Cinemaazi remembers Jayanta Hazarika on his death anniversary

Jayanta Hazarika, also known as Rana da with love, is an Assamese cultural icon. He was the younger brother of DrBhupen Hazarika who started his musical journey by assisting his older brother. He is attributed to the fusion of western classical, rock and roll, jazz sound with Assamese traditional music that gave a new sound to the music from the region. In his short span of life, he had also been involved in several Assamese films in the role of a music director and singer such as Maniram Dewan (1963), Loti Ghoti (1966), Bristi (1974), Banaria Phool (1973) and Natun Asha (1977). Sonar boron pakhire was his first playback song alongside Shyamal Mitra for Maniram Dewan. Additional to playback singing, Hazarika was also credited as an assistant music director to his older brother’s composition for the films Loti Ghoti and Chikmik Bijuli (1969). He also gave music to some of the most successful plays of the time and was associated in the same capacity to a mobile theatre group called Lakhimi Theatre which was formed in the memory of P C Barua. A multi-instrumentalist, he played the harmonium, table, guitar, mandolin, accordion, harmonica and domra. In 1977, he formed the Xur Bahini to raise funds for the flood victims in Assam by composing eight songs that the group performed in streets to collect remuneration to donate. In a tragic incident, Hazarika fell sick and passed away on his work trip to Calcutta to record the music for the film Natun Asha on this day. Cinemaazi salutes his contribution to Indian cinema.