In one of her several tributes to Hemant Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, one of the God’s supreme gifts to our musical ears, had likened his voice to that of a monk singing a devotional song in a temple.
She could not have been much off the mark. His repertoire of songs covers a wide range of the spectrum of human emotions. If some bring out the unalloyed bliss of love, others highlight some philosophical truths of life. Some are like soothing lullabies whereas others are highly patriotic. Many others convey the acute pain of loneliness while few caress us with vibes of positivity arising out of the despondency one feels after facing the harsh slings and arrows of fate. In many cases, his haunting voice even teases the listener with a mystery of sorts.
Here are some of his songs I have relished from my childhood. Even today, these never fail to either soothe my frayed nerves or uplift my spirits. Dimming the lights around and simply listening to one of these songs envelopes me in a comforting ambience. The decaying cells of a bruised soul get regenerated and perk up, just like a recently watered flower would.
Non-film Songs
Bhala tha kitna apna bachpan…
Singer: Hemant Kumar
Music: Kamal Dasgupta
Lyricist: Faiyyaz Hashmi
Kal teri tasveer ko…
(1943)
Music: Kamal Dasgupta
Lyricist: Faiyyaz Hashmi
Anchal se kyon baandh liya…
Music: Kamal Dasgupta
Lyricist: Faiyyaz Hashmi
Film Songs
Yaad kiya dil ne…
Movie: Patita (1953)
Music: Shankar Jaikishan
Singers: Hemant Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar
Lyricist: Hasrat Jaipuri
Zindagi pyaar ki do chaar ghadi…
Movie: Anarkali (1953)
Composer: C. Ramchandra
Singer: Hemant Kumar
Lyricist: Rajendra Krishan
Na ye chaand hoga…
Movie: Shart (1954)
Music/Singer: Hemant Kumar
Lyricist: S H Bihari
Tere dwaar khada ek jogi…
Movie: Nagin (1954)
Music/Singer: Hemant Kumar
Lyricist: Rajinder Krishan
Chandan ka palna…
Movie: Shabaab (1954)
Music: Naushad
Singers: Hemant Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar
Lyricist: Shakeel Badayuni
Teri duniya mein jeene se…
Movie: House No. 44 (1955)
Music Director: S.D.Burman
Singer: Hemant Kumar
Lyricist: Sahir Ludhianvi
Jaane wo kaise log the…
Movie: Pyaasa (1957)
Music Director: S D Burman.
Singer: Hemant Kumar
Lyricist: Sahir Ludhianvi
Ganga aaye kahaan se…
Movie: Kabuliwala (1961)
Music: Salil Chowdhury
Singer: Hemant Kumar
Lyricist: Gulzar
Na tum humein jaano…
Movie: Baat Ek Raat Ki (1962)
Music: S D Burman
Singers: Suman Kalyanpur, Hemant Kumar
Lyricist: Majrooh Sultanpuri
Bequaraar karke humein…
Movie: Bees Saal Baad (1962)
Music Director and Singer: Hemant Kumar
Lyricist: Shakeel Badayuni
Jagat bhar ki Roshni ke liye…
Movie: Harishchand Taramati (1963)
Music: Laxmikant Pyarelal, Hridaynath Mangeshkar
Lyricist: Kavi Pradeep
Ya dil ki suno…
Movie: Anupama (1966)
Music Director and Singer: Hemant Kumar
Lyricist: Kaifi Azmi
I am not mentioning four of his songs which I have already covered elsewhere. These include Ye raat ye chandni… (Jaal, 1952), Aa neele gagan tale… (Badshah, 1954), Nain so nain… (Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje, 1955) and Tum pukaar lo… (Khamoshi 1970).
According to Wikipedia, Hemant Kumar (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989) was a legendary Indian music composer and playback singer who primarily sang in Bengali and Hindi, as well as other Indian languages like Marathi, Gujarati, Odia, Assamese, Tamil, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, Konkani, Sanskrit and Urdu. He was an artist of Bengali and Hindi film music, Rabindra Sangeet, and many other genres. He was the recipient of two National Awards for Best Male Playback Singer and was popularly known as the “voice of God”.
Hemant joined the Bengal Technical Institute at Jadavpur (now Jadavpur University) to pursue Engineering. However, he quit academics to pursue a career in music, despite objections from his father. He experimented with literature and published a short story in a Bengali magazine Desh. He focused on music by the late 1930’s.
The US government honoured Hemant Kumar by conferring upon him the citizenship of Baltimore, Maryland; the first-ever singer of India to get USA citizenship. He refused Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awards but had won so many other awards and accolades for his work.
