Raichand Boral

Raichand Boral was an Indian composer who composed music primarily in Hindi and Bengali languages. He was considered by the experts in music as the father of Bollywood film music. He received awards twice in 1978. Firstly he won the dadasaheb Phalke award which is the highest award that a person belonging to the industry can receive and is given by the government of India.

Secondly, he received an award from the Sangeet Natak Akademi which is India's national academy of drama, music, and dance. Raichand Boral was born on 19th October 1903 in Bhagalpur, Bengal during the British rule. He was born to rai Chand Boral who was also a classical musician and was an expert in dhrupad. Raichand was Lal Chand’s youngest son.

He learned sath Sangat and attended several music conferences held in different cities like Allahabad, Banaras, and Lucknow. He has been also regarded as one of the pioneers of film music. He worked as an in charge of the music department called new theatres along with Pankaj Mullick. Raichand also shaped the budding musician Saigal's career and was titled as the Bhishma pitama of film music by Anil Biswas.

Raichand started his career in 1927 by joining the newly established Indian broadcasting company. In 1931, he joined new theatres for performing live shows on its stage. While working here, he changed the ghazal singing of north India into Bengali tunes with the help of string instrument. Playback singing was introduced in 1935 through the movie dhoop chhaon.

His last successful picture while working in new theatres was anjangarh in 1948. He moved to Bombay in 1953 and composed music with lataji's song for the picture card e dil. He has composed and directed music for around 75 movies including silent films as well. He has composed music for songs of two languages, Bengali and Hindi. Raichand is an acclaimed Indian composer, and his grandson babul supriyo is also a noted playback singer.

The Hindi movies for which he has directed music includes Mohabbat Ke ansu, Zinda lash, subah ka Sitara, Puran Bhagat, dulari bibi, Daku Mansoor, dhoop chhaon, mazil, president, vidyapati, haar jeet, jawani Ki reet, street singer, wapas, saughand, Lagaan, sapera, pehlaadmi, and Amar Saigal.

The Bengali pictures for which he made music are Dena paona, Palli Samaj, Raj Rani Meera, excuse me sir, debdas, didi, sathi, parajay, maa, paritran, etc. Unfortunately, raichand died on 25th November 1981 in Kolkata, West Bengal.