Old is Dold HEMANTA MUKHERJEE (LEGEND) Review and Songs

HEMANTA MUKHERJEE

Hemanta Mukherjee was a singer, composer, and producer in the Hindi and Bengali film industry.  He is practically known for his Bollywood songs from the 1950's and 1960's.  In his career, he recorded roughly 2000 songs.

Hemant Kumar Mukherjee was born on June 16, 1920 in Benares (Varanasi).  He had three brothers and one sister. Though he was born in Benares, his family originally recognize from Baharu in West Bengal.  When he was young, his family move to Calcutta.  There he grew up and attended Mitra Institution school of Bhawanipore.  After he graduated from Intermediate, he attended Jadavpur University and began studying engineering.Hemanta participation in music began early.  He sang his first song in All India Radio in 1933.  His age was only 13. 

However it was never clear that Hemanta would become a singer.  His original training was in engineering, but he released out of the University to persevere other paths.  Initially he tried his hand at writing ; he even managed to have a short story published in a major Bengali magazine.  But after a while it became clear that his calling was music.

Hemanta had a understandable degree of formal training in music.  He had respective teachers.  The major portion of his training seems to have been under Sailesh Duttagupta.  He also studied under Phani Banerjee, and received his training in Rabindra Sangeet under Anadi Dastidar.  Later he was a supporter of the great Faiyaz Khan.  Unfortunately this last training did not last very long, it ended with the death of Faiyaz Khan in 1950.

It was in 1937 that he recorded his first disk.  The names of the songs were Janite Jadi Go Tumi and Balo Go Balo More.  The lyrics to these songs were written by Naresh Bhattacharya and the tune and arrangement was by Sailesh Dattagupta.  This was recorded under the Columbia label.  Thereafter he had a continuous output of non-film songs from the Gramophone Company of India up until 1984. His career as a film playback singer began with the Bengali film "Nemai Sanyas"; this was released in 1941.  After that he did playback for a number of other Bengali films.

The Bengali film industry was good training ground, but for him to fulfill a wider audience, he had to work in the Hindi film industry.  He was first able to sing his first Hindi film song in "Irada" which was released in 1944.  This was under Pt. Amarnath's music direction. But Hemanta wanted to represent that he could do more than just sing.  He wished to show his proficiency as a music director.  He was first able to do this in the Bengali film "Abhiyatri" in 1947.  These were all very fine achievements, but he was just not able to attain commercial success.

This period of life was marked by a properly normal personal life.  In 1945 he married Bela Mukherjee, who was also a Bengali singer.  Together they had two children, one boy named Jayant and one girl named Ranu.  It is pleasurable to note the the son Jayant married the 1970's film actress Moushmi Chatterjee.

The middle of 1940's was a unrestrained period in Indian history and Hemant felt committed to use his art for social and political development of the people.  The waning days of the British Raj made the problems of imperialism very evident, and multifarious social discrimination cried out for some resolution.  When these problems did not go away after Independence, many people felt they could no longer remain quiet.  In this environment, it is no surprise that Hemanta joined Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA).

The purpose of the IPTA was to create works of art that would raise the political awareness of the common man.  Plays, music, and other dramatic works were created with the aim of concentrate on the social and political abomination of the day. The IPTA was administered by the Communist Party of India, but not all of the participants were members of the party.

Hemanta’s time in the IPTA may not have done much to advance his career financialy, but it was not without its betterment.  First it gave Hemant Kumar the satisfaction of standing up for his beliefs.  It also produced some interesting work ; especially notable was his partnership with Salil Chowdhury.  In 1948 he sang an epic 6 min. song.  This song was entitled ‘Ganyer Badhu’.  It is said that when this song was released, Salil was not present because he was covering from police.  The success of this song surface the way for a number of other partnership with Salil Chowdhury in the future.

Other music directors also began to take note of his qualification.  In the late 1940's Hemant started to compose music for a director named Hemen Gupta.  This association would produce life changing results.

This association with Hemen Gupta led Hemanta to Bombay in 1951.  Sometime earlier Hemen Gupta moved to Bombay to work in the growing and lucrative Hindi film industry which was developing there.  Hemen liked Hemanta's music so he called him to Bombay to be the music director for his first Hindi Film.  This was "Anand Math" (1952) and was released under the Filmstan banner.  This movie may not be intentional a great hit, but it performed well enough for the Hemanta and  Hemen Gupta partnership to produce several more films together.

Hemant's fortunes were about to change.  He had been working very hard in the film industry for many years, yet popular commendation was slow in coming.  It was SD Burman who gave him his break for the film "Jaal" (1952). The song from this film Yeh Raat, Yeh Chaandni Phir Kahan, became a big hit, and connect his position as a major playback singer.

Hemant began to work as a music director.  His music directed flim’s areu "Nagin" (1954) "Jagriti" (1954), "Bees Saal Baad" (1962), and "Khamoshi" (1969).

In the 1950's, Hemanta had a varied artistic life.  In Bengal he was known as a major representative of Rabindra Sangeet.  In Bombay he now had two occupations.  He was known by many as a successful playback singer, and to others he was a music director.  However that was not enough for him; he also tested in as a film producer.  He established a film company by the name of Hemata-Bela whose first production was the Bengali "Neel Akshar Neechay" (1959).  This film company was later renamed as Geetanjali Productions; under this banner, films such as "Bees Saal Baad", and "Khamoshi", were released.

Acknowledgment came his way in the 50's and 60's.  In 1955 he won the "Filmfare Award for the Best Music Director".  This was for his film "Nagin" (1954).  He won the "Presidents Gold Medal" for his film "Neel Aksher Neechay" (1959).  He also received many other awards.

In 1980's health problems began to take their assessment.  In 1980 he had a heart attack.  Although he recovered this impacted his abilities. His last concert was in September of 1989.  He went to Bangladesh to receive the Michael Madhusudhan Award.  There he gave a representation in Dhaka.  Upon his return he had a severe heart attack and died on September 26, 1989.  

Though Hemant Mukherjee died long ago, there are constantly re-releases of his old material.  Sometimes these are mere repackaging of his older works and at other times they are remixes.  Today, several decades on, he is fondly remembered for giving us some of the most unforgettable songs ever to come out of Bollywood.

HEMANTA MUKHERJEE Bengali song Download here :
HEMANTA.VOL.1


HEMANTA MUKHERJEE Hindi song Download here :
Hemanta vol.1