Name: Pankaj Kumar Mullick a.k.a. Pankaj Mullick Born: 10th May 1905. Parents: Father: Shri. Monimohan Mullick. Wife: Smt. Annapurna Mullick Education: City Institution Minor School, Bowbazar High School & Bangabasi College
He went to Shri Dinendranath Tagore, Rabindranath Tagore's grand-nephew, to learn Tagore's songs. From a very young age he learnt khayal, dhrupad, tappa and other forms of classical music from Shri. Durgadas Bandopadhyay.
He joined AIR (then known as the Indian Broadcasting Company) in September 1927, only a month since its inception. His first day at the radio station was 26th September 1927. He performed the songs " Emono dine tare bola jay.." and "Ekoda tumi priye.." live on- air that day. Both were Rabindrasangeets. Every Sunday the whole country used to wait in eager anticipation of the live music-class titled Sangeet Shikshar Ashar - conducted by him in an inimitable style. One of the several reasons as to why he conceptualised this programme was to encourage women from conservative and respectable families to learn singing, something that was considered a bit of a taboo in those days. It is common knowledge that he succeeded in this attempt of his. Not only did this programme become highly popular, it also broke the language-barrier as people from all across the nation as well as from abroad tuned-in to hear him sing and teach. Sangeet Shikshar Ashar was a great testimony to his prowess as a fantastic trainer. Several of his peers and successors have heaped praises on him for being such a great trainer. He conducted these classes for over four decades from 1929 to 1975, with a break for about a year-and-a-half around 1944. He used this platform (Sangeet Shikshar Ashar) to teach songs written by Rajanikanta Sen, Atulprosad, and Dwijendralal. He also taught Nazrulgeeti, Padakirtan, Folk songs, Patriotic songs, Shyamasangeet, songs by Vidyapati, Banikumar, Ajoy Bhattacharya, Sailen Roy, Gopal Krishna Mukhopadhyay, Hindi Bhajans by Tulsidas, Surdas, Nanak, Meerabai & others. He taught a lot of Vedic hymns, Stotras from Upanishads and Sanskrit songs as well. Above all, he taught over two hundred Rabindrasangeets during the 47 years he conducted this programme. For a man who obsessively sought various media to popularise Rabindranath Tagore's compositions, Sangeet Shikshar Ashar was an ideal medium through which he could inspire millions to learn these songs. History bears testimony to the fact that this dream of his bore rich fruit. Incidentally, the first song that he sung and taught on this programme, way back in 1929 was written by Sri. Alok Gangopadhyay and set to tune by Pankaj Mullick himself while the second was the very popular Nazrulgeeti - "Mor ghumghore elo manohor..." His other great milestone, besides Sangeet Shikshar Ashar, at AIR was the creation of Mahishasura Mardini. Along with Banikumar and Birendra Krishna Bhadra, he gave birth to a programme that has now become an inseparable part of Bengali culture. Due to the fact that it was a hook-up programme, several people from other communities too became die-hard fans of this programme. This programme, which began in 1932, is aired every year at day-break on Mahalaya even till today. The programme, which started off as a live-performance has been broadcast in its pre-recorded format since the late nineteen-sixties. However, its great popularity remains undiminished even till today. Since the programme was initially broadcast live every year, new singers were inducted into the programme on a regular basis. Songs and compositions too were added and removed quite regularly. Thus, it could be said that within a preset framework, several innovations took place regularly to keep the programme fresh and vibrant. The programme was suddenly yanked off the air in 1976 on the pretext that contemporary artistes of the day would perform a new version of the programme, as the powers-that-be thought that the general public had become tired of listening to the same kind of songs for so long. However the very-same public was devastated when their favourite programme was replaced with the new version and near riots took place outside the AIR office. The original Mahishasura Mardini was back immediately and continues to mesmerise its dedicated audience even till today. He was a part of countless popular feature