Jagoraner Gaan - Collection of awakening songs to be unveiled

Cultural organization Jagoran Sangskriti and Gobeshona Kendra is going to launch today a collection of patriotic songs that inspired the freedom fighters during the nation’s war of liberation and the people in different movements in the country.

The launching ceremony of the collection of 71 inspirational songs in six compact discs and titled Jagoroner Gaan (songs of upraise), will be held at the Shikha Chironton of Suhrawardy Uddyan through a day long cultural programme.

The organizers will also honour 41 cultural personalities of the country for their contribution to Gana Sangeet (people’s songs) and creating inspiring the people during the liberation war and in different movements.

Information minister Abul Kalam Azad will be the chief guest and veteran gana sangeet singer Ajit Roy will be the special guest at the inauguration ceremony at 10:00am.

Agriculture minister Motia Chowdhury and housing and public works’ state minister Abdul Mannan Khan will be the chief guest and special guest respectively at the second session to begin at 4:00pm.

Among the 41 lyricists and music directors to be honoured, 19 will be awarded posthumously. They are Abdul Latif, Satyen Sen, Khan Ataur Rahman, Shamsuddin, Makshud Ali Shai, Shahidullah Kaiser, Sekndar Abu Jafar, Badrul Hasan, Abul Kashem Swandip, Shahidul Saber, Abul Umrah Fakruddin, Fazal-e-Khoda, Shahidul Islam, Sheikh Lutfor Rahman, Sukhendu Chakrabarty, Altaf Mahmood, Samar Das, Anwar Parvez, and Mostofa Wahid Khan.

The others to be honoured at the programme are : Ajit Roy, Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury, Apel Mahmud, Gazi Mazharul Anwar, Nayeem Gowhar, Rahat Khan, Abu Bakar Seddiqui, Mostafizur Rahman, Ali Mohsin Raja, Kazi Rozi, Akhter Hussain, Ferdous Hossain Bhuiyan, Matlub Ali, Azad Rahman, Abdul Jabber, Khademul Islam Basunia, Sujey Shayam, Alauddin Ali, Shawkat Hayat Khan, Mainul Islam Khan, Kamal Lohani and Mahmud Selim.

Some 42 singers have rendered their voices for the album while Amit Bandopaddya has directed the music for the compilation.

The organisation has taken the initiative to catalogue and preserve hundreds of revolutionary songs that have accompanied the history of the region and selected 71 compositions from the list.

The Jagoran Sangskriti and Gobeshona Kendra’s Mahmud Selim, who is also the supervisor of the album, told that, ‘We have been working for the last two and half years to compile the works and we had initially selected 110 songs from which we took 71 songs as the digit is significant to the life of Bangladeshis and signifying the year of the liberation war.’

The compilation costing Tk 500 will be available at the music stores from tomorrow while two caravans sponsored by mobile operator Banglalink will travel around the country to promote the Jagoroner Gaan for the next two months.