One of the great benefits of being senior is getting to spend more quality time with retired, elderly folks and sharing their encylopeadic knowledge of classic films, music, literature et all ! Visiting us, Ma-in-law, an absolute Bengali TV buff, informed that there so many Hemanta Mukherji songs being played on Kolkata DD since it’s the legend’s 98th birthday today !
For music lovers like us ( albeit from the 60s), Hemanta Kumar’s name spelt many things. A beautiful, deeply soulful voice, which melody queen Lata described a ‘poojari’s pure prayer in a distant temple’ – you recall his ‘chupa lo yun dil mein pyar mera, ki jaise mandir mein lao diye ki ..’ !
His pathos-filled unforgettable gems ‘ jane woh kaise log the jinko..’ and ‘teri duniya mein jeene se, toh behtar hai ki mar jayen..’ or “ kaise koi jiye, jehar hai zindagi..’ to the haunting ‘yeh nayan dare dare…’and ‘na tum hame jano, na hum tume jane..’ to the delightful ‘bekarar karke hame yun na jayiye …’ and many other film songs in Hindi, are timeless melodies of a complete singer with an incredibly manly yet silken timber.
But, he was much more of an artiste par excellence than just a playback singer… Hemanta Mukherjee, often credited as Hemant Kumar , outside Bengal, was an Indian playback singer, music director and film producer, who sang in Bengali,Hindi & other Indian languages . His superb compositions in classic films like ‘Sahib, Biwi aur Ghulam’, ‘Bees Saal Baad’, ‘Khamoshi’ and others in the 50-70s remain immortal till today !
In Kolkata film industry, he came to be popularly known as the voice of the legendary actor ‘Uttam Kumar’ and was associated with him as a super-hit jodi of that era when romantic Uttam-Suchitra pair was a rage. He was also the greatest exponent of Rabindra Sangeet. In the 1960s he was the predominant and lead male voice in many of Tagore’s musical dramas. With Kanika Bandopadhyay and Suchitra Mitra who were the lead female voices in these, he was part of the Rabindra Sangeet triumvirate that was popular and respected. It was referred as ‘Hemanta-Kanika-Suchitra’ and, with Debabrata Biswas, this quartet was to be the mostly heard exponents of Tagore compositions.
Though, he won two National awards for the category best male playback singer he richly deserved much higher accolades from the highest level.
His legacy still lives on through his memorable songs, the music he had composed, and through many male singers in Bengal and the rest of India who continue to emulate his inimitable resonant singing style. The exquisite Hemanta Kumar music will always mesmerize us with its lilting melody ‘ tuum pukar lo, tumhara intezar hain..’
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