Hemanta Mukherjee

Hemant was an Indian singer who sang in many Indian languages and was a composer. He received two National Awards for Best Male Playback Singer and many other awards. After almost twenty years of his death, at least one album is released every year by the Gramophone Company. His songs and the music he has composed continue his legacy. He had three brothers and a sister. His elder brother, Tarajyoti, was a short-story writer in Bengali. The youngest brother, Amal Mukherjee, composed music for Bengali movies. He got married to a singer from Bengal, Bela Mukherjee, in 1945. She had sung some popular songs but decided not to be active in her music career after getting married. They had a son and a daughter. Their daughter Ranu Mukherjee Ranu Mukherjee is an Indian-origin playback singer >> Read More... went for her career in music in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Their son got married to an Indian actress who was popular in the 1970s.

Hemant was born in Varanasi, but later on, in the 1900s, they migrated to Kolkata. In his childhood, he made friends with Subhas Mukhopadhyay- a Bengali poet, and Santosh Kumar Ghosh- a noted writer. After passing 12th, he decided to go for Engineering for his graduation, but as he wanted a music career, he quit engineering, though his father objected. He followed the famous Bengali singer Pankaj Mullick Pankaj Kumar Mullick, who was a pioneer of film mu >> Read More... in his early life, and he was nicknamed ‘Chhoto Pankaj’ because of this. He also tried writing and published a short story for a prestigious Bengali Magazine called Desh, but he got into music in the late 1930s. He recorded his first-ever song for All India Radio in 1935, under the influence of his friend Subhas.

Sailesh Duttagupta- a Bengali musician, primarily mentored him in his music career. In the early 1980s, in an interview, he stated that he had received classical music training from Ustad Faiyaz Khan’s student Phanibhusan Gangopadhyay. He recorded his first gramophone disc under the Columbia label in 1937. After this, till 1984, he continued to record non-film discs for the Gramophone Company of India (GCI). His first Hindi songs were broadcasted in 1940, under GCI’s Columbia Label, and his Bengali non-film songs were broadcasted in 1944. His first-ever Bengali film song was released in 1941, whereas his first Hindi film songs were broadcast in 1944. As a music director, his first movie was a Bengali film Abhiyatri in 1947. His songs received critical acclaim for a long time until 1947 major success came his way. He became an active member of the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) in the mid-1940s. Then he started an association with another active IPTA member, a songwriter, and composer, Salil Chowdhury Salil Chowdhury was a music composer, instrumental >> Read More... . He received more assignments than usual for Bengali films’ music composition during this period.

Hemen Gupta Born on 21st March 1914 in Jharkhand, Hemen Gupta >> Read More... called Hemanta to compose music when Hemanta moved to Mumbai a few years later. TO this, he moved to Mumbai in 1951 and became a part of Filmistan Studios. Eventually, gained popularity as a playback singer in Mumbai and gave a few hits. He also play-backed many Hindi film heroes. He gained the position as a distinguished singer and composer. Debarbrata Biswas, once in a ceremony held by Hemanta in Calcutta in March 1980, mentioned him as “the second hero” to popularize Rabindra Sangeet. In 1955 after winning the prestigious Filmfare Best Music Director Award for the Hindi film Nagin, he partnered with Uttam Kumar Uttam Kumar was matinee idol of Bengali cinema. He >> Read More... - a Bengali actor as a playback singer-actor pair. For over a decade, they were the best duo Bengali cinema has ever seen. He grew a lot, and his songs gained popularity in the latter part of the 1950s. This peak period of his continued for almost a decade. Besides gaining popularity, he also got into the movie direction under ‘Hemanta-Bela productions.’ His composition style kept on growing and was noticeable in his future films.

To celebrate Rabindranath Tagore’s 100th birth anniversary in 1961, GCI featured Hemanta’s Rabindra Sangeet in a large number. He went on various overseas concerts, even to the West Indies. In the 1960s, he was still the major singer in Bengal, was recognized as an established composer and singer in Bollywood, was the chief and the lead male voice in many of Tagore’s musical dramas. In the 1970s, he kept on doing what he did for the Hindi films, but sadly his work wasn’t as successful as before, but his work was well-liked for most of the decade. He stood in his place as the foremost exponent of Rabindra Sangeet.

1971 was a year of opportunities for him. This year he not only debuted as a film director for a Bengali film that was self-produced, but he also got the opportunity to go to Hollywood, and he play-back and created music for ‘Condra’s Siddhartha. He was the first Indian singer to perform in Hollywood. He was even honored by the US Government with the Citizenship of Baltimore, Maryland; he is the first-ever Indian singer to get US citizenship. A few films he worked as a composer from the early to mid-1970s established him as the key film music composer in the Bengali cinema. The works he re-recorded with composer Salil Chowdhury were a great success and were converted into an album, titled Legend of Glory, vol. 2.

After his vocal capabilities were severely affected by a heart attack, he created music and songs, but his condition didn’t allow him to work much after the early 1980s. So, he recorded songs in his early 80s. In 1984, he was honored by different organizations, and the most notable one was GCI for completing 50 years in music. Over the next few years, he released songs for small-time companies which were non-film, but they didn’t receive much commercial success. Then he even composed for some Bengali movies and besides this one for Bengali and Hindi TV series. By this time, he was frequently featured on the All India Radio, Doordarshan, and live concerts/programs.

He was nominated for Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri in1987 and in the 1970s, respectively, but he politely refused both the awards. He was awarded for completing 50 years in a musical journey on behalf of his fans and admirers from Lata Mangeshkar in the Netaji Indoor Stadium in 1987. In September 1989, after returning from Dhaka, Bangladesh, he had a heart attack on 26th September, and he left this world at 11:15 PM in Calcutta in a nursing home. He traveled to Dhaka to receive the Michael Madhusudan Award plus to deliver a concert. He received many honorable awards during his proud lifetime. In an interview in the early 1990s, his wife stated that her late husband had helped an uncountable number of families and people either financially or otherwise.