“…. এ হৃদয় দপ্তর পালটাচ্ছে না / অবসর নেওয়া যাচ্ছে না / ফুটেছে হাসনুহানা”

“…. E hridoy daptar paltachhe na / oboshor newa jachhe na / futechhe hasnuhana”

(“This heart refuses to change address, / No retirement seems possible— / Hasnuhana has bloomed.”)

– Hasnuhana, Fossils

While Bengal has traditionally had vibrant lyrical traditions – from Vaishnav bhajans and Baul mysticism to Rabindra Sangeet and Jatra – a radical change in musical form can be seen in the 1970s when Bangla or Bengali rock emerged. This musical phenomenon evolved as a type of rock, representing urban disillusionment, youth identity, and poetically dissenting voices. It turned music into a creative form of cultural commentary. Unlike Western rock, Bengali rock referenced, developed, and built on rock music through its experiences, language, and ethos. Drawn from the sounds of the streets, coffee shops, and campus life of Kolkata, Bengali rock was a form of local protest and creative resistance. Bengali rock became not only a mode of musical innovation, but a socio-political statement.

In this article, each song is connected with a YouTube link of the songs to give the readers a taste of marvellous creations by Bengali Rock Bands.

Moheener Ghoraguli and the Ghosts of the City

Bengali rock emerged in the late ’60s and ’70s amid growing turmoil, networks of confrontation, intellectual

renaissance, artists and their practices were at an ideological threshold to new realities, the programmatic and structural revolutionary movements in Bengal—the Naxalite movement and revolts by students, also the aftermath of the Bangladesh Liberation War—created an underpinning of anger and insight, that Bengali Rock articulated, sensibly.

Moheener Ghoraguli (established without a form and out of a swerve in 1975) come to be known as the first Bengali rock band, or one of the first Indian bands inspired enough with Western styles to rehearse it in the context of theirs. Drawn to Bob Dylan, and jazz, the Baul folk trait was enough for them to bind it and bring it in to existence, to improvise inspired through experience, in fact it even had a coined descriptor in “Baul-jazz”, or “urban Baul”. The albums that they released (Shangbigno Pakhikul O Kolkata Bishayak 1977) included saxophone riffs and poetic lyrics on human vexation, existential questioning and alienation and disenfranchisement of life in urbanity.

Much further and limited still from mainstream cultural popularity but rhetorical and cynical fictional reality was theirs to enjoy. Some admirers at the time suggested that Baul jazz had coined a new genre, which sold poorly at best, and sat on the fringes of pop in publications of silence, in stone-throwing protest against their commercial appropriation of rock.

 

Mic Met the Madman: Pub Lights, College Fest, and the Smell of Kerosene

After Moheener Ghoraguli ceased to exist in the 1980s, there was a period of stasis. However, by the 1990s, there was a resurgence in Bengali rock, louder, bolder, and even more experimental. During this time, several bands emerged that would soon be considered giants of the genre:

Krosswindz (1990)

They paved the way for river-like styles that flowed between sacred and street music. By melding jazz, blues, and Indian classical they put together a sound that incorporated the meditative energy of folk with improvisational forms from Western musics. Jhiko Jhiko Kori Re, Ghum Bhaange, Kaache Eso, etc. are some of their creations.

Cactus (1992)

Cactus came along and introduced surrealism to Bangla rock. Their songs were sonic puzzles – psychedelic, socially sharp, and unapologetically avant-garde. Brishti became more than a melody, it turned into an aural mood of monsoon. Other songs include Halud Pakhi, Sudhu Tumi Ele Na, Tumio Bojho Amio Bujhi, etc.

Fossils (1998)

This band brought the storm to Bengali rock. With Rupam Islam as the frontman their hard rock ballads like Hasnuhana and Dyakho Manoshi channeled pain, rage, and urban rebellion, creating catharsis in concert.

