Manobendra Mukherjee was in great demand during Durga Puja.

Manobendra Mukherjee was in great demand during Durga Puja.

During 1950s and 1960s, Bengali modern songs dominated the world of music in Bengal. Durga Puja was the greatest festival of the bengalies.

Whenever Durga puja used to come the great artists were invited to sing in jalsas and programs in different parts of the country. The basic discs of the popular singers like Manobendra Mukherjee, Sandhya Mukherjee, Shyamal Mitra, Satinath Mukherjee used to come up during the Durga Puja.

Some of the great songs of Manobendra Mukherjee which stormed Bengali music included “ami eto je tomay bhalobesechi”, “ei ganga sei padda”, “sei bhalo ei bosonto noi”, to name a few. Manobendra Mukherjee was in strong demand due to his classical rendition of songs. Some of his classical songs which became extremely popular included “bare bare ke jeno dake”, “na jeona modhujamini”, “rimjhim baje monjiro kar”, etc.

Manobendra Mukherjee had great combination with lyricist Shyamal Gupta. Many of his songs were written by Shyamal Mitra. Some of the other popular songs of Manobendra Mukherjee included “moyurkonthi ratero nile” composed by Sudhin Dasgupta, “bone noy mone more” composed by Dr. Nochiketa Ghosh, “amar pother prante moner” composed by Satinath Mukherjee, “ei nil nil jol sagore” composed by Prabir Majumdar, etc.

Manobendra Mukherjee’s successful Shyamasangeet records and nazrulgeeti records also used to come up during Durgapuja. Listeners also used to like his classical rendition with popular tabla-player Radhakanto Nandi in songs which were taal-based.

Manobendra Mukherjee had sung more than 1000 songs of different categories. So it is very difficult to mention them in a small article. His songs should be restored.