programmes as music-director-cum-artiste, throughout his tenure at AIR. Pankaj Mullick was associated with the world of movies right from the silent era. It was around the late 1920's and early 1930's that he started his career in movies as a music director conducting live orchestras for silent-movies such as Chorkanta and Chashar Meye for the company International Film Craft. International Film Craft got renamed as New Theatres and talkies were introduced. Pankaj Mullick along with Sri. Rai Chand Boral scored the music for the first talkie-movie Dena Paona. Under Pramathesh Barua's direction, Pankaj Mullick turned into an independent music-director with the movie Mukti in 1937. Personally it was a landmark for him as he not only scored the music, but also sang and acted in it. However Mukti will always be remembered as the first movie in which Rabindranath Tagore's songs were used effectively. It was also the movie which featured the song Diner Sheshey Ghumer Deshey…This was the song which was originally a poem titled Shesh Kheya written by Tagore. Years earlier Pankaj Mullick had set it to tune and had been singing it at private programmes. However for the movie, official permission was required from Tagore himself. Rabindranath Tagore not only gave permission to Pankaj Mullick to use the song in the movie, but also suggested a few other compositions of his for use in the movie. Incidentally, Tagore also named the movie - Mukti. He acted, scored music for and sang in well over a hundred movies, in both Hindi and Bengali. Some of these were: Desher Mati (1938), Bhagyachakra, Boro Didi & Jeevan Maran (1939), Nartaki (1941), Meenakshi (1942), Daktar (1943), Kashinath, Dikshul (1943), Dui Purush (1945), Nurse Didi & Ramer Sumati (1947), Pratibad (1948) Rupkatha (1950), Mahaprashthaner Pathey (1952), Banahansi & Nabin Yatra (1953), Raikamal & Chitrangada (1955), Louhakapat (1958), Awbhaan (1961). His last movie as music director was Janhabi Jamuna Bigolito Karuna in 1968 - 69. The banners under which he worked included New Theatres, Bombay Talkies and Aurora Films. Some of his other films were: Yahudi ki ladki (1933), Dhoop Chhayon, Manzil, Millionaire, President, Zindagi, Dhartimata, Dushman, Meri Bahen, Dharti ke lal, Yatrik and Zalzala. Some of the movies he acted in were Mukti, Daktar, Alo Chhaya, Kapalkundala, Aandhi, Dhartimata, Deshermati and Adhikar. Quite a few of these movies were made simultaneously in Bengali as well as in Hindi. After the introduction of playback singing in movies, he featured sporadically as an actor in them, purely out of personal choice. However, he remained just as prolific a music director and singer in movies as he was before. It will not be out-of-context to mention here that it was with Nitin Bose as the director and Pankaj Mullick as the music-director that the first movie featuring play-back singing was introduced to the world of Indian Films. The songs of the sakhis in the film Bengali film Bhagyacharka and its Hindi version Dhoop-Chhaon were the first playback songs to resound in Indian movie theatres. The singers who lent their voices to these songs were - Suprabha Sarkar (nee Ghosh), Parul Ghosh (nee Choudhury) and Uma Shashi. He recorded his first song when he was only about 18 years old. He enjoyed his first major commercial success as a recording artiste when he recorded O keno gelo choley and Pralay nachan nachley jokhon, sometime in the early 1930's. He went on to cut several discs over the next 40 odd years, some of which included the original-sound-tracks of movies. In a career that spanned five decades he sang thousands of songs and recorded hundreds. He was associated with several Music Companies like Hindustan Record Company, Columbia and HMV. Later on, many of his records were made into and released in the form of cassettes and CD's. Most important amongst his other activities, was his association with the Folk Entertainment section of the Government of West Bengal. There he had been accorded the position of the Hon. Advisor in 1953. He held the post till 1968. There he had helped propagate social awareness amongst the Indian masses through the medium he knew best - music. The Folk Entertainment troupe performed in metros, cities, towns, districts and villages. The troupe also visited Kathmandu for a request programme.
