Poran and his experiments with Assamese Folk Music.

What is music? I asked Poran. He took some time and asked me back, what is life without music? I could not give the answer. Can any?

Okay, Leo Tolstoy sums up the definition of music in this single line. He said, Music is the shorthand of emotions. Isn’t it? Yes, of course. And he rightly termed music as a medium that can be used to express ones feelings & emotions in a best way.And Poran Borkotoky, the guy about whom we will talk about in this write-up, also started his journey with music to give his emotions and inner feelings a path to come out. Music had been his passion, his dream and his companion, but career?? Yeah, gradually it had become his bread-butter earner too. Not only this, music also has given him the world of imagination to showcase his musical creativity and also shot to fame. Poran Borkotoky is one of the leading composer, music producer, Vocalist and lyricist as well of Assam, popularly known as ‘Jojo’.
If you are a regular listener of Assamese music, then you must come across his name and his creative mind in various albums, movies and jingles as well. Poran Borkotoky belongs to those new breed of music composers who have been taking Assamese music to the next level with his newer thoughts and out-of-box experiments with different genres of music. Specially Poran is well known for his experiments and fusions with the local folk music of Assam and North-East in his several projects, which are commercially viable and carries the fragrance of folk culture as well.
From his works, one can have a clear idea about his experiments, his outstanding musical talent and also his restlessness with music. On a personal note, as far I know Poran, he never wants to keep his creativity within any particular genre or a limited traditional barrier of music. He always tries to make his songs competence and sound good at the international standard without affecting the regional taste. In these years, he has been experimenting on various genres in his every project and undoubtedly enriching the music scenario of the state. ‘As music is not remain only my passion now and it becomes my profession too, I have to work according to the producers taste first. But if you ask about my choice, then I prefer basically folk, India, rock and electronic music to work on’, says Poran in a candid chat at 0db Studio at Rajgarh, Guwahati. As one of the busiest music composer of the Assam, Poran always feels that people have to work for his stomach first, but nobody should miss any single opportunity to work for his or her heart.

Poran has been associated with media industry since 2003. But then music was not prime for him, rather it was ‘Sound’ that was more important, as he started his career as Sound Engineer in Mumbai. But it seems music was calling him and he went for his heart. Finally he decided to come back to his home city, Guwahati, and when the real journey of a dreamer had started.
And yeah, if you follow your heart, it might be little bit risky of course, but be sure heart will lead you to some destination, depending on your determination. Poran’s heart also was not exception, fortunately!
Till date, Poran has been credited with 1500 songs of different genre and a long list of successful projects, which has made him one of popular and much-talked composer of the music industry. He has worked more than 300 albums in Assamese, English, Hindi, Bengali and some other local languages of North-East including Popular singer Dikshu’s albums Dur & Debadaru (2007) , Simanta Shekhar’s album Apsara & Urvashi ( 2008 & 2012), Musical sensation Zubeen Garg & Manas Robin’s albums Toradoi, Pokhila & Hero (2008-2012) , Times Music’s album Suma & Abeli ft. Actor Nayan Nilim (2011-2012) , Bengali album Aaj Dujone for HMV ft. Manali Thakur & Raghav Chatterjee (2011) etc. Adding more glory to the list, he had the privilege to work in several movies like Ejaak Jonakir Jilmil (2007), Dhan Kuberor Dhan (2011), Tumi (yet to release), Ka Pise Hanuman & La La Ka Snam ( in Khasi language, 2012 & 2013), Adhinayak (2004), National Award winning flick Mon Jai ( 2008) etc. Poran is also credited with huge numbers of commercials & jingles for various corporate houses like Big 92.7 FM, Canara Bank, Airtel, Reliance, Vodafone, Topcem, Pepsi, SBI, HDFC, Tata, Maruti Suzuki, etc. Theme songs of National Games 2007, Ranchi National Games are also his memorable works. And to be mentioned here, Poran was the music director of the most popular TV music show of north-east DY-Medley.
And finally, a ‘Bollywood Move’!! Yeah, Poran is now all set to work in Bollywood as he gets opportunity to work in two Hindi Movies, that too of Sanjay Dutta Production. The happy as well as excited Poran is now giving his full effort to make the opportunity large in real sense. ‘The names of the movies are yet to be finalized, but work is going on. It seems some dreams are transforming to reality.’ Says Poran, with a smiling face.
All the Best Jojo!!