Raichand Boral

Rai Chand Boral, born on 19 October 1903 in Calcutta and passing away on 25 November 1981, was an Indian composer whom music experts often call the Bhishma Pitamah—the founding father of Indian film music. His father, Lal Chand Boral, was a classical musician skilled in Dhrupad, and his grandfather, Nobin Chand Boral, was among the first attorneys at the Calcutta High Court, married to the youngest daughter of the wealthy Hooghly-Calcutta philanthropist Sagarlal Dutta. Rai Chand, the youngest of three sons, learned from visiting musicians from Rampur and Gwalior, including Ustad Mushtaq Hussain Khan, tabla player Masit Khan, and sarod player Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan. He trained in "Sath Sangat" on the tabla and attended music conferences in Lucknow, Allahabad, and Benares.

Boral is widely credited as the pioneer of Indian film music. At New Theatres, he and Pankaj Mullick ran the music department, setting standards that were rarely matched afterward. Their approach shaped early film music and was followed for roughly the first two to three decades of Hindi cinema. Boral also helped launch K.L. Saigal’s career. Composer Anil Biswas referred to Boral as the "Bhishma Pitamah of film music." In 1927, Boral joined the Indian Broadcasting Company at its founding. He moved to New Theatres in 1931, during the silent era, to provide live music for stage shows. He blended the Ghazal singing style of Northern India with 19th-century Bengali tunes using string instruments. In 1935, he featured playback singing in the Hindi film *Dhoop Chhaon* with the song "Main Khush Hona Chahun," though playback singing had already been introduced earlier, with the first playback song generally credited to the 1931 film *Alam Ara*. The song featured an all-women chorus led by Parul Ghosh, along with Suprabha Sarkar and Harimati, in a dance sequence. After moving to Bombay in 1953, he composed music for *Dard-e-Dil* (1953) with Lata Mangeshkar’s songs, and also created music for some basic records. His last notable film with New Theatres was *Anjangarh* (1948). He directed music for 70 to 75 films (excluding live scores for silent movies), including both Hindi and Bengali productions.