Prabhudutta Pradhan : The making of Rangabati

Prabhudutta Pradhan is the music composer of the all time great Sambalpuri song “Rangabati”. He was born during the pre-independence era of India to a family who were converted to Christians three generations back. His father Late Pravas Chandra Pradhan was working as a head clerk in the Forest Department of Odisha. As early as at the age of three years Prabhudutta started learning music under the mentorship of his father. He was assigned by his father to sing bhajans or the Hindu religious songs at home. He is educated only up to Matriculation i.e. Class 10^th and never seen the entrance gate of any colleges. Later he went to Banaras in Uttar Pradesh to learn playing of Indian music instrument tabla from Padmashree Pandit Jadunath Supkar. In the year 1969 he joined All India Radio(AIR) at Sambalpur station as an instrumentalist at a monthly salary of Ra.216/- only. In the studio he was playing ethnic Indian music instruments like dhol, dholak, mandal, tabla, sanchar and mrudung. He was sincere towards his work as if music is a passion. His wife  Arati Pradhan says, every night her husband use to play tabla seating near the bed till 1’O clock in the mid night. His riyaj (practice) of tabla in the dead of the night not only disturbed her sleep, but use to ward off any ghosts if roaming in the periphery.

[Rangabati original video]

But it was only in the year 1975 he got a breakthrough when he composed the music for Rangabati song. The script of this song was written by Mitrabhanu Gauntia. It was sung by Jitendra Haripal in the male voice, while the female voice was lent by Krishna Patel. In this chart buster song Prabhudatta directed pancha badya (five musical instruments i.e. dhol, nishan, tasha, muhuri and jhanj). During the year 2003 he retired from Akashbani or All India Radio. 

Seventies and eighties of the last Century was the era when the consumer market was yet to be flooded with the tape recorders. Radio transmission was the sole succor for the music lovers. People were rejoicing when so ever Rangabati song was transmitted in the radio. Rangabati is unarguably the most popular folk song of Western Odisha for the past forty years. In the year 2007 Rangabati song was played in the tableau of Odisha as part of the Republic Day celebrations at Rajpath of New Delhi.

[Odisha Sangreet Natak Academy Award, 2002]

But copying the popular songs is not something new to the music industry. Over the past seven decades many big battles were fought in Bollywoood over the infringement of copyrights. Likewise in the recent past Oriya music industry erupted with the release of a new version of Sambalpuri song “Rangabati”. We have witnessed this chart buster was copied by the newly groomed genre of Oriya music industry of eastern Odisha. It is highly disgusting to watch the remake of "Rangabati". One who copy the things from other will never be able to progress in life. It marks the end of his/her career. A copy cat will be addicted to easy way out to gain the quick name and fame. And he/she will lose the creativity in their work. If you are an artist let whatever your discipline may it be, you need to keep alive your originality. Once you copy the work of others, than you would never be able to retrieve in your career.

 [Felicitation by the Chief Minister of Odisha Mr.Naveen Pattnaik]

Even in Olympic Games they play an anthem along with the music so as to unite the whole world. But this new version of Rangabati divided our state Odisha. There was uproar in the entire length and breadth of Western parts of Odisha. The Rangabati song that was sang by Sona Mohapatra was a distortion of the original song. People of West Odisha condemned the copy version of Rangabati saying it’s a Kutkia song. 

                    

[Felicitation by the then Deputy Prime Minister L.K.Advani.
Could be seen Union Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj on the right]

On showing the Mtv Coke Studio song of Rangabati to Deba Bariha a tribal person of Barpali he sharply reacts to the remix song saying “e Katkia mane kana bujhbe Sambalpuri, tankar buar dine kebe gana gaithile kaen”. He says the remix has been made with the word “he ranga, he ranga, ranga ranga re”. And it tantamount to calling a transgender in an unacceptable way.  Seldom Ram Sampath is aware that in Koshali language the word “ranga” refers to  a transgender. Pradyumna Tripathy a Congress leader of Barpali combat saying Rangabati is a folk song, but what was the need to remix it with the patriotic punch line of “bande Utkala jananai, bande Utkala jananai”.

On the other hand Biswajit Pradhan who works as a Team Leader with Mindtree at Bangalore sharply expresses his views. He says “The original song of Rangabati has got just 92,000 views, whereas the dubious version of Sona Mahapatra’s song garnered hundred times more at around 97,00,000+ page hits. But Youtube is not a yardstick to measure the success rate of Sona Mahapatra’s Rangabati song”.

On questioning Prabhudutta Pradhan the music composer of the original track, he says over the forty years things have drastically changed. The new generation tend to love the songs that are sang with a vulgar language (aslila bhasa). Softly he says, at the age of 73 whom should I fight with. He points out, in Sambalpuri language there is no pronunciation of the word “la”, where as Sona Mohapatra sang it as “laijauche matha go”. It should have been “naijauche matha”. He appeals to the new generation to work hard on innovating new skills in their own field of art, instead of copying from others. He appeals to every artist to create just one song at par with the standards that has been set while making Rangabati, so as to accomplish a fulfilled life. 

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