Rai Chand Boral (1903–25 November 1981) was an India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n composer, considered by music conoisseurs to be the father of Bollywood

Bollywood

Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...

 film music.

Life and career

Boral was born in Calcutta. His father, Lal Chand Boral was a classical musician (expert of Dhrupad). He had three sons, and Rai Chand was the youngest. Musicians from Rampur

Rampur, Uttar Pradesh

Rampur is a city and a municipality located in Rampur District in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Rampur district is located at Longitude 78-0-54 to 69-0-28 East and Latitude 28-25 to 29-10 North and spans an area of 2,367 km².It also gave its name to a former princely state of British...

 and Gwalior were invited for lessons. These include Ustad Mushtaq Hussain Khan, Masit Khan (tabla player), and Ustad Hafeez Ali Khan (sarod player). Rai Chand learnt "Sath Sangat" on the tabla and attended music conferences in Lucknow

Lucknow

Lucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh in India. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of Lucknow District and Lucknow Division....

, Allahabad

Allahabad

Allahabad , or Settled by God in Persian, is a major city of India and is one of the main holy cities of Hinduism. It was renamed by the Mughals from the ancient name of Prayaga , and is by some accounts the second-oldest city in India. It is located in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh,...

, and Benares.

Rai Chand joined the Indian Broadcasting Company in the year of its inception, 1927. In 1931, he shifted to the New Theatres in the silent era for supporting the stage with live music. He dissolved the Ghazal

Ghazal

The ghazal is a poetic form consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain, with each line sharing the same meter. A ghazal may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation and the beauty of love in spite of that pain. The form is ancient, originating in 6th century...

 style of singing from Northern India into the 19th Century Bengali

Bengali language

Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...

 tunes with string instrument medium. In 1935, he introduced playback singing for the first time in the Hindi

Hindi

Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...

 feature film Dhoop Chhaon (1935). The song, "Main Khush Hona Chahun", had an all women chorus led by Parul Ghosh

Parul Ghosh

Parul Ghosh , born Parul Biswas, was one of the pioneers of playback singing, singing in Hindi and Bengali movies from 1935 to 1951. Originally hailing from Barisal, now in Bangladesh, she was introduced to playback singing by her brother Anil Biswas. Films in which she featured include Jwar Bhata,...

 with Suprova Sarkar and Harimati picturised in a dance sequence. R.C. Boral came to Bombay in 1953. After coming to Bombay, he composed music for Dard-e-Dil (1953) with Lata's songs. Music for some basic records were composed by him. Anjangarh (1948) was his last famous film with New Theatres. He is correctly complemented by late Anil Biswas

Anil Biswas (composer)

Anil Biswas was a famous Indian film music composer from 1935 to 1965, who apart from being one of pioneers of playback singing, is also credited for the first Indian orchestra of twelve pieces and introducing orchestral music and full-blooded choral effects, into Indian cinema...

 as the Father of Indian Cinema Music. He had directed music of 150 films including Hindi

Hindi

Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...

 and Bengali

Bengali cinema

Bengali cinema refers to the Bengali language filmmaking industries in the Bengal region of South Asia. There are two major film-making hubs in the region: one in Kolkata, West Bengal, India and the other in Dhaka, Bangladesh .The history of cinema in Bengal dates back to the 1890s, when the first...

 films. He received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award

Dadasaheb Phalke Award

The Dadasaheb Phalke Award is India's highest award in cinema given annually by the Government of India for lifetime contribution to Indian cinema. It was instituted in 1969, the birth centenary year of Dadasaheb Phalke, considered as the father of Indian cinema.The award for a particular year is...

 in 1978 at the age of 75. He died in 1981 at the age of 78.

Hindi Filmography

• Mohabbat Ke Aansoo (1932)
• Zinda Laash (1932)
• Subah Ka Sitaara, Pooran Bhagat (1933)
• Rajrani Meera (1933)
• Chandidas (1934)
• Dakoo Mansoor (1934)
• Rooplekha (1934)
• After the Earthquake (1935)
• Karwan-e-Hayaat (1935) (with Mihirkiron Bhattacharya)
• Dhoop Chhaon (1935) (with Pankaj Mullick
  Pankaj Mullick
  Pankaj Mullick, also known as Pankaj Kumar Mullick was a Bengali Indian music director, who was a pioneer of film music in Bengali cinema and Hindi cinema at the advent of playback singing, as well as an early exponent of Rabindra Sangeet.He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1970, followed by the...
  
  )
• Manzil (1936) (with Pankaj Mullick)
• Millionaire (Krorepati) (1936) (with Pankaj Mullick)
• Maya 1936
• Anath Aashram 1937
• Vidyapati 1937
• President 1937 (with Pankaj Mullick)
• Abhagin 1938
• Street Singer 1938
• Jawani Ki Reet 1939
• Sapera 1939
• Haar Jeet 1940
• Lagan 1941
• Sugand 1942
• Waapas 1943
• Humrahi 1945
• Wasiatnaama 1945
• Anjangarh 1948
• Pahela Admi 1950
• Dard-e-Dil 1953
• Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu 1953
• Swami Vivekanand 1955
• Amar Saigal 1955 (with Pankaj Mullick and Timir Baran)

Bengali Filmography

• Dena Paona
  Dena Paona (film)
  Dena Paona is a 1931 Bengali film directed by Premankur Atorthy, starring Amar Mullick, Durga Das Bannerjee, Jahar Ganguly, Nibhanani Devi and Bhanu Bandyopadhyay. Based on a novel by Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay and produced by New Theatres, it is credited as the one of first Bengali...
  
   (1931)
• Punarjanma 1932
• Chirakumar Sabha 1932
• Palli Samaj 1932
• Chandidas 1932
• Mastuto Bhai 1933
• Kapalkundala 1933
• Meerabai 1933
• Ruplekha 1934
• Excuse Me Sir 1934
• Debdas 1935 (with Pankaj Mullick)
• Bhagyachakra 1935
• Grihadaha 1936 (with Pankaj Mullick)
• Maya 1936 (with Pankaj Mullick)
• Didi 1937 (with Pankaj Mullick)
• Bidypati 1938
• Abhijnan 1938
• Sathi 1938
• Sapudey 1939
• Rajat Jayani 1939
• Parajay 1940
• Abhinetri 1940
• Parichay 1941
• Prastisruti 1941
• Udayer Pathey 1944
• Biraj Bou 1946
• Anjangarh 1948
• Mantramugda 1949
• Vishnupriya 1949
• Paritran 1951
• Sparshamani 1951

External links

• Musicians
• A short history of Bengali cinema
  Bengali cinema
  Bengali cinema refers to the Bengali language filmmaking industries in the Bengal region of South Asia. There are two major film-making hubs in the region: one in Kolkata, West Bengal, India and the other in Dhaka, Bangladesh .The history of cinema in Bengal dates back to the 1890s, when the first...