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 

Old is Gold MANNA DEY (LEGEND) Review and Songs

MANNA DEY

Manna Dey was a imaginative figure in the world of Indian music. His fame was not just restrained to the Indian domain but to every part of the globe, where an Indian heart continue. People reverence and reverence him not only for his musical bearing but because he illustrate a wonderful consolidation of resonance and poetry. His stance in Indian music justifies the proposition – the art survive the artist.

Born on May 1, 1919, Manna Dey was dedicate by his parents as Prabodh Chandra Dey. Their was an authoritative joint family of North Calcutta. Prior to Manna Dey another knowledgeable artiste of similar stature Krishna Chandra Dey too was born in this very house. Purna Chandra Dey was Manna Dey’s father and Mahamaya Dey was his mother. From very childhood Manna da straightforward a keen liking for sports like wrestling and boxing and transcend in both. Apart from sports, the singer was also renowned for playing pranks upon people.

It was during his intermediate classes at Scottish Church College, Dey’s singing talent became apparent. He started taking singing lessons from his uncle Krishna Chandra Dey and from Ustad Dabir Khan. And it was at this period of time Manna Dey stood first for three consecutive years in three different categories of inter-collegiate singing competitions.

In 1942,  Dey accompanied his uncle Krishna on a visit to Mumbai. And there under the guidance of his uncle, then Sachin Dev Burman, Manna da started working as a successful assistant music director. But the composer never stopped taking musical lessons in Hindustani Classical music from two classical substantial, Ustad Aman Ali Khan and Ustad Abdul Rahman Khan.

The imaginative singer started his career in playback singing with Tamanna in 1943. The musical score was set by his uncle Krishna and he had to sing a duet with Suraiya. The song was an imperative hit. People across the country loved the song. In 1950, Mashal was the second film where Manna Dey got the convenience to sing a solo Upar gagan vishal and this time the melody was created by Sachin Dev Burman.

Manna da, as he was fondly called, was a perfect singer who could sing any category of song. From qawaalis (Yeh ishq ishq hai) to romantic duets (Pyaar hua ikraar hua), fast numbers (Aao twist karein) to patriotic songs (Ae mere pyare watan), prayer numbers (Tu pyaar ka saagar hai) to classical gems (Laaga chunari mein daag, Tere naina talaash kare, Poocho na kaise, Aayo kahaan se ghanshyam and Jhanak jhanak tori baaje paayaliya and Phool gendwa na maaro) among other gems.

Being the multifaceted genius he was, he won the Filmfare Award for Ae bhai zara dekhke chalo from Mera Naam Joker. The singer had sung several notable numbers for Raj Kapoor that made him the showman’s voice. Though he was controversial the most talented amongst his contemporaries, yet the career graph of this great singer never reached dizzy heights considering tough controversy from Mohammed Rafi and Kishore Kumar.

It was on December 18, 1953, the composer-singer got married to Sulochana Kumaran and the couple was blessed with two children – Suroma and Sumita. He instigate a new genre in Indian music where he infused Indian classical music within a pop frame work. His experimentation with western music too produced many unforgettable melodies like .

The multytalented singer had recorded more than 3,500 songs. His music has fascinate the audience throughout the world. And understandable he has been deluge with multitudinous National Award and titles. After being hospitalised for brain haemorrhage for nearly four months, our dearest Manna da died on October 24, 2013.

With Manna Dey’s passing away, Bollywood’s music world has absolutely lost one of his most precious masterpiece. Our earnest consolation to his family.

MANNA DEY Bengali song Download here :

MANNA DEY_VOL 1 

Old is Gold LATA MANGESHKAR (LEGEND) Review and Songs

Lata

Lata Mangeshkar was born in Indore on September 8, 1929, and became, absolute simply, the most accessible playback singer in Bollywood's history. She has sung for over 50 years for actresses from Nargis to Preity Zinta, as well as having recorded albums of all kinds of song.  Before the 1991 edition, when her entry retreat, the Guinness Book of World Records listed her as the most-recorded artist in the world with not less than 30,000 single, duet, and chorus-backed songs recorded in 20 Indian languages between 1948 and 1987. Today that number efficiency have reached 40,000!

His father Dinanath Mangeshkar  was the owner of a theater company and a considered classical singer  in his own satisfactory. He started giving Lata singing lessons from the age of five, and she also studied with well-known singers Aman Ali Khan Sahib and Amanat Khan. Even at a young age she shown a God-given musical gift and could master vocal performance the first time.

Ironically, for someone of her stature, she made her entry into Bollywood at the wrong time - around the 1940’ s, when bass singers with heavily voices, such as Noor Jehan and Shamshad Begum were in style. She was deserted from many projects because it was believed that her voice was too high-pitched and thin. The resources of her entry into the industry were no less unfortunate - her father died in 1942, the responsibility of earning income to support her family fell upon her, and between 1942 and 1948 she acted in as many as eight films in Hindi and Marathi to take care of economic tribulation. She made her introduction as a playback singer in the Marathi film Kiti Hasaal (1942) but, ironically, the song was edited out!

