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Hemant Kumar Biography & Facts

Hemanta Mukhopadhyay (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989), known professionally as Hemant Kumar and Hemanta Mukherjee, was a legendary Indian music director and playback singer who primarily sang in Bengali and Hindi, as well as other Indian languages like Marathi, Gujarati, Odia, Assamese, Tamil, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, Konkani, Sanskrit and Urdu. He was an artist of Bengali and Hindi film music, Rabindra Sangeet, and many other genres. He was the recipient of two National Awards for Best Male Playback Singer and was popularly known as the "voice of God". Early life and education Hemanta was born in Varanasi, in the house of his maternal grandfather who was a physician. His paternal family originated from the town of Jaynagar Majilpur, and migrated to Kolkata in the early 1900s. Hemanta grew up and attended the Nasiruddin School and later the Mitra Institution school in the Bhowanipore area, where he met his longtime friend Subhas Mukhopadhyay who later became a Bengali poet. He also developed a friendship with the noted writer Santosh Kumar Ghosh during his studies. Hemanta joined the Bengal Technical Institute at Jadavpur (now Jadavpur University) to pursue Engineering Diploma. However, he quit academics due to health problem and to pursue a career in music, despite objections from his father. He experimented with literature and published a short story in a Bengali magazine Desh, however he focused on music by the late 1930's. Early music career Hemanta's first film song was in the Bengali film Rajkumarer Nirbbasan released in 1940 which was scored by S.D. Burman. This was followed by Nimai Sanyas in 1941, in which music was scored by Hariprasanna Das. Hemanta's first compositions for himself were the Bengali non-film songs "Katha Kayonako Shudhu Shono" and "Amar Biraha Akashe Priya" in 1943. The lyrics were by Amiya Bagchi. His first Hindi film songs were in Meenakshi in 1942. followed by Irada in 1944, with music composed by Amar Nath. Hemanta is considered the foremost exponent of Rabindra Sangeet. His first recorded Rabindra Sangeet was in the Bengali film Priya Bandhabi (1944). The song was "Pather Sesh Kothaye". He recorded his first non-film Rabindra Sangeet disc in 1944 under the Columbia label. The songs were "Aamar Aar Habe Na Deri" and "Keno Pantha E Chanchalata". Prior to that, he had recorded the song "Aamaar mallikabone" on All India Radio/Akashvani but, unfortunately, the record has passed into oblivion. His first movie as a music director was the Bengali film Abhiyatri in 1947. Although many of the songs Hemanta recorded during this time received critical acclaim, major commercial success eluded him until 1947. Some contemporary male singers of Hemanta in Bengali were Jaganmay Mitra, Robin Majumdar, Satya Chowdhury, Dhananjay Bhattacharya, Sudhirlal Chakraborty, Bechu Dutta and Talat Mahmood. Family Hemanta had three brothers and a sister Nilima. His younger brother Tarajyoti was a Bengali short story writer. His youngest brother Amal composed music as well as sang for some Bengali movies, most notably for Abak Prithibi and Hospital. Amal recorded a few songs in the 1960's as well with Hemant as music director, most notably the song Jiboner Anekta Path Eklai. In 1945, Hemanta married Bela Mukherjee, a singer from Bengal. Although she had sung some popular songs in the movie Kashinath, she did not actively pursue her musical career after marriage. They had two children, a son Jayant, and a daughter Ranu. Ranu also pursued a music career in the late 1960's and early 1970's, with somewhat limited success. Jayant is married to Moushumi Chatterjee, a Bengali film actress. Success and migration to Mumbai In the mid-1940s, Hemanta became an active member of the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA) and started an association with another active IPTA member — songwriter and composer Salil Chowdhury. One of the main driving forces behind the establishment of IPTA was the Bengal famine of 1943 and the inaction of the British administration and wealthy Indians to prevent it. In 1947, Hemanta recorded a non-film song called "Ganyer badhu" ("The rural bride") that had music and lyrics by Salil Chowdhury. The six-minute song recorded on two sides of a 78 rpm disc was sung at a varying pace and lacked the conventional structure and romantic theme of a Bengali song. It depicted an idyllic, prosperous and caring rural woman's life and family and how it gets ravaged by the demons of famine and ensuing poverty. This song generated an unforeseen popularity for Hemanta and Salil in eastern India and, in a way, established Hemanta ahead of his male contemporaries. Hemanta and Salil paired again in several songs over the next few years. Almost all these songs proved to be very popular. Around the same period, Hemanta started receiving more assignments for music composition for Bengali films. Some were for director Hemen Gupta. When Hemen moved to Mumbai a few years later, he called upon Hemanta to compose music for his first directorial venture in Hindi titled Anandmath under the Filmistan banner. Responding to this call, Hemanta migrated to Mumbai in 1951 and joined Filmistan Studios. To remain linked to his roots, he named his new house which he built in Mumbai's Khar after one of his favorite works of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali. The music of Anand Math (1952) was a moderate success. Perhaps, the most notable song from this movie is 'Vande mataram' sung by Lata Mangeshkar, which Hemanta set to a marching tune. Following Anandamath, Hemanta scored music for a few Filmistan movies like Shart in subsequent years, the songs of which received moderate popularity. Simultaneously, Hemanta gained popularity in Mumbai as a playback singer. His songs for actor Dev Anand under the music direction of S. D. Burman in movies like Jaal (1952) ("Yeh Raat Yeh Chandni Phir Kahan"), House No. 44 (1955) ("Chup Hai Dharti" and "Teri Duniya Mein Jeene Se"), Solva Saal (1958) ("Hai Apna Dil To Awara"), and Baat Ek Raat Ki (1962) ("Na Tum Humen Jano"), attained popularity. In the 1950s, he also play-backed for other heroes of Hindi films like Pradeep Kumar (Nagin, Detective) and Sunil Dutt (Duniya Jhukti Hain) and later in the 1960s for Biswajeet (Bees Saal Baad, Bin Badal Barsaat, Kohra) and Dharmendra (Anupama); he was the music composer for all these films. Career rise By the mid-1950s, Hemanta had consolidated his position as a prominent singer and composer. In Bengal, he was one of the foremost exponents of Rabindra Sangeet and perhaps the most sought-after male singer. In a ceremony organized by Hemanta Mukherjee to honor Debabrata Biswas (1911–1980), the legendary Rabindra Sangeet exponent, in Calcutta in March 1980, Debabrata Biswas unhesitatingly mentioned Hemanta as "the second hero" to popularise Rabindra Sangeet, the first being the legendary Pankaj Kumar Mullick. In Mumbai, along with playback singing, Hemanta carved a niche as a composer. He composed music.... Discover the Hemant Kumar popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Hemant Kumar books.