Ever since a brand new artist named Suman Chatterjee, freshly returned from Germany, stormed the Calcutta music scene with an album of Bengali modem songs entitled Tomake Chai ("I Want You") a few years ago, Calcutta's modern song scene has been abuzz.  Suman has gone on to record more songs -- written, scored, sung and arranged by him, all informed with a characteristic deep social consciousness. The lyrics, which are satirical, critical, deeply romantic and even comic, have seen scores of imitators in the subsequent years.

Suman's primary training was in Indian classical music; he adds to this his deep awareness and appreciation of western musical styles, formed during his 14-year stay in the USA and Germany as a broadcast journalist. The themes of  Suman's songs -- accompanied by guitar -- encapsulate life in Calcutta, with its daily tragedies, triumphs and trivialities. Local and universal at the same time, Suman has made the guitar an utterly natural accompaniment to Bengali songs, just like he has made ordinary language -- peppered by English words and phrases -- the natural mode of expression in today's music.