Kolkata :
With the demise of Jatileshwar Mukhopadhyay, Bengal lost one of the most eminent personalities from the golden era of music who had the rare distinction of being a singer-composer-songwriter. Eighty three-year-old Mukhopadhyay succumbed to multi-organ dysfunction at a city nursing home on Thursday. He is survived by wife Sabita, daughter Subha and son Raja.
Born on December 13, 1934, at Chandernagore, Mukhopadhyay received his training under Satinath Mukhopadhay and Chinmoy Lahiri. Once he started working from the 60s, he created a niche for himself by writing the lyrics of 2000 songs and setting 1500 of them to music. Few know that he found inspiration in Mehndi Hassan’s ghazals.
While his own songs became popular, he churned out a number of hits when composing songs for Sandhya Mukherjee, Arati Mukhopadhyay, Haimanti Shukla, Banasree Sengupta, Pintu Bhattacharya, Sreeradha Bandopadhay and Pt Ajoy Chakraborty. Connoisseurs of modern Bengali songs remember his compositions like ‘E kon sokal rater cheyeo ondhokar’, ‘Keu bole falgun, keu bole polasher’, ‘Aamar swapan kinte pare’, ‘Aaami phoolke jedin dhore’, ‘Tomar songe dekha na hole’, ‘O sojon haay’ and ‘Amar onge jole’. His ‘Bodhua amar chokhe jol enechhe hai bina karone’ was a cult song and years later when Srikanto Acharya recorded it again, it generated equal interest among a new generation of listeners. Mukherjee had scored the music for Raja Sen’s ‘Damu’.
Tapan Basu, his disciple for over two decades, also highlighted his contribution as an author. “He has written Bengali essays and plays. ‘Krishnakumari Katha’ was a popular musical written by him. A lot of his research-based articles have been published as books. He also wrote in-depth articles on Begum Akhtar, Pankaj Mullick, Sudhin Dasgupta, Nachiketa Ghosh, among others,” Basu said.
Mukhopadhyay’s demise was deeply mourned by his music lovers. Composer Joy Sarkar described him as a most “underrated” talent who never got his due during his lifetime. Poet-and lyricist Srijato described Mukhopadhyay as a “smart” composer. “His compositions were smart, his lyrics had depth. He knew the art of expressing a lot while using few words. He is a perfect example of how to use knowledge with restraint,” Srijato said. Borrowing his own lyrics, noted elocutionist Urmimala Bose said: “Tomar songe dyakha na hole, bhalobashar deshta amar dyakha hoto na”.
His mortal remains will be kept at Rabindra Sadan on Friday to allow the people to pay their last respects before his final journey.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Kolkata News / by Priyanka Dasgupta / TNN / December 22nd, 2017