INNER WORLD

Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta hardly needs any introduction to the present-day Bengali audience.

A Kolkatan from the core of her heart, she was born with a musical ear, being the daughter of Late Sri Pabitra Dasgupta, lecturer of Marris Music College and Smt. Subrota Dasgupta, a pupil of Sri Debabrata Biswas, a legendary singer of Tagore songs. Swagatalakshmi as a famous Rabindra Sangeet singer does not need an extra recognition. She is already established in the hearts of the millions due to her exceptional tonal quality and singing capability. It is Swagatalakshmi’s voice that shows an outstanding chemistry of lyrics and tunes of Rabindra Sangeet. It delivers an outward sensation to us.

With a classical resonance infused in her bloodline, Swagatalakshmi completed her M.A. in Music from Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata. Later she turned into a maestro in Rabindra Sangeet under the tutelage of Smt. Maya Sen.

She served at the ‘Rabindra Bharati University’ as a lecturer and continued that service for several years. Presently she is busy with teaching music to her hundreds of disciples.

In 1985, in a major national level music contest named as ‘All India Singing Talent Contest’, Swagatalakshmi competed with hundreds of talents from all over India and came out first in front of the legendary musical personalities like Naushad, Kalayanji and others. This can be treated as a turning point in her life , which in fact to some extent has a role to force her choose music as her profession and of course as her life.

On Tagore Songs: Ekla Geetabitan: The veracity of her tremendous quality is best exhibited through her rendering of 2023 songs of the world famous muse. On the 75th year of the publication of ‘Geetabitan’, consisting of 2023 tuned songs of Rabindranath Tagore, Smt. Dasgupta has rendered the entire ‘Geetabitan’ into 64 volumes of CD in a period of three and half months. The ceremonial release of the CD album named ‘Ekla Geetabitan’ had taken place on the 8th of August, 2006 which coincided with the auspicious ‘Baaishe Shraavan’, the day marking Tagore’s death anniversary. The epoch-making monumental work has been completed in 105 days, which would be a useful guide for researchers on Tagore music. This is an arduous task and it requires a Spartan endurance, Herculean fortitude of the mind and the agility of the brain and heart. Here she successfully proved herself as the worthy preceptor; it shows her labor is not lost. And her voice sounds echoing in the heart ‘long after it was heard no more’.

Ramayana: Swagatalakshmi claims versatility in producing a musical extravaganza ‘The Ramayana’, conceptualized on 40 songs of Tagore. She gave a proper justice to those songs, keeping in mind the greatness of the epic. Through her deep weaving power, she jotted down all the songs and penned the dialogues that might come closer to this mythical melodrama and narrate the other different testimonial accounts of this famous epic.

DingDong: A film for children directed by Chinmoy Roy, where she contributed as a lyricist and composer for the music. As a composer she has given birth to more than 50 songs of different tastes. Her experiment with Indian classical, semi-classical, western classical, fusion music and modern songs has given her creations a separate identity. Literary Creations: Very few people know about the literary creations of Swagatalakshmi. So far 3 of her books on poetries and songs are published with the titles as ‘Jhaapsa Holo Taapoor Toopoor’, ‘Duoranir Chithi’ and ‘Aakasher Gaan’. Music Albums: Till date more than 130 audio CDs have been released.

USA : Attended the ‘Banga Sanskriti Sammelan’ in USA in 2000 and 2003. UK : Invited by the ‘Tagoreans’ to perform in UK in 1989, 1990, 2003. Belgium : Invited by the ‘Tagoreans’ to perform in Belgium in 1990. Canada : Attended the ‘Canadian Banga Sammelan’ in Canada in 2004 Organized by the ‘Bengali Association of Canada’ , Kuwait : Performed in Kuwait in the cultural function arranged by the “Bengali Association of Kuwait’ in 2004 Performed a Bengali program in BBC, London in 1989. Performed in the Indian Parliament in the year of 1995.

‘Pramathesh Baruah Award’ for best female performance in 1995 ‘Uttam Kumar Award’ for best Rabindra Sangeet Cassette (Esechho Prem) in 1997 ‘Sailajaranjan Award’ in 1998 ‘Dishari (Film Journalist Award)’ for best female playback in 1998-99 ‘Anandolok Award’ as best Female Playback Singer in 1998, 2002, 2003 ‘Cha-Cha-Cha Award’ for outstanding achievement in music for the decade 1990-99 ‘Millennium Kalakar Award’ for outstanding contribution in Indian Music ‘Zee Bangla’ television award ‘Bharat Nirman Award’