Saturday, January 1, 2011

The Romantic singer Sailen Mukherjee had remained unsung.


The Romantic singer Sailen Mukherjee had remained unsung.

The 50s and 60s are considered to be the golden age of Bengali music. Singers of different style and classical background had glorified Bengali music including male singers like Manobendra Mukherjee, Manna Dey, Shyamal Mitra, Hemanta Mukherjee, Dhananjoy Bhattacharya, and female singers like Sandhya Mukherjee, Geeta Dutt, Shipra Bose, Ila Bose and others.

Sailen Mukherjee appeared in Bengali musical arena during that time. Some of his basic discs had been extremely romantic. His song “dar chop chop ko” takes the listeners to paradise with the background of boat travelling across river Ganges. His song “chander alloy rater pakhi” is equally romantic. The use of the piano in the romantic songs of Sailen Mukherjee requires special mention.

He was brilliant in his song “betha Jodi pao tobu jeno”. The song has slow beat to suit the mood created by the lyrics. His fast number “e mon amar jano” had been very popular in the 60s. The other song which require special mention include “ei shur hrihaye charalo”. Sailen Mukherjee gave life to epic poet Satyendranath Dutta’s brilliant poetry “jhorna jhorna shundari jhorna”. The tune of the song had balanced the words written by the legendary poet and expresses the flow of water of spring. The other landmark songs of Sailen Mukherjee included "eto je shonai gaan", "tomar moner ei prante", "aji oi akash pare", "tomay dekhechi koto rupe kotobar", etc.

Sailen Mukherjee sang two songs to address the women of Bengal including “ogo lojjaboti” and “priyo bandhabi”. The shy representation of Bengali women had been expressed by Sailen Mukherjee.

Sailen Mukherjee had given immortal music to another singer of golden age namely Manobendra Mukherjee. One of the most romantic songs included “tumi thako ami jai”. The song of Manobendra Mukherjee composed by Sailen Mukherjee which stormed Bengal in the late 50s included “bare bare ke jeno dake amare”. Sailen Mukherjee’s other composition for Manobendra Mukherjee which was equally romantic included “malatire sune jete hoyeche tumi kotodur”.

Sailen Mukherjee romantic tunes to female singers of the golden age as well. One of his romantic number composed for Alpone Banerjee included “bole chile tumi gaan shonabe sei ashae din guni”. His romantic composed for Bani Ghoshal namely “je phool bidayer pothe nirobe jhoriya jae” flabbergasted the bengalies. His romantic tune composed for Sujata Chakravarty namely “Jodi jaano e premer nei kono khoy” also stormed Bengal in the early 60s.

Sailen Mukherjee did not get a scope of composing music for many Bengali films as the film arena was dominated by Manobendra Mukherjee, Hemanta Mukherjee, Shyamal Mitra and others. Even then Bengal cannot forget and ignore the contribution of Sailen Mukherjee during the golden age who always remained unsung and unrecognized. His songs and compositions should be preserved and restored.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Sailen Mukherjee the famous Singer and Music Director of Bengal Didnot get his due recognition and respect when he lived..He was born on 12th September 1928..During his short span of life of just 50 years,His total no.of records which included songs sung by him and his compositions are 450. He received his Music training from Sri Aparesh Lahiri ( father of Bappi Lahiri), Calssical training from Sri Kumaresh Bose and later from Sri Akhilbandhu Ghosh. This Legendary Singer cum Music Director and Composer was a man of extarordinary talent He was considered an authority in Rabindra Sangeet..Smt. Kanika Bandhopadhyay took him as Joint Music diorector in Tasher Desh which was first published by HMV in the form of an LP record, he also adde4d his golden voice in Mayar Khyala, Kalmrigaya and in many more Tagore's dance dramas. He has quite a good no. of discs on Tagore's Songs.He also has records on Nazrul Geeti... Many famous singers of bengal like Nirmala Misra, Arati Mukherjee, Pintu Bhattachrya, Haimanti Sukla, Moloy Mukherjee Recorded their first basic disc under his music composition and training. Just at the age of 24 years he became music trainer of HMV. Many famous singers of bengal Recroded Rabindra Sanget under his training. Amongst the famous bengali film songs composed by him are Lata mangeshkar's "AMAR KATHA SISIR DHOWA HANSNUHANAR KOLI" of the film DOLNA, Hemanta Mukherjee's "O JADI RADHAI HOLO,PAYE KYANO PORLO NA NUPUR" from the flim GODHULI.Many of us donot know that he was the actual music composer of the songs of Bengali milestone film casted by Mahanayak Uttamkumar.."CHOWRONGEE" sung by Manna Dey.." BARO EKA LAGEY, EI ADHARE, MEGHERO KHYALA AKSHO PAREY.", Song sung by Hemanta Mukherjee..KACHE RABE,KACHE RABE.He creation was cheated. in the music album of chowrongee we find the name of Ahsima Mukherjee as the Creator of those songs which is nothing but cheating his creation. the entire bengali film and music industry knows this unfortunate incedent and this was a big blow to his career as a music director.infact he had a broken heart due this malicious act which stormed his life and future career. Amongst other famous film songs are "KICHHU KATHA CHHILO" sung by Kishore Kumar and "o jadi Radahi Holo Paye Kyano porlo na Nupur" sung by Hemanta Mukherjee in unreleased fiilm "GODHULI". Sailen Mukherjee was also considered as the king of Children's music. He had created and added music to quite a good no. of Folks and fairy tales of children which came out in the form of records and were super hits. This talented unsung Singer Cum Music Director left for his heavenly abode on 8th November 1978 with much pains nad agonies.

Souvik-indrajalik said...

Dear Debkumarji,
thanks a lot for providing the great input on great singer and composer Sailen Mukherjee. The works of the great singer requires to be brought into the notice of the new generation who dont know many of the gems of the golden age of bengali modern songs, the 50s and 60s.
Souvik Chatterji.