By the end of his life, he had become an institution, a beloved and revered personality who was a courteous and friendly gentleman. His philanthropic activities included running a homeopathic hospital in memory of his late father in their native village in Baharu, in the South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.
Creative geniuses like him surely descend upon this planet from a higher plane of consciousness. They help us to wash off the dirt which gets accumulated on our souls while living our mundane lives, thereby enabling us to reconnect us with our inner beings and enjoy a state of unadulterated joy and bliss.
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ashokbhatia 
A great article sir, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this piece of work. Hemant da was a great personality. Rgrds
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Thank you!
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What a wonderful collection of Hemant’s songs – many of my favourites are here. Two others which I love are:
Tum pukaar lo, tumhaara intezaar hai from Khamoshi:
And, its counterpart from the Bengali film, Deep Jwele Jaaye, of which Khamoshi was a remake, Ei raat tomaar amaar, which he also sang in Hindi as Yeh nayan dare-dare, though I love the Bangla original more:
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Thank you for reading and commenting. Yes, Tum pukar lo…is too good. Mentioned in this blog post but not covered because I had just written about it in the list of my favourite songs. The other one mentioned by you is also very good.
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Very well said Ashok.
One of my favourites is “ Ye Nayan dare dare…” from Kohra
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Glad you liked it, Satish ji. Yes, Ye nayan… is also very good!
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Ashok , very nice write up on Hemanta Mukhopadhyay, his original name.
One of his songs, a lesser known one, is .. yaad aa gayi wo nasheeli nigahen, from Dev Anand-Nutan starter, Manzil. It ranks high on my list of Hemant favourites.
And another popular one is .. janam se banjara hun bandhu janam janam banjara
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Thank you, Sunil, for reading and commenting. Yes, both are gems! I also recall one of a different genre altogether, from the movie Baad Baan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe_YFawnfog.
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Sri Hemanta Mukhopadhyay, popularly known as Hemant da was a versatile singer with a beautiful voice,full of melody, and had a masterly control on vocal chords.His range was vast, be it a love song(जरा नजरों से कह दो जी…….,बेकरार कर के हमें…),be it a sad song(जाने वो कैसे लोग थे…),or something humorous (शिव जी बिताने चले,पालकी सजा के,भभूती लगा के…..) ,even mythological like aarti(भागवत भगवान की है आरती,पापियों को पाप से …).He was a great classical singer,an exponent of Rabindra Sangeet. I had opportunity to hear him at Dover Lane Music Conference, twice.I recall an old incident of the open air musical soiree organized at CIT Road Park in Entally area of Calcutta way back in 1970,where the legends like Mohammad Rafi,Manna da,Shymal Mitra,Sandhya Mukherjee etc were to participate.Due to some traffic problem (a usual scene of the metropolis in those days),the bespectacled,Hemant da took the control of mike,wearing his traditional white long shirt(sleeves folded) and Dhoti, Shawl on shoulder,enthralled the public with his songs of all types for almost an hour,till Rafi sahib arrived on the scene.That was the class of great Hemant babu,a doyen of Bangla and Hindi film music.
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Thank you so much for adding to our meagre knowledge about this great person! I hear that he was also revered as one of the foremost proponents of Rabindra Sangeet! I think the soil of Bengal has some special ingredients for the sheer number of creative geniuses it has produced, right from Gurudev, Satyajit Ray, Bimal Roy, Hrishikesh Mukherji, Basu Chatterji, Basu Bhattacharya and the Ganguly brothers to Konkona Sen Sharma and many others. Can’t imagine Bollywood without them!
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Sri Hemanta Mukhopadhyay, popularly known as Hemant da was a versatile singer with a beautiful voice,full of melody, and had a masterly control on vocal chords.His range was vast, be it a love song(जरा नजरों से कह दो जी…….,बेकरार कर के हमें…),be it a sad song(जाने वो कैसे लोग थे…),or something humorous (शिव जी बिताने चले,पालकी सजा के,भभूती लगा के…..) ,even mythological like aarti(भागवत भगवान की है आरती,पापियों को पाप से …).He was a great classical singer,an exponent of Rabindra Sangeet. I had opportunity to hear him at Dover Lane Music Conference, twice.I recall an old incident of the open air musical soiree organized at CIT Road Park in Entally area of Calcutta way back in 1970,where the legends like Mohammad Rafi,Manna da,Shymal Mitra,Sandhya Mukherjee etc were to participate.Due to some traffic problem (a usual scene of the metropolis in those days),the bespectacled,Hemant da took the control of mike,wearing his traditional white long shirt(sleeves folded) and Dhoti, Shawl on shoulder,enthralled the public with his songs of all types for almost an hour,till Rafi sahib arrived on the scene.That was the class of great x babu,a doyen of Bangla and Hindi film music.
