River Songs, Shantanu Moitra’s new travel web-series.
When award-winning Bollywood music composer Shantanu Moitra embarked on his journey from Gomukh to Gangasagar on cycle – documented in new journey web-series river song On Disney+Hotstar – He was grieving. Two years before the deadly delta wave of Covid claimed his father’s life, Shantanu had planned a trip to Varanasi with him. “I needed closure. In Varanasi, my mother and I cremated him during a 60-day road journey. Bodies of Covid patients were not handed over to their near and dear ones, so I never saw my father’s body. Haven’t seen it,” he says.
Shantanu Moitra with his mother.
Soon after the ceremony, Shantanu came up with the idea of ’Anant Yatra’, a tribute to the collective grief of people who lost their loved ones during the pandemic. While cycling along the banks of river Ganga, he took photographs of nearly 800 people who succumbed to the virus.
“These pictures, shared with me by people who lost their loved ones during Covid, were printed on waste cotton and had tulsi seeds in them. I wanted to do a ceremony for him,” he says. In Gangasagar, Swami Kapilanand Vidya Bhavan, a school, now has a memorial for Covid patients. “The monument is a testimony to what those two years (of the pandemic) were. I dug those pictures into the soil. Photos of metamorphosis in plants show that life goes on,” he says.
The six-episode series, shot between October and December last year, traces the 55-year-old musician’s emotional and spiritual calling, explores his creative dimension and tests his physical endurance. Shantanu collaborated with seven artistes for the series and the songs have been included in the music album of the same name which was released on Monday on Spotify, Apple Music, Gaana and JioSaavn. Artists featured in the album include Mohit Chauhan, Mati Bani, Taba Chake, Bombay Jayshree, Sid Sriram, Kaushiki Chakraborty and Ambi Subramaniam.
Shantanu says that he reached out to artistes not because of their music, but for the kind of work they are doing for the society in general. “Mohit Chauhan and his wife feed dogs during the lockdown. He now runs an organization called Animals Are Human Too and feeds dogs. Jayashree Bombay runs a school that teaches music to children with autism. Shantanu says that he recorded most of these songs outdoors with a sound engineer. “The songs were recorded beside a river with sounds of goats, cows, crows and tractors passing by. In the studios, we get so obsessed with ‘no other sound getting into our microphone’ when, every day, we hear a variety of sounds. So why are we limiting ourselves when it comes to making music,” he asks.
For Shantanu, music was an escape from strenuous cycling. He says, “When I was cycling, I was also thinking about the music I was going to make, the instruments I wanted to bring to the songs. So, it helped me through the ups and downs my body was going through during the journey.”
He chose cycling through the campaign because, he says, it’s the only mode of transportation that makes you fitter every time you pedal. “Elementary mechanics goes down very well with people,” he says. “Surprisingly, small-town India – including villages and places that don’t exist on Google Maps – is fascinated by the bicycle. I’ve seen tractors and trucks stop to help me, people invite me in for a cup of tea and passersby give me updates on the road ahead. The bigger the city, the more intolerant its traffic is towards cyclists,” he said.
He traveled about 2,200 km out of 3,000 km (approx) along the banks of the Ganges, passing small settlements. “Most of India uses that route for cycling, most of them children who go to school,” he says.
While shooting for the series produced by JSW Group, Shantanu faced several challenges, including a cloudburst in Uttarkashi, a river flood, an asthma attack and an accident just 40 km before the final destination. The trip also had its high points like meeting the Baskar community, rediscovering the sweet oral heritage of Murshidabad city, crossing the high security zone of Farakka barrage.
“To prepare for this journey, I not only did strength training, but also did body analysis. I cycle for eight to ten hours a day, five days a week. What’s a thrill without the feeling of pain, anyway? I think I met my end, not just because of my father but for the 800 people I was photographing. He signs.