Chandrabindoo (often spelled Chandrabindu), based in

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

, is a Bengali band known for satirical, colloquial lyrics, with references to current affairs and cultural phenomena. The band is chiefly popular in the

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n city of

, and in cities like

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

and

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

that have a large expatriate

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

population.

Name Origin

The band shares its name with the last letter (technically a modifier) of the

Bengali alphabet The Bengali script or Bangla alphabet (, romanized: ''Bāṅlā bôrṇômālā'') is the standard writing system used to write the Bengali language, and has historically been used to write Sanskrit within Bengal. An estimated 300 million ...

, ◌̐. The name is a reference to a piece of dialogue from

Sukumar Ray Sukumar Ray (; 30 October 1887 – 10 September 1923) was a Bengali writer and poet from British India. He is remembered mainly for his writings for children. He was the son of children's story writer Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury and the fat ...

's ''হযবরল'' '' HaJaBaRaLa'', a well-known work of

literary nonsense Literary nonsense (or nonsense literature) is a broad categorization of literature that balances elements that make sense with some that do not, with the effect of subverting language conventions or logical reasoning. Even though the most well-k ...

বেড়াল বলল, “বেড়ালও বলতে পার, রুমালও বলতে পার, চন্দ্রবিন্দুও বলতে পার।” আমি বললাম, “চন্দ্রবিন্দু কেন?” শুনে বেড়ালটা “তাও জানো না?” বলে এক চোখ বুজে ফ্যাচ্‌ফ্যাচ্ করে বিশ্রীরকম হাসতে লাগল। আমি ভারি অপ্রস্তুত হয়ে গেলাম। মনে হল, ঐ চন্দ্রবিন্দুর কথাটা নিশ্চয় আমার বোঝা উচিত ছিল। তাই থতমত খেয়ে তাড়াতাড়ি বলে ফেললাম, “ও হ্যাঁ-হ্যাঁ, বুঝতে পেরেছি।” বেড়ালটা খুশি হয়ে বলল, “হ্যাঁ, এ তো বোঝাই যাচ্ছে— চন্দ্রবিন্দুর চ, বেড়ালের তালব্য শ, রুমালের মা— হল চশমা। কেমন, হল তো?”

The cat said "You can call me a cat, or a handkerchief, or even a ''chandrabindoo''". "Why a ''chandrabindoo''?" I asked. "Can't you tell?" said the cat, winking and sniggering in a most irritating way. I was taken aback. Perhaps I ought to have known about the ''chandrabindoo'', I thought. "Ah!" I said quickly. "I understand". "Of course you do,"said the Cat, pleased. "‘''cha''’ for ''chandrabindoo'', ‘''sha''’ for ''birāl'' (cat), and ‘''mā''’ for ''rumāl'' (handkerchief) - that spells ‘''chashma''’(spectacles) Simple, isn't it?"

Early days

The band faced many problems during the production of their first album '' Aar Jani Na'', having to produce their demo with the help of an out-of-date sound mixer. It was released in 1998, and got a lukewarm response. However, they came to the attention of Gautam Chattopadhyay of Mohiner Ghoraguli, and he recommended them to Asha Audio, who released their second album '' Gadha''. The first public live show of Chandrabindoo was held in ''Gyan Manch'' near

Rabindra Sadan Rabindra Sadan is a cultural centre and theatre complex in Kolkata, India. It is located on Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Road in South Kolkata. It is noted for its large stage which is a prime venue for Bengali theatre and Kolkata Film Fest ...

, Kolkata.

Band members

* Upal Sengupta – singer/

music composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and defi ...

/ lead vocal *

Anindya Chatterjee Anindya Chatterjee is an Indian people, Indian Bengalis, Bengali film director, music director, singer, lyricist, actor and Film producer, producer based in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. He is the singer-lyricist of Bengali band Chandrabindoo (b ...

– singer/

/ lead vocal *

Chandril Bhattacharya Chandril Bhattacharya () is a popular Bengali essayist, lyricist, poet, filmmaker and orator from Kolkata. Music Bhattacharya is one of the main lyricists of the Bengali band Chandrabindoo and also occasionally sings for them. His idiomatic ...