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Sorry it got posted again. My apologies for this inadvertent error.
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Dear Ashok ji,
I have a lot to say about Hemanto Babu (as he is often referred to with affection), so I will break it up into separate comments, else the matter will be lost in the details.
First, an inadvertent typographic error on your part and I dare say, beyond your control.
About that song कल तेरी तस्वीर को सजदे किये हैं रात भर |
First, Music Director RAVI was nowhere on the scene in 1943 (he would have been 16 or 17 and still in School in Delhi). He came to Bombay sometime in 1951/52.
Second, Lyricist HASRAT JAIPURI was in Bombay in 1943, but dividing his time between his job (as a Bus Conductor?) and attending Mushairas.
That Song has Fayyaz Hashmi and Kamal Dasgupta written all over it.
You may like to cross check.
With warm regards
PARTHA CHANDA
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Thank you so much. I had gone as per the sketchy information available on internet. Shall correct it right away. Would you also be able to please let me know the year of release of all these non-movie songs? Shall be grateful.
It is a song which I have been venturing to sing since my teen days; an all time favourite of mine. Thank you so much for correcting me!
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Dear Ashok ji,
Can you send me a Blank E-Mail on my E-mail address? There are some matters I would like to exchange with you by Mail.
By the way, you have only half corrected the Credits for the Song कल तेरी तस्वीर को सजदे किये हैं रात भर | The Lyricist should be FAYYAZ HASHMI and NOT Hasrat Jaipuri. Hasrat’s first Film, to the best of my knowledge, was BARSAAT in 1949.
PC
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Sure. Please reconfirm your mail id.
I did correct the credits for Kal teri tasveer ko…, as advised by you. Hasrat Jaipuri now appears only for the song Aanchal se baandh liya…By any chance, are you now referring to this song?
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My Mail Id is pchanda@asapmarine.com
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Dear Ashok ji,
आँचल से कियूं बांध लिया was recorded in 1944, when, again for the reasons cited earlier, Hasrat was no where on the scene. In the YouTube Video used by you, if you scroll down the “Viewers’ Comments” you will come across a comment by one “kumalmitra” who has correctly given the credit to Fayyaz Hashmi and Kamal Dasgupta for the Lyrics and the Music respectively.
I will send more details by E-mail.
With warm regards
PARTHA CHANDA
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Much grateful for your support in improving the content of this blog post here.
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This is the correct link for आँचल से …..
(and do see Comment by “chunnukumar”)
PC
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Thank you so much. Have made the corrections suggested by you.
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Dear Ashok ji,
Noted Bangla Music Director ANUPAM GHATAK (1911-1957) was composing for Hindi/Urdu Films made in Lahore during the 1940s and had to beat a hasty retreat to hometown Calcutta during Partition. During his tenure in Lahore he had come under the influence of Punjabi traditional and Folk Music.
One of Ghatak’s earliest compositions after returning to Calcutta was this soulful rendition by Hemanto, sometime in 1948.
(শুকনো শাখার পাতা ঝরে যায়…….)
The Bhairavi based HEER may be familiar to many and may remind us of a Song, also rendered by Hemant Kumar some years later.
(ऐ बाद ए सबा आहिस्ता चल …..)
More later
PARTHA CHANDA
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Thank you so much, Partha ji, for enriching my meagre knowledge on the subject. May I know the essence of the first song mentioned by you? As to the second one, thank you for reminding me of the movie Anarkali. It had another superb song rendered by him in his unique voice: ‘Zindagi pyaar ki do chaar ghadi hoti hai’. As and when I get time to revise my blog post, I am sure to include it. I am lamenting as to how I missed it in the first place! Regards. Ashok
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Dear Ashok ji,
HEER, as we all know, is a traditional form of Music from Punjab, although it is credited to Sufi Poet WARIS SHAH in the 18th Century, who also wrote the famous love story of Heer-Ranjha.
Anupam Ghatak was moved by the melancholic strain of this form of Music and perhaps wanted to introduce this style of Music to the people of Bengal. Hence the song.
