Anupam Ghatak used missing note.

Anupam Ghatak used missing note.

Legendary composer Anupam Ghatak used missing in most of his compositions. He used to be considered as one of the most talented composers of the 40s and 50s.

He had used the missing note in Sandhya Mukherjee’s song “ke tumi amare dako” in the film Agniparikkha released in 1954. Incidentally Agniparikkha used to be the starting point of Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen’s success story. In the sanchari where the words used were “notun atithi” Anupam Ghatak composed the line in a descending path as against the general trend of doing it in the ascending order. All the songs in the film became super hit including “gane mor indrandhanu” sung by Sandhya Mukherjee.

He used the same style in Sachin Gupta’s song “sararat jole sondha prodip chaya pore ache paye”. It was a bengali modern song. Anupam Ghatak was sublime in Uttam Kumar Suchitra Sen’s film Ekti Raat released in 1956 with Sandhya Mukherjee’s song “prodipero shikha keno kaanpe”. His music in Uttam Kumar’s film Shankar Narayan Bank was also appreciated. He also composed music in the film Surer Parashe.

He composed in landmark films in the 40s and 50s. Some of the notable films where he composed music included Shree Tulsidas, Asitboron’s film Kar Pape, Uttam Kumar’s film Sanjibani, Kalyani, Bosonto Choudhury’s film Debimalini. He also composed music in Utpal Dutta’s film Kirtigarh.

Anupam Ghatak also composed songs for the modern songs in the 40s and 50s for singers like Sandhya Mukherjee, Sabitri Ghosh, Sachin Gupta and others. He used the piano to perfection. His songs and films should be preserved.

Review of Uttam Kumar's Ekti Raat.

Review of Uttam Kumar’s film Ekti Raat.

Uttam Kumar, the greatest superstar of Bengali films, created sensation in the 50s, with the legendary actress Suchitra Sen. Whenever both the romantic performers performed together, middle-class bengalies associated themselves with the characters and became part of the same film. Till today, they are still considered to be the most romantic pair, who had graced Indian silver screen.

In Ekti Raat, while Uttam Kumar’s wife Sabita Chatterji, lost her train, due to contingent reasons, Uttam Kumar travelled with Suchitra Sen was also married to his destination in car. As that car also faced mechanical problems, they had to stay in Tulsi Chakravarty’s hotel for one night. Tulsi Chakravarty, only allowed married couples in his hotel, and for staying over there for a night, Uttam Kumar had to tell a lie that he was the husband of Suchitra Sen.

Suchitra Sen came with her dog, which ran away from the garden of that hotel and ran into the fields at night. Malina Debi, the mother of Sabita Chatterji, went to the house where her daughter was supposed to go to trace her son-in-law. All the events continued one after the other with comedy sequences. When Kamal Mitra, the husband of Suchitra Sen, came to know about the incident, he decided that he had to do play acting with Uttam Kumar to convince his wife, that nothing untoward happened during the night when Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen stayed together in the same room.

The last part of the film was related to the manner in which the Sabita Chatterji was reconciled with the assistance of relatives like Pahari Sanyal, Chandabati Debi and others. Bhanu Banerjee played the role of a drunkard in the film.

The music of the film was brilliant with experiments done by Anupam Ghatak. Sandhya Mukherjee was elegant as usual especially in the song “kakon bole srimoti kande”. Her voice suited Suchitra Sen the most and she was indebted to Sandhya Mukherjee for her huge success in bengali films. The film released in 1956, had not lost its appeal even after 50 years of creation and should be restored.