Even as singer-songwriter Arko Pravo Mukherjee juggles with multiple Bollywood projects as Music Director-cum-Lyricist after the stupendous success of Pooja Bhatt’s Jism 2, he has not forgotten his initial years of struggle in Mumbai. It was perhaps the toughest phase in his life when he stopped practicing medicine and left home in search of his first love, music – all alone by the Arabian Sea. It was during these days, he missed his mother the most. Arko’s mother Mahashweta Mukherjee, an author and a professor of Bengali in Kolkata, was the lone pillar of strength and support that egged him on in his pursuit of passion.
Arko Pravo Mukherjee
This International Mother’s Day (May 12, 2013), this doctor-turned-musician from Kolkata is paying tribute to all the mothers with a Bengali single called MAA, sung, composed and written by him.
MAA is Arko’s maiden Bengali song – a song that is very close to his heart and talks about his love and respect for his mother and his passion for music and poetry, intertwined with his own values in life – against a world that is at once cruel and caring.
Arko pays a musical tribute to all mothers with this heart-rending contemporary song – sung in his broad, sonorous voice in a soulful composition reminiscent of the various musical genres he grew up with – from Rock to Rabindra Sangeet.
Arko is also among the first Bengali musicians introducing the popular Western concept of ‘Singles’ as opposed to an Album or Audio CD. With the advent of digital music players and mobile devices, MP3 music format is fast replacing physical CDs, and album sales are giving way to digital downloads. So, Arko is responding to this new trend by releasing his Bengali songs as single digital downloads rather than multiple-song albums. And he plans to do this more often.
Those who love Arko’s music will be happy to know that he has many new tracks coming up this year starting with three back-to-back releases this summer – T-Series’ Yaarian, Suryaveer Singh’s Tamanchey, and Vikram Bhatt’s Hate Story 2.
English Lyrics of Arko Pravo Mukherjee’s MAA
O mother, the way you look at me / No one else looks at me,
O mother, the way you stand by me / No one else stands
O mother, angry men, weapons in hand, run infinite lengths.
I am spellbound, singing my song,
O mother, in your words, your tongue, your handwriting
I find the meaning of everything
O mother, the way you show me the path of truth / No one else shows me,
O mother, the way you teach me to admit my fault / No one else teaches me
O mother, in this huge world, small creatures push the smallest.
My rage runs up the spine.
O mother, shouts of greed gobble up my songs.
I desperately grope for words
O mother, the way you make me bold / No one else does,
O mother, inspiration means struggle, you say / No one else says
O mother, what is weakness?
All this dedication, worship, knowledge, wisdom, fame, fraud
Victory at all cost, planning for comfort, getting lost in finding all
Does the inner self know?
O mother, what is philosophy?
Battlefield or authoring books, which inspires what?
Where in the river and sky, light wipes out the pain of loss,
Whispering someone all your woes,
Can the inner self do?
O mother, in the dark, you stand in front of light,
I can’t see even myself…
(Translated from original Bengali lyrics by Subho)
