Chandrabindoo (often spelled Chandrabindu), based in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

, is a Bengali band known for satirical, colloquial lyrics, with references to current affairs and cultural phenomena. The band is chiefly popular in the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n city of

, and in cities like

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

and

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

that have a large expatriate

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

population.

Name Origin

The band shares its name with the last letter (technically a modifier) of the

Bengali alphabet The Bengali script or Bangla alphabet ( bn, বাংলা বর্ণমালা, ''Bangla bôrṇômala'') is the alphabet used to write the Bengali language based on the Bengali-Assamese script, and has historically been used to w ...

, ◌̐. The name is a reference to a piece of dialogue from

Sukumar Ray Sukumar Ray (; 30 October 1887 – 10 September 1923) was a Bengali writer and poet from the Indian subcontinent. He is remembered mainly for his writings for children. He was the son of children's story writer Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury and ...

's ''হযবরল'' '' HaJaBaRaLa'', a well-known work of

literary nonsense Literary nonsense (or nonsense literature) is a broad categorization of literature that balances elements that make sense with some that do not, with the effect of subverting language conventions or logical reasoning. Even though the most well-k ...

বেড়াল বলল, “বেড়ালও বলতে পার, রুমালও বলতে পার, চন্দ্রবিন্দুও বলতে পার।” আমি বললাম, “চন্দ্রবিন্দু কেন?” শুনে বেড়ালটা “তাও জানো না?” বলে এক চোখ বুজে ফ্যাচ্‌ফ্যাচ্ করে বিশ্রীরকম হাসতে লাগল। আমি ভারি অপ্রস্তুত হয়ে গেলাম। মনে হল, ঐ চন্দ্রবিন্দুর কথাটা নিশ্চয় আমার বোঝা উচিত ছিল। তাই থতমত খেয়ে তাড়াতাড়ি বলে ফেললাম, “ও হ্যাঁ-হ্যাঁ, বুঝতে পেরেছি।” বেড়ালটা খুশি হয়ে বলল, “হ্যাঁ, এ তো বোঝাই যাচ্ছে— চন্দ্রবিন্দুর চ, বেড়ালের তালব্য শ, রুমালের মা— হল চশমা। কেমন, হল তো?”

The cat said "You can call me a cat, or a handkerchief, or even a ''chandrabindoo''". "Why a ''chandrabindoo''?" I asked. "Can't you tell?" said the cat, winking and sniggering in a most irritating way. I was taken aback. Perhaps I ought to have known about the ''chandrabindoo'', I thought. "Ah!" I said quickly. "I understand". "Of course you do,"said the Cat, pleased. "‘''cha''’ for ''chandrabindoo'', ‘''sha''’ for ''birāl'' (cat), and ‘''mā''’ for ''rumāl'' (handkerchief) - that spells ‘''chashma''’(spectacles) Simple, isn't it?"

Early days

The band faced many problems during the production of their first album '' Aar Jani Na'', having to produce their demo with the help of an out-of-date sound mixer. It was released in 1998, and got a lukewarm response. However, they came to the attention of Gautam Chattopadhyay of Mohiner Ghoraguli, and he recommended them to Asha Audio, who released their second album '' Gadha''. The first public live show of Chandrabindoo was held in ''Gyan Manch'' near

Rabindra Sadan Rabindra Sadan is a cultural centre and theatre in Kolkata, located close to the St. Paul's Cathedral on Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Road in South Kolkata. It is noted for its large stage which is a prime venue for Bengali theatre and Kol ...

, Kolkata.

Band members

Upal Sengupta Chandrabindoo (often spelled Chandrabindu), based in Kolkata, is a Bengali band known for satirical, colloquial lyrics, with references to current affairs and cultural phenomena. The band is chiefly popular in the Indian city of Kolkata, and in ...

– singer/

music composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Def ...

/ lead vocal *

Anindya Chatterjee Anindya Chatterjee is an Indian bengali film director, music director, singer, lyricist, actor and producer based in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. He is the singer-lyricist of prominent Bengali band Chandrabindoo. In recent times he has compos ...

– singer/

/ lead vocal *

Chandril Bhattacharya Chandril Bhattacharya ( bn, চন্দ্রিল ভট্টাচার্য) is a popular Bengali essayist, lyricist, poet, orator and director from Kolkata. Music Bhattacharya is one of the main lyricists of the Bengali band Chandrabin ...

