The Alchemist

Angaraag Mahanta a.k.a Papon is an upcoming singer-composer- musician par excellence whose Jonaki Raati (Starry Night), a melodious album of eight offbeat songs, hit the stores in 2004 leaving an indelible mark in the minds and hearts of many music lovers. A musical maestro in the making, Angaraag is a regular guy round-the-block, unreserved, companionable and easy to get along with. He likes to live life to the fullest, loves music, travelling, and partying with his friends. A bohemian by spirit, he and his music are beyond conventional confines and follow a bent of their own. Classical and devotional music founding his musical origin, and exposure to the electronic inflections of the urban musical scene, renders Angaraag's music the kind of hybridization that the new millennium is open to. Keeping both the sides of the coin at his power – folk and modern, he is here to create ripples in new age music with his melodies.

The red-and-white Assam-type house in a quiet bye lane in Zoo Road doesn't give a first-timer the impression that it houses a family of musical majesty. But as a matter of fact it does. Bihu Samrat, Khagen Mahanta, classical singer, Archana Mahanta and their son, Angaraag Mahanta, may live it simple but they surely know their way into the musical world.

Angaraag – the name invariably resounds with music! Having a musical background by virtue of his illustrious parents, it appears to be a natural decision on his part to choose music as his life's journey. But initially he had other plans in mind. A flair for sketching his imaginations led Papon inevitably to the world of architecture which was his first dream. After he schooled out of KendriyaVidyalay, Khanapara, Angaraag went to Delhi , in pursuit of his dream to be an architect. But words of encouragement into realizing his nascent talent in music by his cousin, and timely recognition of this ultimate passion by a fortunate encounter with the band, Indian Ocean were the seeds behind the reality of Angaraag Mahanta today.

But as they say, “Better late than never”, finding his true vocation might have taken a while, (it came about towards the end of his graduation days) but for Papon it was surely welcome. Quitting architecture for which he had actually gone to Delhi , followed a perfunctory degree of English (Hons.) from Motilal Nehru College, New Delhi, accompanied by leisure-time ‘jamming' with friends. This was when he happened to meet the Indian Ocean artists who encouraged his latent talent that worked its way to inspiring this musical progeny to fuse into the family culture he had always been part of. This was when, his childhood training in Indian classical, traditional Vaishnavite devotional and folk music at home, showed magical wonders.

Setting up a computer from a friend, he began his musical career by making jingles for commercials – LML, Whirlpool, Bajaj and others — further moving onto more professional stuff, like doing music for animation and wildlife documentaries, while constantly jamming out with his pals. And it was in one of these jamming sessions that he came across a melody that later took the shape of the title track of Jonaki Raati. Surprisingly the song didn't surface for three years. A casual attempt at putting words into a melody that came out in a non-serious jamming of Papon and pals, created a song that impressed and amazed the renowned musician Aniruddha Barua. His appreciation gave the oblivious artist the impetus to take, penning his own lyrics seriously. Further, a liaison with his Koka or Jethu, the Sahitya Akademi-award winning lyricist, Keshav Mahanta, in this growing on the passion of music was a blessing. The fruit of these efforts is Jonaki Raati which became widely popular among Assamese music lovers.

From there on, Papon has moved onto greater heights coming up with another surprise – a Bihu album, Rongphul, in collaboration with his father. The album has a really traditional flavour keeping with the original style of Bihugeet that breaks away from the ongoing trends of Bihu songs that we hear today. “The kind of throwing we have, the kind of phonetics, the words…we need not make it Hindi to make it popular… we can just go like this and bomb the world if we do it the traditional way”, says Papon, who has had the experience of performing Bihu for the NAZ Foundation Trust, a charity group for AIDS, and rocking the concert with the original Bihu beats. “The new generation is not getting the real taste of Bihu”, he says. He further adds, “If I do (Bihu) at all I'll do traditional” because he believes that it is the only way we can conserve the originality of Bihu.

Apart from vernacular music, Angaraag has also made his way into Bollywood (though not in a commercial mainstream manner) with the title track of Let's Enjoy, has accompanied Zubeen in Strings and has had the privilege of making a track for Yun Hota Toh Kya Hota directed by Naseeruddin Shah. He has also made music for The Last Monk , which was featured at the OSIAN show in 2006. Apart from this, he has acted in an Assamese serial called Henguli Aakaash (The Vermilion Sky) directed by Gautam Bora, the title track of which has also been made by him. He likes listening to Fuzon, Raahat, Abeeda Parveen, Hariharan, and Zubeen and ardently admires A.R. Rahman's arrangement of music. What does he think about Zubeen? – “Awesome…he's a good friend, a good musician, a good thinker, and a good vocalist, on top of all this. Super vocalist!”

