Pritam Hitting The High Note

A National Award for Brahmastra: Part One Shiva this year and songs that continue to clock millions of streams, Pritam Chakraborty proves why he's one of the most acclaimed Hindi Film music directors of our time

- Lalitha Suhasini

It’s close to midnight when Pritam Chakraborty heads back to Mumbai from Delhi NCR. Over a phone call, the Hindi film music composer sounds animated, buzzed from the concert rush. He has just wrapped up a stage performance to a packed audience, alongside Norwegian electronic artist, Alan Walker, to mark the release of his new collaborative track, Children Of The Sun. “It’s only been three days since the track released, but the response has been terrific,” says 53-year-old Chakraborty with child-like enthusiasm for the song, which also features Hindi playback singer Vishal Mishra.

Children Of The Sun encapsulates everything that the global music scene seems to be hooked onto right now—Punjabi pop, glistening synth spins and party-starting drops. The track lists eight composers on its credits and three lyricists including Chakraborty, Walker and Norwegian composer Gunnar Greve, who was key to kickstarting the collaboration back in 2019. “The great thing about Alan’s music and Scandinavian music in general is that it’s very melodic. While so many of us worked on it and never even met each other—it was all done online—it has the same soul,” says Chakraborty. Children Of The Sun indeed sounds like it could have fit right into the soundtrack of Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani or Brahmastra: Part One – Shiva, which snagged Chakraborty his first ever National award in August.

To Chakraborty, the award is an ephemeral pleasure. “But it is very important to my mom. She has mentioned it a few times. She’s 88…,” adds the composer. Recognition for Brahmastra, this year, also came in the form of over 500 million streams for Kesariya, the first Indian track to have achieved this record on Spotify. Rendered by yet another hit maker, Arijit Singh,