– lyricist/

/ vocal * Arup Podder – bassist * Surojit Mukherjee – guitarist/ arranger * Rajshekhar Kundu – drummer * Sibabrata Biswas aka Sibu – keyboardist * Sourabh – percussionist and Tirthankar as

sound engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a sound recording, recording or a Concert, live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization (audio), equalization, Dynamic range ...

Former members

Chandrabindoo's former members include Subrato Lodh, Subrato Ghosh, Sukhendu, Subhendu, Debapriyo, Tennie, Lintu, Santanu, Arindam,

Pritam Pritam Chakraborty (born 14 June 1971), also popularly known mononymously as Pritam, is a National Award winning Indian composer, instrumentalist, music producer and singer. Graduating from FTII in Sound Engineering, he worked as an ad jin ...

, Dron Acharya, Riju, Kallol, Rajesh, Riddhi, Chandan, Papa,

Jisshu Sengupta Jisshu Sengupta (born Biswaroop Sengupta; 15 March 1977) is an Indian actor, producer, television presenter, who predominantly works in Bengali, Hindi and Telugu films alongside a few Kannada films. Sengupta made his debut through a Bengali TV ...

, Neepabeethi Ghosh, Lopamudra Mitra.

Discography

Studio Albums * Aar Jani Na (, Lit: Don't Know Any More) (1997), T-Series * Gadha (, Lit: Donkey) (1998), Asha Audio * Twaker Jatna Nin (, Lit: Take Care Of Your Skin) (1999), Asha Audio * Chaw (, Lit: Let's Go) (2001), Asha Audio * Daknam (, Lit: Nickname) (2002), Sony BMG * Juju (, Lit: The Bugbear) (2003), Sony Music * Hulabila (, Lit: Hullabaloo) (2005), Sagarika * U/A (, Lit: U/A) (2008), BIG Music * Noy (, Lit: Nine) (2012), Kaleidoscope * Talobasha (, Lit: A playful reduplication on the Bengali word for love) (2024), Chandrabindoo Compilation Albums * Chandrabindaas (, Lit: Chandrabindoo is Bindaas) (2005) * Ebhabeo Phire Asha Jae (, Lit: Even that's a Comeback) (2005) *Bachhai 11 (, Lit: Selected 11) (2006) *Sera Chandrabindoo (, Lit: Best Of Chandrabindoo) (2008)

Filmography

Other work

They made their first international tour in July 2015, when they performed in London in aid of the Kolkata-based

Child In Need Institute (CINI) Child in Need Institute (CINI; also Child in Need India) is a humanitarian organisation promoting "Sustainable development in health, nutrition and education of children, adolescents and women in need" in India. With its headquarters based in ...

. Chandrabindoo is the official

brand ambassador A brand ambassador (sometimes also called a corporate ambassador) is a person paid by an organization or company to represent its brand in a positive light, helping to increase brand awareness and sales. The brand ambassador is meant to embody the ...

for CINI ASHA.Chandrabindoo: Kaleidoscope
''kicpl.in''. Retrieved 21 August 2013

References

Times of India ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

article on the band *, an article on the band in

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

Chandrabindoo answers FAQs
an interview of Chandrabindoo by

Anurag Basu Anurag Basu (born 8 May 1970) is an Indian director, screenwriter, actor and producer in Hindi cinema. He is best known for films that tackle bold themes of passion, envy, and adultery. After initial setbacks, he achieved his breakthrough with ...

in his talk show Ke Hobe Biggest Fan on

Zee Bangla Zee Bangla is an Indian Bengali-language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. History The channel was launched on 15 September 1999 as ''Alpha TV Bangla'', along with Alpha TV Marathi, Alpha ...

Listen to all Chandrabindoo Songs
an article on CINI UK website
Chandrabindoo's new music video featuring Vidya Balan named Jani Na from the forthcoming album E-arki
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chandrabindoo Bengali musical groups Culture of Kolkata Bengali musicians Musical groups established in 1998