The unassuming minstrel. Rooted.
Guwahati-based singer, lyricist, music director, Anupam Saikia’s music is just that — borne of the world he grew up in.
As the songster gathers his compositions, a requiem in Hindi for Zubeen Garg, another album, he sojourns, as restless as his verses, from one performance to another in rural and semi-urban pockets where crowds swell to hear him croon. He’s been doing this since the Nineties, having added contemporary music to his oeuvre that spans folk, Bihu, soulful ditties and more. “I sing in far more rural pockets than this. (He’s at Dhalpur in Lakhimpur district and some evenings back in the vicinity where he drew crowds of 5k plus). The unending farmlands, industrious hands, the Naam Ghars, the lores at each place, help me connect with people. My observations, their emotions, the energy, environs, and of course my imagination is what finds expression as I put pen to paper.”
Anupam grew up with the sound of music as his parents — Ghana Saikia, Bhanu Saikia — practitioners of Axomiya folk songs, be it the various naams, Bihu, the tokari, Bhaona, Raas, Bhagwadpaath, and the like — would wake up early to do riyaaz or practice, thereafter performing at Naam Ghars, public platforms and small gatherings for Naam, Sankardev kirtan or path.
But, Anupam was not the nomen given at birth. It was Gautam. Once asked by renowned dramatist Tarun Saikia to “sing something”, the little boy of standard three sang, drumming on a wooden bench, and immediately after rechristened ‘Anupam’. “Tarun Sir told my father, he’s not Gautam. He’s anupam — par excellence.”
Anupam has since gone on to sing, compose and score for thousands of songs, many under his Guwahati-based production house, Anupam Music Creation (AMC). However, a majority of the earlier compositions are lost! “There’s no way I can recover those. It was like write, score or sing for whichever director, and then done and dusted!” I exhort him to compile them all, and all he does is smile. “What will stay is of the digital age.” He has also scored music for two Assamese films.
Anupam recounts again when as an 8th standard kid, members of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) took him and some friends for a Bihu evening at Gohpur Dhupabor. “This was my first formal invitation. The venue of thousands swayed to the sangrami songs of ULFA. We were scared when we realised their identity, but we performed,” he smiles.
His debut album Aansolor Dhon was out in 1990. His first edition of Moromjaan (Bihu album) was released in 1997. The iconic Zubeen embarked on his repertoire of this genre with Anupam when they collaborated in 1998 for the second volume of Moromjaan. In fact, says he wistfully, “we were like brothers, friends, call it what you will. When Zubeen first came to Guwahati from Jorhat, and I from Biswanath Charali, we met at a recording at the now defunct Nataraj Studio. Later we even shared a room at a hotel as we went about searching for work. Zubeen has sung 400 songs composed or scored by me, including the much-loved Na jaanu kenekay keejay hole from the album Proteedeen. I met him last for about 15 minutes the night before his flight to Singapore. Little did I know that it would be a final goodbye from our manob dawrodee.”
Anupam has also had maestros like Shaan, Sadhna Sargam, Falguni Pathak, KK, Mahalaxmi Iyer, Javed Ali, vocalise his hit compositions in Assamese. He’s now trying to rope in Shreya Ghosal.
For the requiem in Hindi for Zubeen, he’s in talks with some of these stalwarts. Bihu albums Gamosa 2026 and Myna 2026 are also in the pipeline.
For those who have studied in Gauhati University, the flamboyant Gulmohar or Krishna Sura tree must be witness to many a broken or healed heart. Anupam seeks to immortalise that emotion with a melody to be sung perhaps at one of its youth festivals. The lines run thus: Jalukbaari’r moyna oye, jalukay pora dee pooray, Seering-Sapori’s lawra mauae… you get the drift.
Zubeen’s resonance could see Anupam turn to film-making based on a song recorded by the ‘Voice of Assam’ called Apun, on why blood may not always be thicker than the bonding warmth of hearts. It could be a film, a book, an anthology… “let’s see what the future holds.”