Lakkhichhara (1999)

Lakkhichhara introduced a sense of balance; melodic rock built on hooks that had great melodies and serious philosophical undertones. They captured a form of critical art that balanced FM radio appeal with artistic depth. Kemon Achho Sohor, Ke Ki Bole, Jibon Chaiche Aro Beshi, etc. are their widely listened creations.

Chandrabindoo

Chandrabindoo offered a soft rock satire of middle-class experiences, where their song lyrics felt humorous yet haunting, reading like overheard conversations on Kolkata buses. Their famous compositions include Geet Gobindo, Bhindeshi Tara, Eita Tomar Gaan, Roga Bolo Na, etc. Several albums that became a hit are Juju, Gadha, Ebhabeo Phire Asha Jaye, etc.

Bhoomi

Bhoomi encased themselves within folk nostalgia, making songs like Barandaye Roddur into an urban sentimentality of rural memory.

Shonar Bangla Circus (Bangladesh)

They brought the cross-domain/neo twin flame of Bengali rock, where performance poetry, Dadaist aesthetics, and contemporary chaos found a home.

These bands ultimately transformed not just the existing musical landscape, but created a Bengali youth culture defined by pub gigs in the form of cassettes, colleges festivals, and televised music performances.
Environments such as Someplace Else in Park Street and the development of music festivals such as Band-e-Mataram created a spilling ground for musical innovation.

Motifs: Pain, Protest, Madness, and Metaphor

Bengali rock cannot be reduced to the simplistic origins and underlying cultural history. Bengali rock unites itself with sound and meaning. It is more than a music genre, it is an aesthetic philosophy frameworks typical to the literary, political and spiritual components of Bengali traditions.

Notable recurring themes included:

Existentialism: Lyrics address typical aspects of existentialism like life, death, identity in a fragmented modern world causing general angst.

Urban Loneliness: Experiencing city life, specifically in Kolkata, creates a sense of isolation (e.g. Prithibi ta naki chhoto hote hote by Moheener Ghoraguli or Ei Srabon by Cactus).

Resistance and Non-conformity: The mouthpiece of protest can be found in songs like Fossils’ Hasnuhana or Lakkhichhara’s Care Korina; used to openly question social expectations and mental health caricaturing.

Folk Fusion: Many bands use Baul folk instruments (i.e. ektara, dotara, khamak) to access Bengal’s folk traditions and re-invigorate its spiritual essence within an electric music space.

All of these themes within the lyrics and music demonstrate that Bengali rock is a powerful communication cultural force rather than just a music genre that negotiates between tradition and modernity.

Hasnuhana in the Pandal

Bengali rock has entered a more popular realm of culture. The Bengali rock scene has reached movies, television, street festivals and political rallies; it exists as more than a music space.

Moheener Ghoraguli’s songs have made their ways into film. Prithibi ta naki was played in the film Gangster (2006) and introduces a new audience to the Ghoraguli legacy; the song Bheegi Bheegi in this film is the Hindi version of Prithibi ta naki. Bengali rock has emerged as a versatile agent of cultural modernity, bridging traditional and contemporary performance moments. The growing occurrences of rock in Durga Puja pandals, featuring bands, such as Fossils, Chandrabindoo, and Bhoomi, depict how rock has become internalised within Bengal’s ritualised public culture, accompanied by a genre-space in festivals formerly inhabited by classical or devotional adaptations of public song. Encounters across borders— with the band Shonar Bangla Circus from Bangladesh— demonstrate how Bengali rock can contribute towards shared linguistic and cultural soundscape across political spaces. Furthermore, television programming from shows, such as MTV Rock On, music festivals from events like NH7 Weekender, and new streaming contexts have burgeoned the growth of hybrid bands like Bolepur Bluez from Durgapur, who one example of hybridisation accelerated in recent years through Baul mysticism and an electricity. Today, wider interactions with Bengali rock reverberate through domains of pubs, amusement parks, stadiums, protest marches, the village and online platforms, account for resistance and re-invention.

