The stylish classical andaz of Manobendra Mukherjee brought revolution in Bengali modern songs.

Manobendra Mukherjee was one of the legendary classical singer of Bengal who had simplified classical ragas and used them in Bengali modern songs. His romantic song “ami eto je tomay bhalobesechi” written by Shyamal Gupta and composed by himself had classical touch embedded in it. His other own composed song “emni kore porbe mone baki jibon dhore” was also a masterpiece related to classical andaz. Manobendra Mukherjee’s pure classical numbers were even more melodious. One example is “ei moushumi mon shudhu rong bodlay”. In this song there was a small alaap or khanak taken at the place “mori je hay” where Manobendra had used the sargam by uttering in “aa aa” form. It was brilliant. There were other romantic songs like “boroshaklanto o duti nayan mele”. The song had been composed by Anal Chatterji. Manobendra Mukherjee had another master piece “bolo raat bolo se kothay”. The song was totally raga oriented. Manobendra Mukherjee was sublime in the song “ei nil nil jal sagore” composed by Probir Mojumdar and “tomar pather prante moner monidip jele rekhechi” composed by Satinath Mukherjee. Some of his own compositions like “ei ganga sei padda” and “sei bhalo ei bosonto noi” had absolute romantic andaz. Manobendra Mukherjee had given adequate expression to songs composed by Himangshu Dutta including “birohini chiro birohini”, “tumi je andhar”, “biroho barisha”, etc. The songs were difficult in nature and Manobendra was probably the most classically trained singer to do justice to them. Manobendra had also sung some of the songs created in thumri style. One example was “koto je soyechi betha” composed by Chinmoy Lahiri. One more classical number included “tumi to dariye acho”. Articles after articles can be devoted to Manobendra Mukherjee whose classical touch was as elegant and stylish as Neil Harvey’s wristy strokes. Manobendra Mukherjee’s songs composed by himself. Manobendra Mukherjee had sung many landmark songs composed by the music directors of the golden age. The examples included “ami parini bujhite parini” composed by Salil Choudhury, “moyurkonthi ratero nile” composed by Sudhin Dasgupta, “tumi thako ami jai” composed Sailen Mukherjee, “seto naam dhore kono dino dakeni amay” composed by Dr. Nochiketa Ghosh, “birohini chiro birohini” composed by Himangshu Dutta, “jodi amake dekho tumi udashi” composed by Abhijit Banerjee, “oi chandrakala seto tomari moton shundor noi” composed by Anal Chatterjee, to name a few. While these songs created history, the songs composed by Manobendra Mukherjee himself flabbergasted the audience in the 1950s and 1960s. As he was gifted with classical touch, the songs composed by himself were raagastrito meaning depicted the movement of Hindustani ragas. One of his early compositions for himself titled “emni kore porbe mone baki jibon dhore” in early 1950s got huge response from the audience. Shyamal Gupta wrote the lyrics of the song. The other popular song of the 1950s included “ami eto je tomae bhalobesechi, tobu mone hoy e jeno go kichu noy, jeno aro bhalo besejete parena hridoy”. These songs became immortal. There were also songs which were pathos related composed by Manobendra himself. Some of them included “koto asha niye tumi esechile”, “sei bhalo ei bosonto noy”, to mention a few. At the same time Manobendra Mukherjee composed songs based on orthodox ragas and catered to the interest of pure classical audience. Some of those songs included “bhalo lagena tumi na ele”, “ei moushumi mon shudhu rang badlae”, “rimjhim baje modiro bay”, to mention a few. At the same time Manobendra Mukherjee composed songs for himself which were based on the ragas used by composers earlier. For example he was inspired a composition of Sudhirlal Chakravarty for him in the early 50s titled “ghumayona soheli go” which he later modified and made a song on the same raga titled “modhumalotiro bone legeche dol”. Both the songs were majestic. At the same time Manobendra Mukherjee composed songs based on western andaz. His composition for himself titled “ami ke koto ekela tomari poth cheye cholechi”, “songi bihongi tumi je amar” had absolute western andaz. Even “ei ganga sei padda” had folk effect. It is difficult to rate both the types of songs and difficult to say whether Manobendra Mukherjee’s own compositions were better than other music-directors’s compositions. All the songs require serious restoration. Manobendra Mukherjee educated the audience in Nimai Bhattacharya interview in DD Bangla. In the late 1970s and 1980s when Doordarshan started operations, in DD Bangla a lot of brilliant interviews used to take place relating to great musical personalities. Nimai Bhattacharya took a brilliant interview of eminent singer Manobendra Mukherjee at that time. Manobendra Mukherjee died in the early 1990s and for those reasons the interview taken during late 1970s educate the audience a lot. Manobendra Mukherjee was a great speaker. He told Nimai Bhattacharya that his uncle Ratneshwar Mukherjee composed the tune of the song “nai chondon lekha sri radhar choke nai nai shemorai” in 1953. That was his first song. As far as film music was concerned, director Nirmal Dey took Manobendra Mukherjee to writer Tarashankar Banerjee who was writing the script of Uttam Kumar’s film Chadangar Bou. He asked Manobendra to compose a song. He composed the tune of a song relating to shiber gajon titled “shibo he shibo he”. Tarashankar Banerjee was impressed to such an extent that he agreed to keep Manobendra Mukherjee as the music director of the film. Manobendra Mukherjee in the interview had talked about himself winning national award for his song and music in Uttam Kumar’s film Jayjayanti. He also won the BFJA Award for the music of the film. He talked about all the legendary composers of the golden age. He sang two three lines of brilliant songs he sang on their compositions. He sang Sudhirlal Chakravarty composed song “ganero shure”, Robin Chatterjee’s “ei pranjhorona jaglo” and “surjo tomar prothom toron kholo”, Sudhin Dasgupta’s “moyurkonthi ratero nile”, Dr Nochiketa Ghosh’s “bone noy mone mor”, to name a few. He also talked about the great poets and lyricists Sailen Roy, Gouriprasanna Majumdar, Shyamal Gupta, Pabitra Mitra and others. He also talked about his capability of singing folk songs like Bhatiyali. He was asked by Dr Nochiketa Ghosh to sing the song “ore mon majhi tor boithare” in Uttam Kumar’s film Nabajanmo. Later when he heard Folk singer Nirmalendu Choudhury he thought folk songs could be sung with an even more louder and open voice. He also shared the ill luck that when he sang the song “dole dodul dole jhulona” in the film Deya Neya, the recordist told him to sing it not in a good manner, because the hero’s friend was supposed to give lips in the song. But Uttam Kumar came in the set and asked Manobendra to sing the song in the best way. His brother Tarun Kumar gave lips in the song and composer Shyamal Mitra composed the music of the film. He finished of the program by singing nazrul geeti based on Shyamkalyan raga, titled “sedin chiloje godhuli logon subhodristir por” and said he had completed 100 records of Nazrulgeeti at that time itself. From Manobendra’s words the common man got educated in music.