Shyamal Mitra (14 January 1929 – 15 November 1987) was an Indian versatile

playback singer A playback singer, also known as a ghost singer, is a singer whose singing is pre-recorded for use in films. Playback singers record songs for soundtracks, and actors or actresses lip-sync the songs for cameras; the actual singer does not app ...

and

music director A music(al) director or director of music is the person responsible for the musical aspects of a performance, production, or organization. This would include the artistic director and usually chief conductor of an orchestra or concert band, the d ...

along with

Hemanta Mukherjee Hemanta Mukhopadhyay (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989), known professionally as Hemant Kumar and Hemanta Mukherjee, was a legendary Indian music composer and playback singer who primarily sang in Bengali and Hindi, as well as other Indian ...

and

Manna Dey Prabodh Chandra Dey (May 1, 1919 − October 24, 2013), known by his stage name Manna Dey, was an internationally acclaimed and celebrated Indian playback singer, music director, and a musician. As a classical vocalist, he belonged to the Bhen ...

. Mitra had also worked in many

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

and

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

films as a

and film producer. He was the most notable musician of the golden era of

music industry. His

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...

voice reflected a range of emotions. Besides recording a huge number of popular

basic songs, he also worked as a playback singer in more than a hundred

movies and directed music in more than fifty Bengali films. He also sang in various other Indian languages, like

, Assamese and Oriya.Shyamal Mitra, Aajkal,

Early life

Shyamal Mitra was born in

Naihati Naihati is a city and a municipality of North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA). Naihati Municipality is one of the oldest in the whol ...

, a city near

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

, India. Their native village was Patul, near Seakhala. His father, Dr. Sadhan Kumar Mitra, was a reputed doctor in Naihati. The father wanted his son to follow in his footsteps and to become a doctor, but the son was very keen on music and was always inspired by his mother and the local singer Mrinal Kanti Ghosh. People associated with the I.P.T.A. movement used to visit Sadhan-babu's house and this gave the chance to young Shyamal Mitra to come in contact with

Salil Chowdhury Salil Chowdhury (19 November 1925 – 5 September 1995) was an Indian music director, songwriter, lyricist, writer and poet who predominantly composed for Bengali, Hindi and Malayalam films. He composed music for films in 13 languages. This incl ...

. Young Shyamal Mitra and his youngest sister Reba used to sing "O Aalor Pathajatree" on the road for I.P.T.A. Shyamal Mitra went to

Hooghly Mohsin College Hooghly Mohsin College (HMC) began on 1 August 1836 as the New Hooghly College. It was established by Muhammad Mohsin, who also started other colleges. On its 100th anniversary it was renamed Hooghly Mohsin College. It became affiliated to Unive ...

, then affiliated with the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate State university (India), state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered ...

, for his graduation degree. There he met Satinath Mukhopadhyay, another prominent exponent of modern music. Satinath inspired him. Then Shyamal Mitra came to

and met Sudhirlal Chackraborty. That was the turning point of his life. He started struggling until he got a chance to playback in "Sunandar Biye" with Supriti Ghosh and Pratima Bandyopadhyay in 1949, and recorded his first basic songs from H.M.V. under the supervision of Sudhirlal Chackraborty. After the sad demise of Sudhirlal Chackraborty in 1952, he recorded "Smriti Tumi Bedonar". That was the turning point and he never looked back after that. He became one of the leading singers and composers of the country.

Journey as musician

Shyamal Mitra started working as a singer and music composer for the

music industry. During the fifties and early sixties he composed music for hit films like ''Joy Maa Kali Boarding'', ''Jamalaye Jibonto Manush'', and ''Bhranti Bilash''. During this period he also worked as playback singer in many

films. In 1963, he produced a film called ''Deya Neya'', another milestone of his career. Then he produced more films like ''Rajkanya'', ''Kheya'', and ''Ami Se O Sakha''. He was also the distributor and producer of "Garh Nasimpur". Shyamal Mitra went to

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

in the early fifties with

. He worked in three films: ''Musafer'', ''Biraj Bou'', and ''Naukri''. In 1973, he again went to Mumbai. He worked in Shakti Samanta's films, like '' Amanush'', ''

Anand Ashram ''Anand Ashram'' () is a 1977 Indian drama film written and directed by Shakti Samanta, based on a story by film director and novelist, Sailajananda Mukhopadhyay. It starred Ashok Kumar, Uttam Kumar and Sharmila Tagore in lead roles. This film ...

'', F.C.Mehra's film ''Bandi'', Basu Chatterjee's films like ''

Safed Jhoot ''Safed Jhooth'' is a 1977 Bollywood comedy drama film, starring Ashok Kumar, Vinod Mehra, Mithu Mukherjee in lead roles and directed by Basu Chatterjee. The movie is a remake of 1975 Bengali movie ''Chhutir Phandey''. Cast * Ashok Kumar as Ba ...

