Raatbhore (1956)

Raatbhore (1956) stands out in Salil Chowdhury’s career due to its unusual production circumstances. While Salil composed all the songs, he did not compose the background score, which was created instead by two of his close associates and admirers—Anal Chatterjee and Abhijeet Banerjee. This makes the film one of only two instances where Salil did not handle the background music himself (the other being Vivekananda).

The lyrics, written entirely by Gouriprasanna Mazumdar, complement the deeply emotional and reflective tone of the film. The song “Dukher Seemaa Naai”, sung by Satinath Mukherjee, is particularly striking. Salil later reused this melody in the film Mowchor (1985), where it was sung by Manna Dey. Despite the later version’s polish, many listeners still prefer Satinath’s original emotional depth in this film.

The soundtrack as a whole features strong vocal performances—especially from Sandhya Mukherjee and Shyamal Mitra—cementing the film’s place as a noteworthy yet often overlooked entry in Salil’s Bengali repertoire.