100-year old Puja songs at Weavers Studio Centre for the Arts

Chatterjee is an expert on Bengali recordings on gramophone and also a collector of gramophone records, labels, catalogs, booklets and other memorabilia.

At the programme, he will play recordings of singers who featured in the 1914 Sharadabali - the first Durga Puja album that was released by The Gramophone Company.

He will also present songs by Bengali artists who have passed into oblivion.

The Gramophone Company started the tradition of releasing special Sharadiya numbers sung by artists like Manodasundari Dasi, Narayan Chandra Mukherjee and K Mullick.

Today, after 100 years, one can head to Weavers Studio Centre for the Arts to hear rare recordings of singers who featured in the 1914 Sharadabali.

Chatterjee, who has the 1914 Sharadabali in his possession, owns tens of thousands of vinyl records, a dozen record players and 10 gramophones.

Darshan Shah, founder of WSCA, said “Our recently-inaugurated Digitizing Centre has met with a greatly encouraging response, and we are happy to be bringing back old songs – which have faded into oblivion – to the forefront. Sri Chatterjee is truly an expert in his field and we look forward to listening to rare songs like Aar sundaro na and Dekho lo sajani ashey.”