The opening line of the Song “shukno shakhar pata jharey jai” literally means ” the leaves of a dead branch fall to the ground”. It has immense poetic imagery in that if there is no sustenance, leaves on a dead branch cannot survive. The next line draws on poetic licence to paint a contra picture in that “tobu photey phool, hai, eki bhool…” seems to suggest that while the leaves drop off, flowers still bloom.
The rest of the song is more or less in the same strain but with other examples. You will note that Hemant Kumar pronounces the word “phool” (=flower in bangla) akin to फूल in Hindi. Maybe poetic licence again.
Since we are discussing Hemanto the singer, it would not be out of place to mention that the very first song rendered by him on AIR Calcutta was sometime in 1935 at the young age of 15. And this was his first recorded song, sometime in 1937, somewhat in the style of Pankaj Mullick
The reverse of the 78 rpm disc (Columbia Records) carried the song “Balo go Balo Morey ”
[ He was paid Rs.20 as remuneration ]
And this was the first GEET he recorded for the duo of Fayyaz Hashmi and Kamal Dasgupta, in 1943
(कितना दुख भुलाया तुमने प्यारे ……)
And before proceeding further, please delete the following statement in the 5th Para of your write-up
“He Completed his B.E & M.Tech Engineering Degree from Jadavpur University. ”
The fact is that he left his studies in the First Year itself as mentioned by you in the next Para.
And to complete this unfulfilled wish of his Father, Hemanto ensured that his son, Jayanto completed his studies in Mechanical Engineering.
More later
With warm regards
PARTHA CHANDA
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Thank you so much. To me, even in the second song mentioned by you, he sounds a little bit like K L Shegal.
Have made the correction suggested by you. I don’t know how Wikipedia made an error of that kind.
My apologies for the late response.
Warm regards.
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Dear Ashok ji,
In normal circumstances, Music Directors select the Singer(s) to render a particular song based on the voice suitability for the Actor(s) as also the vocal range of the Singer. MD’s normally do not differentiate between a Singer and a Singer who is also a Music Director. Naushad, for instance, had no qualms about using Hemanto’s voice provided other criteria were met. Same holds good for Salil Chowdhury and some others.
For some unexplained reason, the Composer duo of Shanker & Jaikishan have only 4 (four) songs rendered by Hemanto, two of them being duets with Lata, and all these were when Hemanto was yet to take on the mantle of Music Direction seriously.
For those not in the know, the four songs are as under :
याद किया दिल ने……from Film “PATITA” (1953) (duet)
हम तो है खिलोने ……from Film “SHIKAST”(1953) (chorus)
आ नील गगन तले …. from Film “BADSHAH” (1954) (duet)
रुला कर चल दिए ….. -“- (solo)
Here uploaded in the Audio version
[ Music Lovers would agree that 3 of the above were super hits ]
But then “NAGIN” happened in late 1954 and Hemanto received Countrywide fame of as Music Director.
It must be pure co-incidence that after the success of “NAGIN”, S-J stopped using Hemanto’s voice and it must again be pure co-incidence that they called over SUBIR SEN from Calcutta to sing for them.
With warm regards
PARTHA CHANDA
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You happen to be quite a treasure trove of detailed information about this aspect of film music! Do you have a blog site?
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Dear Ashok ji,
I am happy to share whatever little I have picked up from knowledge platforms on the way.
Lata ji had famously stated that “Listening to Hemant Da, I feel as though a sadhu is sitting in a temple singing a bhajan.”
Salil-da had gone one step further :
“If God were to sing, he would do so in the voice of Hemant Kumar”
It is sad that we do not have many chants and shlokas in his voice, but whatever we do have, are worth preserving :
(कश्चित्कान्ता बिरह गुरूणा स्वाधिकार प्रमत्तः….)
(भजो गोविन्दम ….)
And some more :
(बिद्युतबानतंग ललितबनिता ….)
(श्रीननन्तो विश्वे अमिततस्य पुत्रा ..)
(जय जय देव हरे …….)
(देवी दुर्गतिहारिणी ….)
(सरबस्य बुद्धिरूपेण नारायणी नमस्तुते …)
(हे चंद्रचूड़ …..)
And in his very first Hindi Film “ANANDMATH” (1952), Hemanta Babu used a Strota from Poet JAIDEV’s “Geet Govindam” :
(जय जगदीश हरे ….)
With warm regards
PARTHA CHANDA
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I am sorry I could not reply earlier. I have now listened to all the uplifting links sent by you and have ended up admiring Hemant Da ven more. What a range; surely, a gift conferred upon him by Goddess Saraswati herself!
Thank you so much for adding to whatever little I know of him.
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