Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhyay - Career Rise

Career Rise

By the mid-1950s, Hemanta had consolidated his position as a prominent singer and composer. In Bengal, he was one of the foremost exponents of Rabindrasangeet and perhaps the most sought after male singer. In a ceremony organised by Hemanta Mukhopadhyay to honour Debabrata Biswas (1911–1980), the legendary Rabindrasangeet exponent, in Calcutta in March, 1980, Debabrata Biswas unhesitatingly mentioned Hemanta as "the second hero" to popularise Rabindrasangeet, the first being none other than the legendary Pankaj Kumar Mallick. In Mumbai, along with playback singing, Hemanta also carved a niche as a composer. He composed music for a Hindi film called Nagin (1954) which became a major success owing largely to its music. Songs of Nagin remained chart-toppers continuously for two years and culminated in Hemant receiving the prestigious Filmfare Best Music Director Award in 1955. The very same year, he scored music for a Bengali movie called Shapmochan in which he also played back four songs for the Bengali actor Uttam Kumar. This started a long partnership between Hemant and Uttam as a playback singer-actor pair. They were the most popular singer-actor duo in Bengali Cinema over the next decade.

In the latter part of the 1950s, Hemanta composed music and sang for several Bengali and Hindi films, recorded several Rabindrasangeets and Bengali non-film songs. Almost all of these, especially his Bengali songs became very popular. This period can be termed as the zenith of his career and lasted for almost a decade. He sang songs composed by the major music directors in Bengal such as Nachiketa Ghosh, Robin Chatterjee and Salil Chowdhury. Some of the notable films Hemanta himself composed music for during this period include Harano Sur, Marutirtha Hinglaj, Neel Akasher Neechey, Lukochuri, Swaralipi, Deep Jwele Jaai, Shesh Parjanta, Kuhak, Dui Bhai, and Saptapadi in Bengali, and, Jagriti and Ek Hi Raasta in Hindi.