Kaushiki Chakraborty and Shantanu Moitra launch into a daring exploration of their musical sensibilities with their latest offering, Pankh. After a multi-city tour with live shows, they are now bringing its uncut version to the NCPA.
By Vidhi Salla
When an accomplished artiste in search of her own voice finds in a co-creator the comfort, understanding and the wind that helps her ideas soar, the resultant creation is bound to be out of the ordinary. Kaushiki Chakraborty and Shantanu Moitra’s latest creative collaboration is a case in point. Pankh can be best described as a unique musical journey that Chakraborty, in an exclusive interview for ON Stage, describes as “a friendship translated into music.”
This is Chakraborty’s first self-produced album with Blue Dot Productions, which she co-owns with Moitra. Created as a six-part web series of stories from their personal lives, of people, places and events that shaped them, Pankh is also Moitra’s directorial debut. It was released on Chakraborty’s YouTube channel in July 2025 following which, the two, along with accompanying musicians, have been on a multi-city tour. The live iteration includes stories narrated by the duo, followed by the songs and, occasionally, an uncut version of the album with additional songs. This uncut version will be performed for the first time in Mumbai as part of the Citi NCPA Aadi Anant festival this month.
Birds of a feather
Chakraborty and Moitra’s musical paths first converged when they recorded the song ‘Lagi Lagi’ for Coke Studio India in 2012, though Moitra knew of her from much before this collaboration. Shubha Mudgal, during the making of her 1999 album Ab Ke Sawan, brought to Moitra’s attention a track that Chakraborty had sung for the 1998 Tamil album Vande Mataram 2, recorded with composer Ranjit Barot. Moitra had thought of working with her since then. Nearly a decade after they recorded ‘Lagi Lagi’, Moitra invited her to sing again for his projects 100 Days in the Himalayas and Songs of the River. Moitra jokingly attributes the long gaps between their collaborations to the “happy Bengali [in him] that doesn’t want to work too hard.”
The beginnings of Pankh are just as beautiful as the stories the album encapsulates. On a moonlit night in Murshidabad, Moitra, Chakraborty and violinist Ambi Subramaniam were on a boat, working on Songs of the River Ganga, listening to Moitra’s travel tales. “[We thought] why don’t we create something to tell stories that have touched us,” says Moitra. “Unknown faces, unknown characters. That was the inception, on that boat in the middle of the night on the Ganga, when everything became quiet. That stillness was actually the birth of Pankh.”
A convergence of two worlds
Moitra has been a celebrated composer for Hindi cinema, known for his music for movies such as Parineeta, 3 Idiots, PK, October and Lage Raho Munna Bhai. In addition to that, he has been a curious wanderer. Having, among other things, traversed the Himalayas, he later completed a 3,000-km bicycling expedition along the Ganga, collaborating with musicians, recording tracks along the way and later performing them live. Chakraborty, on the other hand, is a child prodigy who grew up in a household steeped in Hindustani classical music, learning the musical style of the Patiala gharana under the tutelage of her father, Ajoy Chakrabarty. She gave her first performance at age six and has since been enthralling audiences all over the world with her classical recitals.
Pankh emerged not only as a need for Chakraborty to find her individual musical expression, but also as the duo’s joint exploration of creating something new. “We come from two completely different worlds and Pankh belongs to neither of them; it’s a third possibility. Classical music is something that I’ve learnt, practised, paid attention to, tried to internalise, with great discipline, love, respect and hard work. But Pankh is just me. Everything that I am, whoever I am, you will see that in Pankh. Not Kaushiki Chakraborty, the persona, the public perception of it. Pankh represents me, the human being. The mother, the daughter, the friend and every aspect of my existence.”
Storied melodies
Art, Moitra believes, needs context. This quest for context led him and Chakraborty to bring together stories from their disparate worlds which he used as templates for composing the songs. The first and one of the most moving songs from the album, ‘Baithi Hun’, penned by Chakraborty, is inspired by an incident from Moitra’s travels to Kashmir. He was visiting a poet at his house and his wife kept staring at Moitra because the couple’s son had gone missing and ever since, she had looked at every visitor with an inquiring gaze assuming it was either her son or someone with news of her son. “When I heard that story, I was deeply moved. It stayed with me,” says Chakraborty. “In that moment I was trying to process it, and I needed to say what the story made me feel. So, I wrote. I’m not a lyricist. I don’t even know whether I will write many songs or whether I’m capable of writing over a tune. I’m just a happy hobby writer and I will continue to be one.” This song, meanwhile, will always be special to her. “Each time I perform this song, I pay a tribute to that mother and I look up with gratitude to the universe for giving me a beautiful motherhood.”
Chakraborty is credited with co-writing another track, ‘Tarana’, with help from Delhi-based lyricist Abhipsha Deb who has also written ‘Nayi Bhor’ on the album. The latter is described as an ode to the guiding lights in Chakraborty’s life; a combined tribute to her guru Jnan Prakash Ghosh, tabla maestros Zakir Hussain and Shubhankar Banerjee, and eminent khayal vocalist Rashid Khan. ‘Chaand Sakha Re’, written by Swanand Kirkire, is a playful melody about Chakraborty’s role of a mother and teacher to her son, which she performs along with her son, Rishith Desikan, the rising star of the musical family. ‘Mere Suron Mein’ is Chakraborty’s classically bent paean to her father and guru Ajoy Chakrabarty and has been penned beautifully by Tanveer Ghazi.
Wings of transformation
Moitra maintains that the avatar of Chakraborty that the audience will witness performing Pankh is going to be completely different from the one it is used to seeing onstage. For Moitra, the process of performing this album live brought with it a surprise. “This person at the peak of her career, one of the important voices in classical music, has the ability to break herself down completely and give herself a new birth. If an artiste has the ability to improve themselves even when they are at the peak of their craft, then that person is truly a lover of that craft. Kaushiki has put in incredible hard work. Her throw is completely different for Pankh.” Chakraborty considers the difference between presenting a classical concert as opposed to something very personal: “In Pankh, I’m just who I am, I’m not a performer. I am sorted, secure, calm and happy and the audience will see that.”
At the NCPA concert, the duo, along with an ensemble of musicians, will be performing 12 songs from the album including some unreleased ones. Moitra mentions the curative support he has always received from the NCPA: “These [programmes] are not easy ideas to be green-lit by anyone. A guy spends 100 days in the Himalayas and decides to compose and present [the experience] onstage. A guy decides to do a show on the Chandrayan. These are crazy ideas, but the NCPA has always backed me.” In Dr. Suvarnalata Rao, Programming Head – Indian Music and Research Scientist at the NCPA, he has found a delightful co-conspirator. “The thing I really admire about her is that the crazier the idea, the more excited she is. Because somewhere, as a curator, she is also searching for an idea which is not cluttered by a kind of sameness. She has been a huge supporter of what I’ve done. It’s a privilege.”
Pankh features an array of musicians, including Rickraj Nath (guitar), Archit Shah (keyboard), Vaibhav Wavikar (drums & percussion), Ralph Menezes (bass), Apoorva Krishna (violin), Lakhinandan (flute), Avik Sur (khol/Bengal dhol) and Sridar Parthasarathy (mridangam), who have all been performing the set live on tour. And then, in addition to Moitra’s powerful stage presence, there is Chakraborty’s distinct departure from what she has done so far. Says Moitra, “When people come to the NCPA concert of Pankh, they will find another kind of voice. They will see a different Kaushiki, the one who flies with pankh.”
This article was originally published in the January 2026 issue of ON Stage.
