Hemanta Mukherjee
| Hemanta Mukherjee | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Background information | |
| Native name | হেমন্ত কুমার মুখোপাধ্যায় |
| Birth name | Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhyay |
| Born |
16 June 1920 Varanasi, Benares State, British India (now in Uttar Pradesh, India) |
| Died | 26 September 1989 (aged 69) Kolkata, West Bengal, India |
| Genres | World music, Pop |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, music director, producer |
| Instruments | Vocal,singing |
| Years active | 1935–1989 |
Hemanta Mukherjee, often credited as Hemant Kumar (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989), was an Indian playback singer, music director and film producer, who sang in Bengali, Hindi and other Indian languages. He won two National awards for the category best male playback singer. He is often credited as one of the greatest Indian singers of all time for his unparalleled manly voice.
Hemanta was born in the city of Varanasi, India. His family originated from Baharu village in West Bengal. They migrated to Kolkata in the early 1900s. Hemanta grew up there and attended Nasiruddin School and later Mitra Institution school of Bhawanipore area. There he met his longtime friend Subhas Mukhopadhyay who later became a Bengali poet. During this time, he developed a friendship with the noted writer Santosh Kumar Ghosh. At that time, Hemanta wrote short stories, Santosh Kumar wrote poems and Subhash Mukhopadhyay sang songs.
After passing the intermediate examinations (12th grade), Hemanta joined Bengal Technical Institute at Jadavpur to pursue Engineering. However, he quit academics to pursue a career in music, despite parental objection. He briefly tried literature and published a short story in a prestigious Bengali magazine called Desh, but by the late-1930s he was committed entirely to music.
Under the influence of his friend Subhas Mukhopadhyay, Hemanta recorded his first song for All India Radio in 1935. The first line of the song was "Amar Ganete Ele Nabarupi Chirantanii." Hemanta's music career was primarily mentored by the Bengali musician, Sailesh Duttagupta. In his early life Hemanta used to follow the famous Bengali singer Pankaj Mullick. For this he was nicknamed as "Chhoto Pankaj".In an interview on television in the early 1980s, Hemanta had mentioned that he had also received classical music training from Ustad Faiyaz Khan's student Fanivusan Banerjee, but his tutelage was cut short by Ustad's untimely death.
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