Book Review: “The Unforgettable Music of HEMANT KUMAR”

The Unforgettable Music of HEMANT KUMAR
By Manek Premchand
Pages: 441
First Edition: 2020
Blue Pencil, New Delhi
(With study of his Bengali repertoire by Antara Nanda Mondal and Sounak Gupta)

Salil Chowdhury once said if God wanted to sing, he would do it in the voice of Hemant Kumar. Lata Mangeshkar said about him, “Listening to Hemant Da songs, I feel as if a Sadhu is singing bhajan in a temple.” A darling of Bengal where he was known as “Chhoto Pankaj” (Little Pankaj Mullick), and one of the top singers of Rabindra Sangeet. There was something divine about his mellifluous voice. I have not met a person who is not deeply passionate about Hemant Kumar’s voice. This blog celebrated his centenary in a very comprehensive manner in 2020, anchored by two erudite articles by N Venkataraman – Hemantayan Part 1 and Hemantayan Part 2 and a number of other articles on Hemant Kumar’s music in different combinations. Thus SOY readers’ appetite whetted  by the capsules on him, they would lap up Manek Premchand’s exhaustive book on Hemant Kumar.

Hemant Kumar was a man of many parts. We love him as a singer, his non-film songs are as mesmerising as his film songs. If he ruled our hearts in Hindi, he was an icon in Bengal. He continued his professional commitments in both Bombay and Calcutta, shuttling between the two cities at a  frenetic pace. He was a composer par excellence where he didn’t show any partiality to his own voice, freely taking other male voices if he considered that more suitable. He also ventured into film production, which barring some exceptions, were a commercial failure. With all that he looked after and provided for a large family. All this, coupled with his smoking habit must have told upon his health. All this is captured in the book in sufficient detail.

We expect from Manekji’s book on a film music personality a comprehensive database on him. This book gives details of Hemant Kumar’s work in 192 pages under 13 different lists: (i) HK as singer Hindi Film Songs (Chronological); (ii) HK as singer HFS (Alphabetical); (iii) HK as singer NFS, and so on. You can’t get a more exhaustive data anywhere. This helps us update the Table giving HK’s Total Career at the end of Venkataramanji’s article Hemantayan Part 2.  You can’t but be wonder-struck that Hemant Kumar having sung only 306 Hindi film songs, and 86 NFS captivated our hearts so strongly. I would highlight some insights you get from the exhaustive data in the book:

1. Hemant Kumar’s work in Bengali is much more than in Hindi. He had sung 718 film songs, 304 NFS, 208 Non-film Rabindra Sangeet and 63 Rabindra Sangeet in films, i.e. a total of 1293 Bengali songs, against 392 Hindi songs.
2. Hemant Kumar has sung 22 film songs and 15 non-film songs in languages other than Hindi and Bengali.
3. The book gives a list of 46 songs which have similar sounding tunes in different languages. This would encourage you to look for the Bengali songs similar to Aye baad-e-saba ahista chal or Ye nayan dare dare.

We have seen on SOY that Hemant Kumar was no mean composer. He composed 393 Hindi film songs in over 50 films. Yet why is he not counted among the top music directors? Manekji answers this by some convincing logic. When we are asked to name the top male playback singers of the Golden Era, we mention Rafi, Mukesh, Talat Mahmood, Hemant Kumar and Manna Dey. We don’t go beyond five or six names. But music directors was a crowded field. After the five or six stalwarts would come a dozen A-listers, followed by another tail of about ten. Everyone’s list of the best ten music directors would be different from each other. It is likely Hemant Kumar’s name gets lost as a composer, but as a singer he was so unique that with less than 400 film and non-film songs, he has become immortal.

On Hemant Kumar’s Bengali repertoire, Antara Nanda Mondal & Sounak Gupta have written a comprehensive article, aptly titled, “Bengal’s Immortal Singer-Composer”, which is very helpful for music lovers who are not from Bengal. As we know by now, Hemant Kumar’s first record was a Bengali non-film song Janite jodi go tumi in 1938. He started singing regularly on the AIR Calcutta from the late 1930s. The year 1940 brought him a chance to sing Mahishasurmardini under the direction of Pankaj Mullick. This programme acquired an iconic place during Mahalaya every year.

The authors have emphasised Hemant Kumar’s inimitable recitation of Sanskrit verses. Popular TV serial ‘Mahabharata’ started with his invocation, Karmanyevadhikaraste ma phaleshu kadachana (this was the signature invocation of BR Films in initial credits). This was followed by Mahendra Kapoor’s Yada yada hi dharmasya. The difference could not have been starker. In the superhit Bengali devotional film Marutirth Hinglaj, Hemant Kumar had composed and sung two beautiful traditional Sanskrit verses: Sarvasya buddhirupena from Saptshati Chandi, and Hey Chandrachud Madanantak Shoolpane from Shiva Namavali Ashtakam. You cannot imagine any other singer in the place of Hemant Kumar.

The authors have dwelt in detail how Hemant Kumar became integral to Rabindra Sangeet and the main male singer in his several dance dramas, such as Chandalika, Shyama and Shapmochan.

Typical of Manek Premchand’s books, this one too is crammed with information. But more importantly, you get insight and analysis. Insight into musical concepts like voice types, ranges and singers’ comfort levels; why we are so impressed by baritone; terms like scherzando and syncopation. There is a long interview with Hemant Kumar’s son Joyonto Mukherjee. He tells an interesting story, how a frustrated Hemant Kumar after successive flops had packed his bags for going back to Calcutta for good, how S Mukherjee rushed to the VT station and asked him to do Nagin, and if it didn’t work he could go to jahannum. And the rest is history as we all know!

We always love trivia, and there is a big collection in ‘Trivia Time’. Do you know that Hemant Kumar never sang for Dilip Kumar and just sang one song for Raj Kapoor? ‘Dil chhed koi aisa naghma’ was meant to be just a Lata Mangeshkar solo. On the day of the recording she was not well. Without any serious thought, Hemant Kumar sang the song with just a harmonium and tabla. The producer and director of Inspector (1956) liked his song so much that after Lata’s version was recorded, Hemant Kumar’s was also recorded and filmed. It goes without saying that Hemant Kumar’s is the one we now remember.

If you love Hemant Kumar (who doesn’t?), this is an invaluable book.