Somewhere, Someone’s Still Writing Verse in Distortion

Bengali rock has evolved from the alleyways of Kolkata in the 1970s to the music revolution of today’s digital world. Bengali rock continues as a means of expression of Bengal’s plural, poetic, and defiant identity, reflecting the quest of suffusing the baul with a soul in search of something, the restless student, the long-lost poet, and the challenging performance artist. Bengali rock is steeped in local identity, while it continues to construct and reconstruct, negotiate and renegotiate, mediate and remediate a global identity in the form of a living and fluid musical voice. In this context, the song by Moheener Ghoraguli gains a resonance:

(“The world keeps shrinking, / Gripped by satellites and cables, / Inside the idiot box in the drawing room”

As the world sinks into a quagmire of satellites and cable, we are seduced into believing that enlightenment is held in the luminous rectangle of the drawing room television. Moheener Ghoraguli’s lyric gently satirises this illusion in a way that reveals how technology conceals a spiritual vacuum and connection is not always consciousness or communion.

Bengali rock is not a relic, but a living cultural touchstone. As long as there is a stage, a street, or a spirit, the ektara will continue to echo, only now amplified with electric riffs and rebellious lyrics.

References

Ghosh, G. (2012). Moheener Ghoraguli o Bangla Rock-er Itihas. Kolkata: Abhijan Publishers.

In the 1970s, India’s First Rock Band Was Born in the Backyard of a Kolkata Home” – The Better India (June 18, 2021)
https://www.thebetterindia.com/257125/moheener-ghoraguli-indias-first-rock-band-bengali-music-bollywood-commercial-songs-gautam-chattopadhya-gaurab-chatterjee-kolkata-music-history-div200/

 

“Exploring the Socio‑Musical Legacy of Moheener Ghoraguli” – Rock Music Studies (2024)
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19401159.2024.2346996

 

“Remembering India’s First Rock Band ‘Moheener Ghoraguli’” – Homegrown (June 2021)
https://homegrown.co.in/homegrown-explore/remembering-indias-first-rock-band-mohiner-ghoraguli

 

Indulge Express. (2022, January 20). A candid chat with Bengali rock band Fossils on their 24th anniversary. https://www.indulgexpress.com/culture/music/2022/Jan/20/fossilshas-secured-its-position-as-one-of-the-most-successful-bengali-rock-bands-of-all-time-by-suc-38619.html

 

The Revolver Club. (2022). Fossils: Kolkata’s Pioneering Hard Rock Band. https://www.therevolverclub.com/blogs/the-revolver-club/fossils-kolkatas-pioneering-hard-rock-band?srsltid=AfmBOorISB3awdKVD71y3KXZ67xyY0-qgwOJ4Hj3ok9aBTaXyqEELSWp

 

Times of India. (2017, Aug 1). Our favourite Bangla band Fossils turns 18. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bengali/music/our-favourite-bangla-band-fossils-turns-18/articleshow/59859924.cms

 

Wikipedia contributors. (2024). Moheener Ghoraguli. Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moheener_Ghoraguli

 

Wikipedia contributors. (2024). Fossils (Band). Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossils_(band)

 

Wikipedia contributors. (2024). Bolepur Bluez. Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolepur_Bluez

 

Moheener Ghoraguli Official Channel. (n.d.). Playlist of albums and concerts. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/c/moheenerghoraguli

 

Fossils (Rupam Islam). (n.d.). Hasnuhana – Official Audio & Video. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt4oU-l0zos

 

Fossils Band. (n.d.). Live Performances Playlist. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3aZ9jEP9D2rMxBfvqX7N1hK8yDwZuJ1j

 

Bolepur Bluez. (2023). Baul-Rock Fusion Band Profile. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_52EZU89XA

 

Bolepur Bluez Live. (2023). Live at Bandra Pujo Concert. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWBSEn6M3Ok