortunately,
despite his forte he has not been approached by any producer to give
music for any other film.
Nevertheless, Barua’s popularity rose among the cine-goers as an
accomplished music director with Brojen Barua’s much-hyped and
highly-acclaimed film Dr Bezbarua, released in 1968-69, featuring a host
of prominent artistes including Meghali Devi, Prathiva Thakur, Nipon
Goswami and the Brojen Barua himself, in the lead role. Laced with
gripping suspense and thrill it was deemed to be the first-ever thriller in
Assamese filmdom, albeit in black and white, one of the major reasons of
its becoming a commercially super-hit film was Romen Barua’s highly
impressive and heart-rending as well as entertaining music. The musical
numbers of the film such as Ki Nam di Matim, Tomar Padum Chokuti...,
hogged the popularity charts owing to the marvellous orchestration of the
songs to the exigencies of the sequences. These numbers still continue to
touch our hearts with their lilting rendition.
After the success of Dr Bezbarua, in which he had made his debut as a
musician, Romen Barua got a break at music-direction and from then on
he independently directed the music of many a film including Baruar
Sangsar (1969-70), Mukuta (1970), Ajali Nabau (1980), Kaka Deuta Nati
Aru Hati (1983) and Antony Mur Nam (1987). In most of these films, he
scored excellent music equalling the out and out success of Dr Bezbarua.
However, the one thing that stood him out in the cluster of musicians was
his style of music which was very different and unique.
But despite his tremendous creative potentiality and the release of Antony
Mur Nam starring among others Biju Phukan, Purabi Sarma and late
Durgeswar Barthakur, Romen Barua did not get any offer or invitation from
any producer for music-orchestration for other films. But he continued to
score music for TV serials and dramas.
When asked the reason behind his low profile during the past 13 years,
since the release of the hit-film Antony Mur Nam, except for just two TV
serials, Pratishabi and Lady Inspector, a palpably dejected Barua answered, "These days most producers
do not attach much importance to music. Naturally, all those who have a
minimum concept or knowledge of Indian and Western music are
approached and asked to take up the assignments."
Born in the early 1940s, Romen Barua had a rich cultural lineage. He hails
from the famous Barua family, most members of which happen to be the
prominent figures in Assamese cinema: Brojen Barua, Nip Barua and
Dibon Barua, all of them being his elder brothers. Though his father, late
Chandra Nath Barua, was an Engineer, he encouraged a regular evening
function in his house in which Brojen Barua would play the guitar and the
harmonium, Nip would play the flute and Dibon the tabla while Romen was
the one who did the singing. It would be proper to mention here that his
mother, Jonprabha Barua herself, was a very good singer who used to
sing traditional folk songs. During his college days, Romen Barua had
learnt many nuances of music from late Rudra Barua, a noted singer and
lyricist Purusottam Das as well as Khogen Das, both classical singers.
This in turn, instilled and boosted a much-needed confidence in him which
later helped him as a playback singer which was well mirrored in Smritir
Paras in which he had made his maiden appearance as a lead playback
singer.
Approved composer of AIR, Guwahati, Romen was also one of the core
members of the Audition Board of AIR for a prolonged stint. In 1979, on the
occasion of the silver jubilee celebration of New Art Players’ -- a leading
Guwahati-based socio-cultural organisation, of which he was one of the
founders, a LP record on Jyoti Sangeet was produced under his direction
at Calcutta. His latest releases a cluster of five audio-cassettes containing
some selected hit songs of some box-office hit films of yesteryears, such
as Ki Nam Di Matim sung by his younger brother, the noted playback singer,
Dipen Barua, has evoked spontaneous responses from the people, which
is evident in the sale of about 50,000 albums.
Romen Barua who has the reputation of infusing life in an otherwise dull
and boring theme by creating melodious music for it, is of the view that the
Indian pop music, whether it be jazz, rock-an-role, all is a blend of both
western and Indian music. He thinks that there is no harm in replicating the
Western music if any good music can be created out of it after gathering
something precious from it just as a bee does from different flowers. Or
else, he feels it will sound discordant or distorted. The major snag, he
adds, in Indian pop music with its heavy orchestration and the excessive
use of the electronic instruments, reduces the beauty and melody as well
as the feelings that are expressed in it.
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