I want to clarify this site‘s purpose.

It is not only about me or the music I help to make. However, it is about great music and our fans who help us to have careers doing what we love: film songs!

In case you’re wondering, I really do love singing! My family can tell you.

So to reiterate (and I’d not intended to get very philosophical here), this site is only to a limited extent about me personally. It could be more about YOU!

It is about music and music fans. I’m a fan, too! Not only of Indian music, which IS my passion (and God knows I’m blessed to work as a singer in Bollywood).

I trained long and hard to be here, so one hopes I have something valid to offer audiences! I also love many other forms and styles of music and those who make it, and in time I hope to share samples of various artists’ work that may be new to others here. I hope you will learn to enjoy them, too.

It’s also about sharing some insight about how life in the Mumbai film industry is fun and exciting (and sure to provide audiences with some very special songs and incidental as well as dance music to help drive feature films). Talent engines like Indian Idol that made mine a famous name still seek more talented singers.

However, it’s also “not that cut and dried” (nor simple). Everything worth doing is worth doing right. Music in general (and film music specifically) has origins in creative mind spaces of both geniuses and novices, and runs from very simple to very complex, in many styles. From traditional to futuristic, and at many points between the extremes. All-acoustic or all-tech, it can be all-good (or not so much). My objective is not to persuade as much as to help educate (or draw out) interests.

I love music! From simple folk melodies and dances to big production numbers and “symphonic” pieces requiring weeks of preparation and very-involved recording and post production (not to mention elaborate costuming and choreography), it’s all welcome here. In the words of Shakespeare: as you like it!

I also love to tour and meet our fans. So another hope I have is to be able to update folks about upcoming live performances!

True, much of what you find here is about me and my work. I’ve been blessed with a career that spans comic to serious in a variety of styles, most of them as written by Pritam Chakraborty (my mentor aka Pritamda, who has given me such great opportunities to add my voice to the film field).

So naturally, this site is about Pritamda and other Indian film luminaries, too… and it’s also about great actors like Kajolji and Shahrukhji (I could go on with deep gratitude to all I’ve known and/or with whom I also hope to meet and work in the future, in film or only music work).

You may also see me celebrating the awards that industry groups provide, but that is not the main purpos of this WordPress blog-site. Yes it’s a blog, yes I love Bengali (so we support ALL languages including it here), yes we admire great film work… and yes, great Indian classical music is one path to health-supporting sound.

Please let me delineate why we built and maintain this site, to avoid any confusion (if possible).

Main Thing #1 here: the film music itself. I don’t plan to restrict this site to Indian film music, although that is what I perhaps know best (and I’m not saying that others don’t, of course).

Main Thing #2 here: the art of songs, mainly as we know them in films in India, and within playback singing in general (and other dance/pop styles)… and

Main Thing #3 here: to provide a resource for people to share opinions about everything noted above.

We’re still building parts of this blog-site (like my online Indian film music forum: Antara’s Bollywood Takes). That doesn’t mean others’ opinions will be excluded! Please stay tuned… we hope to have it up and going by summer 2016… and YOUR VOICE is honestly welcome.

I am not a politician running for office, so my purpose in providing this site is not only about seeing what you think so I can change and do more of that to win votes, nor to sell more copies of songs or show tickets at some hyped-up frenetic pace. I come from a more subtle environment, where an audience is transported to a higher plane via a shared experience.

It’s about that sharing. Sharing what I hope is all great music, from anywhere! Whencever you hail, too.

Music can be great done by one person wandering the countryside “just to pass the time.” Or (as in the case of film music, usually with many hands in the mix) it may inspire dancing, singing, and may even touch on some very profound topics (in keeping with a director’s goals for a given film). Learning can accompany music, as well as a wide variety of instruments.

OVERALL, however, music is often a refuge from the usual stresses that society imposes upon us. Like a tonic for the soul.

Hmm, I like the sound of that! That’s ENTERTAINMENT. In some sense it could also be construed as HEALING.

While I had seriously considered a career in medicine, I now know that God and fate/life have decided to guide me to music. My career is only in its first decade, so I hope my fans and loved ones will stay the full course with me. What a fabulous journey!

You can find at least some things about me here for as long as I and my web team (aka T-Mantra Music and via the good graces of Sony Music et al. who’ve supported me over the years) can maintain it for all to use. It is free to use and I plan to keep it that way.

I have no pretensions that music can serve as medical treatment, however there have been advances in the use of music as part of healing practices, and this use of music has been on Earth in various traditions from ancient times.

As I’ve noted elsewhere (in our TOS), all references to Hindu or other classical, traditional, or sacred music here are never intended to sell or promote the particular spiritual beliefs associated with any one religion; that would be proselytizing. We don’t do that here.

We welcome site visitors, users and contributors of any or no religion, all social statuses, etc. Every opinion is valid unless it is only humourous! Even then, it’s arguably still valid as humour. ????

With this said, I hope that in our own ways, we can actually do the planet/India some good in terms of healing from the ills of modern pressure-driven, competitive life. At least we’re trying! Now you know.

Not everyone can live in an idyllic pastoral setting, communing with nature and being happy in every sense. Even monks who spend many hours chanting have to do routine busy work to keep going.

But maybe when we need a break from the daily grind, many of us will find some small measure of happiness right here!

I may be unable to HEAL THE PLANET all by myself (or as part of some “greening movement” designed to address waste, pollution, etc.), but I do hope to have some impact upon the hearts of those who love cinematic music to help us heal our own illnesses. In this way I want to fulfill a part of my own purposes in life!

I want our fans to know that no matter what else is going on, we still love you too, and that is a solid, permanent given.

Finally, I pray that my own takes on various film soundtracks and songs therein will be taken as one artist’s point of view, never as an attack on another singer or music director (or film co.).

If you are about love and music too, please visit often! If not, good luck, and please keep seeking after what you need. I like to think that I am open-minded, but with that openness goes a degree of sensible protectiveness to ensure that respect is a given and that what I regard as crazy or hurtful ideas are filtered out, so all visitors will enjoy their time here. It’s not Disneyland, but it is a happy and safe place, trust me! We won’t settle for less.

I’m not perfect, and we tried to draft iron-clad user-safe Terms of Service to protect all of our users, but we’re all imperfect beings in an imperfect world. Still we endeavor to improve on a consistent basis. Thanks for your patience!!

We have only love to share, not hatred. Love grows and expands, hatred kills and limits. Your personal choices are yours alone, our group choices are ours and we hope, somewhat universal!

Directions for use: Welcome. Live Peacefully. Return and repeat.

This is how (and why) we do it!

Namaste,

Antara