James: Neighbour146;s Pride

A Bangladeshi rock star is taking the sub-continent by storm

HE IS BOLLYWOOD8217;S BOONfrom across the bor-der. His raw, slightly raspy voice and typical rock star looks are already a national rage. But James, the voice behind the chartbuster Bheegi Bheegi from the film Gang-ster, is a man in no hurry. Though flooded with offers, the Bangladeshi rock icon has decided to take one step at a time. For now, he is working with the Bhatts again and has already recorded a rock number for the film Woh Lamhe with Shiney Ahuja and Kan-gana in the lead.

James says he had never antici-pated this kind of success. 8220;I did not see this coming at all. Though, I8217;m ecstatic that my voice is rocking the nation that I8217;ve always admired.8221;

Even as cultural diplomacy with Pakistan has seen a host of its bands gain popularity in this coun-try, James is the only Bangladeshi singer after Runa Laila to have cap-tured the imagination of India. 8220;It8217;s not fair to compare me with her. She was a legend, while I8217;m still learning,8221; he says with a hu- mility matching his unique talent. Interestingly, the song Bheegi Bheegi was inspired by a cult song, Prithibi, by the late Gautam Chat-terjee, lead singer of an old Kolkata-based band Mohiner Ghor-aguli. Pritam, the music director of Gangster, rearranged the music and James for once was content to be just a playback singer. 8220;Pritam and Anurag Basu, the director of the film, were familiar with my music and asked me to pitch in.8217;8217; But it was not a smooth sail, remembers James. 8216;8216;I am not familiar with Hindi. So I had to write the song in Bangla and then sing it.8221; And that8217;s not all. Buzz has it that Pritam and Basu got James drunk before the recording.

8220;I was a little nervous. But from there on, the recording went smoothly,8221; he laughs.

James, aka Nagar Baul the city bard, has been instrumental in the explosion of Bangla rock in his country. Lovingly called Guru by his fans, he has 16 albums to his credit. His last album, Janata Ex-press, was a runaway hit.

8220;In Bangladesh, native rock has percolated to the grass root level. A live performance easily gathers a crowd of 30,000 or more even in vil-lages,8221; he explains.

So, who are the Guru8217;s gurus? 8220;Dire Straits, Pink Floyd and Deep Purple. In India, I love the music of Kailash Kher,8221; he says.

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Apart from playback singing, James also plans to release a collec-tion of his best albums dubbed in Hindi. 8220;The idea is to give India the best of Bangla rock. The lyrics will be in Hindi, yet it will retain the original feel and passion of Bangla music.8221; In fact, it is the handicap of language that has prevented Bangla rock from gaining credence in India, laments James. 8220;Pakistani bands do not have a language bar-rier like we do,8217;8217; he says. But if his success is anything to go by, James has no reason to worry about barriers.