Today is Composer Hemant Kumar’s Death Anniversary. If he had not expired in 1989, he would have been 98 today. Born Hemanta Mukherjee, Hemant Kumar was a music composer and playback singer. He sang songs in Hindi, Bengali, Marathi and other Indian languages. One of the best-known exponents of Rabindra Sangeet, he has sung several Marathi songs – Mee dolkara dolkara…, Gomu sangtina majha tu yesheelaka. Famous actor Moushmi Chatterjee is his daughter-in-law.
On his death anniversary, we revisit five of our favourite songs from an oeuvre that had their genesis in Bengali.
#1. Na jao saiyan chhudaake baiyan: Meena Kumari’s status of tragedy queen was sealed forever when her Chhoti Bahu pleaded in Geeta Dutt’s voice, ‘Na jao saiyan chhudaake baiyan’ to zamindar (Rehman) in feudal Calcutta. This famous song of the golden era of Hindi cinema is a reworked version of ‘Oliro kotha shune bokul haashe’ which was originally sung by Hemant Kumar himself.
#2. Ek baar zara phir keh do: Remember Bhashkor (Amitabh) and Piku (Deepika) humming ‘Ei poth Jodi na shesh hoi’ in Piku? That’s the song in which Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen’s tender chemistry made the entire race of Bengalis drown in romance. Bishwajeet and Asha Parekh’s dancing around trees is Hindi cinema’s favourite cliché, though they do the job pretty well. But the original with Kumar and Sen playfully imagining the possibility of an endless road is just way more fun and of course, timeless.
#3. Sawan mein barkha sataye: Since the monsoon is still here, what better song to celebrate the season than ‘Sawan mein barkha sataye’? You can find the romantic magnificence of this composition in the Bengali version too. While both were composed by Hemant Kumar himself, the Bengali version was sung by Lata Mangeshkar, and she did a splendid job.
#4. O bekarar dil: The unrelenting heart of Waheeda Rehman that we merrily discovered with Lata Mangeshkar’s voice in ‘O bekarar dil’ has its seed in Hemant Kumar’s previous composition where he himself lent his voice. The original ‘O nodire’ is an ode to the river, and its persistent journey. So you have the heart and the river, one metaphor for another.
#5. Yeh Nayan Dare Dare: The origin of ‘Yeh nayan dare dare’ lies in ‘Ei raat tomar amar’ in Deep Jweley Jai (1959), the film which was incidentally remade as Khamoshi in 1969, another film with beaming compositions. While both the songs have Hemant Kumar lending his melancholic voice, the Bengali original trumps the Hindi version because it contains the wonderful whistling opening.
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