Kaushiki Chakraborty and Shantanu Moitra to launch their new music series Pankh on July 11

The Hindu

26-06-2025

The idea came on a boat in Benaras. While music director Shantanu Moitra and renowned Hindustani vocalist Kaushiki Chakraborty were shooting for the song 'Bhagirathi' from the 2022 series Songs Of The River – Ganga, they realised that looking at land from a river offered a different view. The composer says, 'I thought it could make a great concept for a story. One thing led to another, and we felt we could actually create songs and also tell the stories behind them.'
The result is Pankh, an album-cum-web series. It contains six songs sung by Kaushiki over six episodes, which also have her explaining what and who inspired the songs, and how they were created. The series will be released on her YouTube channel and will mark Shantanu's debut as director and Kaushiki as lyricist.
'Baithi Hoon', the first track of Pankh is written by her. The last one, 'Tarana', has also been penned by Kaushiki with help from Delhi-based lyricist Abhipsha Deb. The other songs have been written by Swanand Kirkire, Abhipsha and Tanveer Ghazi. Pankh is being launched with a concert at Mumbai's Royal Opera House on July 11. According to Kaushiki, a 12-city tour is being planned, with some shows in the U.S. later.
Shantanu says he has been thinking of recording something elaborate with Kaushiki ever since they collaborated on the song 'Lagi lagi' in MTV Coke Studio Season 2. 'That was more than 12 years ago. As a composer, I knew I could do a lot of things with her voice. We both had ideas on what to do next but couldn't proceed because of our busy schedules. But when we shot 'Bhagirathi' on a boat along with violinist Ambi Subramaniam in the middle of the night, the idea of doing an album occurred.'
Shantanu says his experience of working in films with directors Shyam Benegal, Sudhir Mishra and Vidhu Vinod Chopra made him believe all art needs perspective. He adds, 'I didn't want to just put these songs out, I wanted to tell a story. That is where the idea of a web series came from. On a lighter note, because we didn't have budgets, I became the director myself.'
Kaushiki points out that Pankh has given her a totally new vision of art. 'Coke Studio was a totally different experience for me because I come from an environment of tanpuras, sarangis, gurus, sishyas, taleem and riyaaz. But one thing I have been taught is to be a good student. If I am put in a new space, I am willing to learn. When Shantanu came up with this idea, I was ready to do something new.'
The singer says that moving from a individual space, she began to understand how a group of musicians can have fun and learn from each other while creating music. 'I realised there is no right or wrong in music. It's about expressing yourself and finding your true narrative. If music is a language, the language on its own is not complete. We learn the what and how of music, but not the why. It's in this why of music that we discover many stories. The six songs are about different subjects, but are about things that Shantanu and I have experienced.'
The track 'Baithi Hoon' is an outcome of one of Shantanu's visit to Kashmir. 'He met a poet there, whose wife kept staring at anyone who came home. This was because their son had gone missing and nobody knew about his fate. Moved by their plight, Shantanu composed a tune inspired by thumri. Though I had never written a song, I decided to write this one after listening to Shantanu's experience,' says Kaushiki.
The song 'Nayi bhor', penned by Abhipsha, is a tribute to four musicians who have inspired the singer — her guru and the legendary tabla artiste Jnan Prakash Ghosh, tabla wizard Ustad Zakir Hussain and Shubhankar Banerjee, also a tabla exponent, and vocalist Rashid Khan. The third episode is about the bond she shares with her father and guru Ajoy Chakrabarty. It is told as a story and leads to the song 'Mere suron mein', written by Tanveer Ghazi.
In the fourth episode, Kaushiki talks about her son Rishith, and how she approaches both motherhood and her role as a guru, leading to the Swanand Kirkire-penned 'Chand sakha re'. The last two episodes are about Shantanu's approach to composing, summed up in a complex piece he has created.
Pankh features Rickraj Nath on the guitar, Rahul Wadhwani and Archit Shah on the keyboards, Mehtab Ali Niazi on the sitar, ID Rao on the saxophone, Ralph Menezes on the bass, Pratik Srivatsva on the sarod, Vaibhav Wavikar on the drums, Sridhar Parthasarathy on the mridangam and Khurram Ali Niazi on the tabla. Smit Ruparel is the sound engineer.
As a director, Shantanu says he kept an open script for each episode. 'I wasn't dealing with actors. So while I had an idea of how each episode should be shot, I let the musicians be as they normally are while recording. Some things happened impromptu. I was more like a shepherd who said this is the direction we can take, and this is the route we should avoid.'
Kaushiki says some of the episodes are autobiographical since it's about the life she has lived so far and the way she foresees it.