'', and ''Mamta''. He came back to Kolkata again and created many hit tracks in both

basic and film songs. Shyamal Mitra had a long association with

All India Radio All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All a ...

. He also sang in the famous Mahisasura Mardini programme of

. That song was "Subhra sankha robe" with co-artists

Arati Mukhopadhyay Aarti Mukherjee, also known as Aarti Mukherji or Arati Mukhopadhyay, is an Indian playback singer who has sung in Hindi films such as '' Geet Gata Chal'' (1975), '' Tapasya'' (1976), ''Manokamana'', '' Masoom'' (1983) and ''Sooraj Mukhi'' (1992 ...

and Ashima Mukherjee. Beside modern

songs and film songs, Shyamal Mitra worked with many other different forms of Bengali music like

Rabindrasangeet ''Rabindra Sangeet'' ( bn, রবীন্দ্র সঙ্গীত; ), also known as Tagore Songs, are songs from the Indian subcontinent written and composed by the Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore, winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize in Li ...

Nazrul Geeti Nazrul Sangeet ( bn, নজরুল সঙ্গীত), also Nazrul Geeti ( bn, নজরুল গীতি; ), refers to the songs written and composed by Kazi Nazrul Islam, the national poet of Bangladesh. Nazrul Geeti incorporate revolut ...

, "Chotoder Gaan", and Atul Prasadi. As a music composer, he also worked in a Yatra Pala called "Bibi Anondomoyee". As a music composer, Shyamal Mitra worked with many major artists like

Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhyay Hemanta Mukhopadhyay (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989), known professionally as Hemant Kumar and Hemanta Mukherjee, was a legendary Indian music composer and playback singer who primarily sang in Bengali and Hindi, as well as other Indian ...

Tarun Bandyopadhyay Tarun or Tharun is a word from Sanskrit. It is a male given name, meaning "young male". Notable people with the given name Tarun include: * Tarun (Telugu actor) (born 1981), Indian actor in Telugu and Tamil cinema * Tarun Arora, Indian actor in Hi ...

Dhananjay Bhattacharya Dhananjay Bhattacharya (September 10, 1922 – December 27, 1992) was an Indian Bengali singer and composer. He was a versatile Shyama Sangeet singer. Career He started his career by singing modern Bengali as well as Hindi songs. His first s ...

, Pratima Bandyopadhyay,

Sandhya Mukhopadhyay Geetashree Sandhya Mukherjee (also spelled Mukhopadhyay; 4 October 1931 – 15 February 2022) was an Indian playback singer and musician, specialising in Bengali music. She received Banga Bibhushan, the highest civilian honour of the Indian sta ...

, Satinath Mukhopadhyay, Ila Basu, Supriti Ghosh, Gayatri Basu,

Utpala Sen Utpala Sen (12 March 1924 – 13 May 2005) was a prominent Indian Bengali playback singer. She was a very popular playback singer of her time in the 1950s alongside Sandhya Mukherjee, Pratima Banderjee, and Alpana Banerjee etc. She has sung nu ...

Alpana Banerjee Alpana Mukherjee (née Banerjee) ( bn, আল্পনা মুখার্জী) (14 March 1934 – 24 July 2009) was a successful Bengali singer during the late 1940s and 1950s and onwards. Her most noted songs are "Trader Chumki Jole Akash ...

, Manabendra Mukhopadhyay,

Talat Mahmood Talat Mahmood (24 February 1924 – 9 May 1998) was an Indian playback singer who is considered one of the popular male Indian film song and ghazal singers. Although he tried his luck as a film actor, he did not succeed a great deal in actin ...

and

Kishore Kumar Kishore Kumar (born as Abhas Kumar Ganguly (); 4 August 1929 – 13 October 1987) was an Indian playback singer and actor. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest, most influential and dynamic singers in the history of Indian music. He ...

. As an actor, Shyamal Mitra, worked in Bengali movies like Sharey Chuattar and Saapmochan. Shyamal Mitra died on 15 November 1987, leaving behind his wife Protima Mitra, son Saibal Mitra and Saikat Mitra, daughter Monobina. His son Saikat has his singing legacy with him, who has become a star Bengali singer singing Shyamal Mitra's songs. The

audience will never forget his songs like "Tomar Samadhi Phule Phule Dhaka", "Gaane Bhubon Bhoriye Debe", "Amar Sopne Dekha Rajkonyya", "Ami Tomar Kachei Phire Ashbo", "Ke Jane Kobe Abar", "O Mon Kokhon Suru", "Tinti Montro Niye Jader Jibon", "O Shimul Bon", "Emono Din Ashte Pare", "Sediner Sona Jhora Sondha", "Naam Rakhechi Bonolata", "Ei Sundor Prithibi Chere", 'Jhiri jhiri baataas kaande' and many others.

As music composer

As playback singer

References

External links