However, in 1948, she got her big opportunity with Ghulam Haider in the film Majboor (1948), and 1949 saw the release of four of her films: Mahal (1949), Dulari (1949), Barsaat(1949), and Andaz (1949); all four of them became runaway hits, with their songs reaching to heights of what was until then unseen popularity. Her unusually high-pitched singing represented the trend of heavily nasal voices of the day totally antiquated and, within a year, she had changed the face of playback singing forever. The only two lower-pitched singers to survive her treble offensive to a certain expansion were Geeta Dutt and Shamshad Begum.

Her singing style was initially nostalgic of  Noor Jehan, but she soon overcame that and elaborate her own distinctive style. Her sister, Asha Bhosle, too, came up in the late 1950s and the two of them were the queens of Indian playback singing right through to the 1990s. Her voice had a special multifaceted quality, which meant that finally music composers could stretch their creative speculation to the fullest. Although all her songs were immediate hits under any composer, it was the composers C. Ramchandra and Madan Mohan who made her sound her sweetest and challenged her voice like no other music director.

The 1960s and 1970s saw her go from, even as there were allegation that she was monopolizing the playback-singing industry. However, in the 1980s, she shorted her workload to consolidate on her shows abroad. Today, Lata sings occasionally against a sudden renaissance in her popularity, but even today some of Hindi Cinema's biggest hits, including Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), Dil To Pagal Hai(1997), and Veer-Zaara (2004) feature her well-known voice.

No matter which female playback singer breaks through in any generation, she cannot replace the timeless voice of Lata Mangeshkar. She is an icon without icons....

Lata Mangeshkar Bengali Songs Download here :

Lata Vol-1 

Old is Gold KISHOR KUMAR (LEGEND) Review and Songs

KISHOR KUMAR

Abhas Kumar Ganguly (Kishor Kumar) born in 4th August, 1929, friendly called Kishore Da, was one of those very few singers who took risks and examination with different styles of music. Intentional to be a legend in Hindi film world, this many talented person has transcend as a playback singer, actor, composer, lyrics writer, director, producer and script writer. The songs of Kishore Kumar have an unimaginable blend of romance, emotions, naughtiness and sadness. We attempt to present the life history of Kishor Kumar in this short profile.

Kishore Kumar was born in a Khandwa located in the state of Madhya Pradesh. He was born in a normal Bengali family and was the youngest among his brother. He had two elder brothers (Ashok Kumar and Anoop Kumar) and a sister (Sati Devi). His father Kunjilal Ganguly was a lawyer by profession and his mother Gauri Devi was from a comfortable family. When his eldest brother Ashok Kumar became an actor, Kishore Kumar was still quite young. Later on, his second brother also tested into movies to become an actor.

Kishore Kumar also started to show interest in music and often caricature the great K.L. Saigal. Though he did not have any formal training in music, he decided to accompany it and followed his brothers to Mumbai. It was his dream to become a famous playback singer and be counted among narrative. He would often go to the studios and ask producers if he could sing on the movie's soundtrack. First he could not materialize a style of his own but nevertheless he perfectly duplicate K.L. Saigal. Once, the great S.D Burman had come to Ashok Kumar's house to meet up when he listen Kishore singing. He genuinely thought it was K.L. Saigal singing and interrogate if he was there too! When he came to know that it was Kishore singing, he truly understand and supported the young boy to continue improving his voice but at the same time, materialize a style of his own.

Kishore fulfilled this advice in mind and went on materialize his own identification style. He accomplished yodeling, a unique style he heard amongst the Austrian music agglomeration of his brother Anoop. In Hindi film industry, his yodeling turned out to be widely popular and became a brand of Kishore Kumar. His songs sounded absolutely natural, like laughter. He used to consolidate non-sensical terms into his songs and give it an  exclusively new feel. The ability to translate his voice according to not just the scene but also the actor is something that was truly extraordinary of Kishore. He has sung soulful songs for Dev Anand and also fun filled songs for Rajesh Khanna.

After Rajesh Khanna went out of the scene, Kishore Kumar belted out chart topping hits for superstar Amitabh Bachchan. When R.D. Burman stormed the music world, Kishore Kumar re-surfaced with hits like Roop Tera Mastana and many other melodious songs. Some films that procure a special mention are Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin, Kinara, Dream Girl, Anurodh, Sharabi, Mr. Natwarlal, Gol Maal, Dostana, Manzil, Padosan, Shalimar, Khatta Meetha, Kasme Vaade, Ghar, Don, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, Dilli Ka Thug, etc.

When his popularity began to diminish during mid 80's, he retired and wanted to return back to Khandwa, his native place. Unfortunately, it was not insignificant to be. On October 13th 1987, unintentional the birthday of his elder brother Ashok Kumar, Kishore go through a heart attack and breathed his last. His inconvenient and unpredictable death shocked the entire nation. Kishore Kumar married four times and his eldest son Amit Kumar also ventured into the world of music.

 
KISHOR KUMAR Bengali song Download here :
Kishor VOL-1
Rabindra Sangeet 

Old is Gold ASHA BHOSLE (LEGEND) Review and Songs

ASHA BHOSLE

ASHA BHOSLE Bengali Songs Download here :

ASHA VOL-1
Album Mone rakho