– lyricist/

/ vocal * Arup Podder – bassist * Surojit Mukherjee – guitarist/ arranger * Rajshekhar Kundu – drummer * Sibabrata Biswas aka Sibu – keyboardist * Sourabh – percussionist and Tirthankar as

sound engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproductio ...

Former members

Chandrabindoo's former members include Subrato Lodh, Subrato Ghosh, Sukhendu, Subhendu, Debapriyo, Tennie, Lintu, Santanu, Arindam,

Pritam Pritam Chakraborty (born 14 June 1971), also known mononymously as Pritam, is an Indian composer, instrumentalist, guitarist, and singer. After working as an ad jingles composer, he debuted as a co-composer in the 2001 Hindi film Tere Liye. ...

, Dron Acharya, Riju, Kallol, Rajesh, Riddhi, Chandan, Papa,

Jisshu Sengupta Jisshu Ujjwal Sengupta (born 15 March 1977) is an Indian actor, producer, television presenter. who predominantly works in Bengali, Hindi and Telugu films. Sengupta made his debut through a Bengali TV series, '' Mahaprabhu'' where he portray ...

, Neepabeethi Ghosh, Lopamudra Mitra.

Discography

Studio Albums * Aar Jani Na ( bn, আর জানি না, Lit: Don't Know Any More) (1997), T-Series * Gadha ( bn, গাধা, Lit: Donkey) (1998), Asha Audio * Twaker Jatna Nin ( bn, ত্বকের যত্ন নিন, Lit: Take Care Of Your Skin) (1999), Asha Audio * Chaw ( bn, চ, Lit: Let's Go) (2001), Asha Audio *

Daknam Chandrabindoo (often spelled Chandrabindu), based in Kolkata, is a Bengali band known for satirical, colloquial lyrics, with references to current affairs and cultural phenomena. The band is chiefly popular in the Indian city of Kolkata, and i ...

( bn, ডাকনাম, Lit: Nickname) (2002), Sony BMG * Juju ( bn, জুজু, Lit: The Bugbear) (2003), Sony Music * Hulabila ( bn, হুলাবিলা, Lit: Hullabaloo) (2005), Sagarika * U/A ( bn, ইউ/এ, Lit: U/A) (2008), BIG Music * Noy ( bn, নয়, Lit: Nine) (2012), Kaleidoscope Compilation Albums * Chandrabindaas ( bn, চন্দ্রবিন্দাস, Lit: Chandrabindoo is Bindaas) (2005) * Ebhabeo Phire Asha Jae ( bn, এভাবেও ফিরে আসা যায়, Lit: Even that's a Comeback) (2005) *Bachhai 11 ( bn, বাছাই ১১, Lit: Selected 11) (2006) *Sera Chandrabindoo ( bn, সেরা চন্দ্রবিন্দু, Lit: Best Of Chandrabindoo) (2008)

Filmography

Other work

They made their first international tour in July 2015, when they performed in London in aid of the Kolkata-based

Child In Need Institute (CINI) Child in Need Institute (CINI; also Child in Need India) is a humanitarian organisation promoting "Sustainable development in health, nutrition and education of children, adolescents and women in need" in India. With its headquarters based in ...

. Chandrabindoo is the official

brand ambassador A brand ambassador (sometimes also called a corporate ambassador) is a person engaged by an organization or company to represent its brand in a positive light, helping to increase brand awareness and sales. The brand ambassador is meant to emb ...

for CINI ASHA.Chandrabindoo: Kaleidoscope
''kicpl.in''. Retrieved 21 August 2013

References

Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest se ...

article on the band *, an article on the band in

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

Chandrabindoo answers FAQs
an interview of Chandrabindoo by

Anurag Basu Anurag Basu (born 8 May 1974) is an Indian director, screenwriter, actor and producer. He began his directing career in television, moving to feature films in 2002. Basu achieved initial success with his films tackling the themes of passion and ...

in his talk show Ke Hobe Biggest Fan on

Zee Bangla Zee Bangla is an Indian general entertainment pay television channel broadcasting in the Bengali language. It is owned by the Zee Entertainment Enterprises. It is the first Bengali-language satellite television channel in India, officially com ...

Listen to all Chandrabindoo Songs
an article on CINI UK website
Chandrabindoo's new music video featuring Vidya Balan named Jani Na from the forthcoming album E-arki
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chandrabindoo Bengali musical groups Culture of Kolkata Bengali musicians Musical groups established in 1998