A lot has been said about the multi-faceted genius of Pankaj Mullick, his God-gifted voice, his timeless compositions and his immortal creations. However not too many people know about Pankaj Mullick - the man. Steeped in traditional vaishnavite values, he was a man of high ideals and lofty principles. He was a wonderful human being who often went out of his way to help not just his friends and family but also complete strangers. Many have benefited from his generosity and benevolence. Fame sat quite comfortably on his strong shoulders. His humility was legendary. He successfully took upon the responsibility of his family from a very young age. He grew up to be a very dutiful and loving son to his parents, especially to his mother. He was an extremely loving and responsible husband as well as a doting father. He never gave into sledging or mudslinging and used his work instead to answer his critics resoundingly. He was an upright and righteous man. He was quite brave and courageous too. An extremely emotional person he let his heart rule his head on quite a few occasions. His devotion to his craft too was exemplary. He considered his gift of music as his highway to heaven. In the end it may be said that the genius of Pankaj Mullick was matched only by his humanity.
Title of Surosagar in 1931. Title of Sangeet Ratnakar in 1962. Title of Padmashree in 1970. Dadasaheb Phalke Puraskar (the highest form of award presented by the Government of India to a person for pioneering activity in the field of Indian movies) in 1973. Title of Rabindra Tattyacharya in 1977 from Tagore Research Institute. Several other felicitations came his way, including the BFJA (Bengal Film Journalists' Association) Award and Rashtrapati Puraskar for composing the best film music of the year for the films Yatrik and Raikamal. Commemorative awards from AIR on its Silver and Golden jubilees. The Government of West Bengal named the erstwhile Ritchie Road as Pankaj Mullick Sarani in his honour, posthumously.
He did pioneering work in the field of taking Rabindra Sangeet beyond the boundaries of Shanti Niketan and propagating it amongst the general population. To him goes the credit of giving Rabindra Sangeet its contemporary feel. The introduction of the tabla and several other instruments in Rabindra Sangeet, at a time when they was considered taboo - was his doing. The was the only other person, apart from Tagore himself, to have set tunes to Tagore's poems, viz.: Shesh Kheya into Diner Sheshey, during Tagore's lifetime and obviously before the copyright was lifted - with due permission of Rabindranath Tagore himself. He is considered to be the father of the genre of modern Bengali songs popularly known as Adhunik Gaan. He also did pioneering work in the field of playback singing. He is accredited with the introduction of prelude, interlude and inter-linking music in Indian film songs. He is also accredited with the introduction of the four-part song in Indian film music. He was a pioneer in introducing western instruments in the Indian Film Industry. At the behest of Sri. Sarat Bose (Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's elder brother) he sang Kadam kadam barhaye jaa set to his own version of the tune, with J.L.Nehru and Shah Nawaz being present during the recording. Other members of Netaji's family too performed on this record. On Prime Minister Nehru's request, he sang and recorded the Indian National Anthem, Jana gana mana…, in a style that was deemed as the parameter to be followed while singing the anthem by all Indians. When television was launched in India, he was invited to sing the inaugural song on Doordarshan in Delhi.
After his death, thousands of people poured out onto the roads to participate in his funeral procession that ended at the Kewratola crematorium. A lot of people sent in their condolence messages. These included the then Chief Minister of West Bengal Shri Jyoti Basu, the then Minister of Cultural Affairs Shri. Buddhadev Bhattacharya and the then Governor of West Bengal, Sri. T.N. Singh. A host of other important people from various walks of life too sent in their messages. Only a few of these have been reproduced below: Satyajit Ray: Pankaj Mullick earned legendary fame and popularity as a singer and teacher of Rabindrasangeet. He devoted his whole life to this cause. Pandit Ravi Shankar: Apart from being a wonderful creative musician, he was a wonderful human being. Lal Krishna Advani: A great stalwart in the field of music has departed. From my younger days I have been an ardent admirer of his….his melodious voice will continue in our ears forever. Smt. Kamala Devi Chattopadhyay: (His demise)…is an extremely disturbing news. We have lost a very great artist who brought so much warmth, light and delight into our lives. Others, who wrote or sent in telegrams expressing their feelings, included Shri. Raj Kapoor and Shri. Md. Rafi.
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