When he's “chilling” he likes to listen to lounge electronica, ambient electronica, old ghazals or jazz. He owns a personal studio called Purple Harmoniks, in Delhi , where he creates his music. “I belong to the fused generation…I am from many, I have many, I am many…I don't have a genre”, he says. And so he prefers his music fused – jazz, electronica, folk and classicalall in a blend. But he doesn't appreciate the idea of too much production in too less time. “There is a limit to everything”, he says. He likes to access his melody through a feeling and then put words into the feeling of the melody; something which takes its own sweet time to grow and develop. Electronica is the growing fancy of new age Indian musicians and they are living unto their passion for it with their international fraternity too. Papon, another enthusiast of the new genre, has performed at the three-day festival of The Shalom Peace Concert held at Laidback Waters last year, along with indigenous and international talents of the genre electronica, like Jalebee Cartel, Midival Punditz, Karsh Kale, Vishal Vaid, Ma Faiza, J Views and the renowned veterans like Ustad Sultan Khan and Ghulam Ali.

His inspiration – Nature. “The fact that there is a hill to go to…is absolutely awesome… I know that even if the whole world goes against me, I can always go to the hills and start a new life.” He's a complete nature person – “I fall in love every February even if there is no one around…with the butterflies, trees, and flowers.”

Another inspiration is his musical guru, (previously his mother's guru), Animesh Dutta, the man who recognized Papon's musical bent at an early age, and to whom he has dedicated his album, Jonaki Raati . His parents, sister, wife and his friends, have also been a great support throughout the shaping of his musical career. Angaraag's wife, Shweta has been a designer of home accessories and is now a production manager for an American fashion house in Delhi for India and China . “We are two totally separate people staying together. But we have some grounds which are common, which are beautiful ones”, comments Papon about his wife. (Angaraag presently stays in 79, Pocket 4, Mayur Vihar, Phase 1, Delhi , with his wife and occasionally comes home to Guwahati.)

Does he believe in aliens? – “I don't deny…I am a believer…but then it keeps changing…yeah I kind of believe that if we have found a planet and we have survived in this whole big galaxy…its quite possible that someone must also have found some other planet…”

Has he had any paranormal experience? – He has done various kinds of things like séance, though it didn't really work out. But he was scared of ghosts as a child which he did away with, by sitting in a graveyard all by himself. Besides this he claims to have had the experience of feeling a spiritual presence around him that didn't seem to be harmful or haunting, rather of a kind that we call ‘good' spirits.

Any new project coming up? – Yes…he's working on a Hindi ghazal album, composed over lush electronic textures, inspired by nature and the outdoor life. He's also going to accompany Anoushka Shankar for her new album and will play together with The Midival Punditz for their third album. He's also planning to go to New Zealand for a jazz concert, towards August this year.

What would he have been if he wasn't a singer? – “I'd have been a travelguide”, he instantly replies. He loves trekking, bird-watching (he even follows a bird-watcher's guidebook), traveling up to the Himalayan villages, and he occasionally puts up in a village headman's house for many days. Sometimes he also takes his friends up for travelling and trekking in the hills. He's even planning to set up a home up in the hills in future, from where he envisages composing his music; his artful soul finding city life too claustrophobic.

His philosophy of life – Live for the moment. “Let's take life as a party…but then let's be responsible about where we party, which is this planet.” He's very disturbed by the way trees are being felled, and is alarmed by the gradually affected environment that is endangering our planet. “We're losing trees; we're losing glaciers…which is going to affect us very soon. If we can use lesser cars…if we can stop leaving the tap open, if we can avoid the AC, if we didn't throw the garbage everywhere…if we can look into these things really consciously and do the effort…then we can party longer and harder”, adds the nature lover.

The present musical scenario of Assam dominated by a few iconic figures needs a difference – in style and treatment,

while reaching out to the new-age music lovers. In this endeavour, only a handful of musicians cannot provide sustenance to our varying tastes. The covert has to be unearthed, the unprecedented delved into. At the same time, the rich cultural heritage of our glorious past needs to be preserved. The youth of today may listen to music, all and sundry, but it is also aware of what we call cultural identity, and therefore open to everything that identifies who or what it is and belongs to. In this arena, Angaraag's attempt at treasuring our original threads of harmony and his experimentation with world music, can turn a native strain into a global genre. The alchemist, it seems still has a long musical journey to undertake, but with the pride in being an Assamese and more so an Indian, going strong at heart, and the determination to be himself, no matter what, Angaraag has all the potential to conquer the world. We wish him all the success in life!

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