Bengali music comprises a long tradition of religious and secular song-writing over a period of almost a millennium. Composed with lyrics in the Bengali language, Bengali music spans a wide variety of styles.
Nazrul Sangeet, also Nazrul Geeti, refers to the songs written and composed by Kazi Nazrul Islam. Nazrul Geeti incorporate revolutionary notions as well as more spiritual, philosophical and romantic themes. Nazrul wrote and composed nearly 4,000 songs, which are widely popular in Bangladesh and India. Some of the most notable Nazrul Sangeet include Notuner Gaan, the national marching song of Bangladesh and O Mon Romzaner Oi Rozar Sheshe, a Bengali Islamic song on the festival of the Bengali celebration of Chand Raat and Eid-ul-Fitr.
Mukherjee, also Mukerjee, Mookerjea, Mookerjee, Mukerji, Mukherji, Mukhujje or Mookherjee, is a Bengali Hindu Kulin Brahmin surname originating from the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent. The traditional Bengali version is Mukhopaddhae, which is sometimes written Mukhopadhyay.
Krishna Mohan Banerjee was a 19th-century Indian thinker who attempted to rethink Hindu philosophy, religion and ethics in response to the stimulus of Christian ideas. He himself became a Christian, and was the first president of the Bengal Christian Association, which was administered and financed by Indians. He was a prominent member of Henry Louis Vivian Derozio's (1808–1831) Young Bengal group, educationist, linguist and Christian missionary.
Samar Das was a Bangladeshi musician and composer. He became one of the most important music directors in Pakistan and subsequently Bangladesh and was the composer of over 2,000 songs.
GeetashreeSandhya Mukherjee was an Indian playback singer and musician, specialising in Bengali music. She received Banga Bibhushan, the highest civilian honour of the Indian state of West Bengal in 2011. She also won the National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer for her songs in the films Jay Jayanti and Nishi Padma in the year 1970.
Shyamal Mitra was an Indian versatile playback singer and music director along with Hemanta Mukherjee and Manna Dey. Mitra had also worked in many Hindi and Bengali films as a music director and film producer. He was the most notable musician of the golden era of Bengali music industry. His baritone voice reflected a range of emotions. Besides recording a huge number of popular Bengali basic songs, he also worked as a playback singer in more than a hundred Bengali films and directed music in more than fifty Bengali films. He also sang in various other Indian languages, like Hindi, Assamese, and Oriya.
Manabendra Mukhopadhyay was an Indian singer and music composer in Bengali films. Coming to limelight in the early 1950s Manabendra was an innovative and stylish singer who had a strong foundation in Indian classical music. With his distinctive voice, Manabendra was an instant hit with the audience. demonstrating great talent also as a composer, using the lyrics and melody of a song with good effect. At that time Bengali modern song world had the presence of some outstanding performers like Dhananjay Bhattacharya, Manna Dey, Satinath Mukherjee, Akhilbandhu Ghosh, Hemanta Mukhopadhyay to name a few.
Sudhin Dasgupta was a prolific Bengali music director, lyricist and singer. He worked in various other Indian languages, such as Hindi, Assamese and Oriya. His contribution opened a new horizon to the Bengali music for both the arenas of Bengali basic song as well as Bengali film song.
Dwijen Mukhopadhyay was an Indian composer and singer whose musical career spanned six decades. He was a performer of Rabindrasangeet, Bengali basic songs, Bengali and Hindi film songs. He recorded more than 1500 songs, of which about 800 are songs of Rabindranath Tagore. He also directed music in Bengali feature films and composed music for popular Bengali basic songs.
Miss Priyambada was released on 18 August 1967. This is a Bengali movie starring Bhanu Bandyopadhyay, Jahar Roy, Tarun Kumar and Lili Chakraborty.
Himangshu Dutta was a Bengali music director. Amongst several contemporary legendary composers of his time as Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam, and Atulprasad Sen, Dutta is renowned for his unique and melodious composition of music. Songs composed by him is usually known as "Himangshu Dutta-er Gaan". The Saraswat Samaj of Dhaka awarded him the title 'Surasagar' for his contribution to Bengali music. He himself was an accomplished singer as well.
Sourendra Mohan Mukherjee, known as Monu Mukhopadhyay, was an Indian actor who worked in Bengali language films and television serials. In 1958, he became a prompter. His first acting assignment was in the play Khudha, and his first film was Mrinal Sen's 1958 film Neel Akasher Neechey. He had worked with directors like Satyajit Ray and Ronand Joffy. He is remembered for his portrayal of Machhli Baba in 1979 film Joi Baba Felunath.
Antony Firingee is a 1967 Indian biographical musical drama film directed by Sunil Bannerjee, starring Uttam Kumar and Tanuja on the lead. It is a biopic based on the life of Anthony Firingee, a Bengali language folk poet of Portuguese origin. Antony Firingee was a Portuguese-Indian who became a famous Bengali poet musician and fell in love with Nirupoma. She agreed to marry him after revealing her tragic history. But his fame was not enough to overcome their ostracisation and tragedy struck again.
Robin Chatterjee was an Indian music director and sound recordist who scored music for about ninety films. Starting from the 1942 film Parineeta, he has composed music for evergreen soundtracks such as Godhuli, Bipasha, Sagarika, Kamallata, Dwiper Nam Tiya Rang, etc.
Vibekananda Mukhopadhyay was an Indian Bengali journalist and author. He is best known for Dwitiya Mahajuddher Itihas a three volume book Indian view of World War II. As an activist, he was deeply involved in all the national and international movements of his time. The Government of India awarded him Padma Bhushan, the third highest Indian civilian award, in 1970.
Sudur Niharika (1976) is an Indian Bengali language film directed by Sushil Mukherjee and produced by Anjana Bhattacharya. It stars Soumitra Chatterjee, Soma Dey, Sumitra Mukherjee, Dipti Roy Bikash Roy, Debashree Roy, Rabi Ghosh and Arindam Ganguly. Music of the film was composed by Manabendra Mukherjee with lyrics penned by Shyamal Gupta.
Hrad is a Bengali drama film directed by Ardhendu Sen. The film stars Uttam Kumar, Sandhyarani, Chhabi Biswas, Asit Baran. This film was released on 29 July 1955 under the banner of Rupmaya films. The story was based on Bimal Kar's novel of same name. The film showed Uttam's one of the most different and critical character, where he played a memory loss patient and gave one of the finest performances of his entire career. Uttam received for the first time BFJA Best Actor Award in his career. The famous music composer Manabendra Mukhopadhyay was the music director of the film. This was a mental health and a psychological treatment film. The film became huge successful at the box office.
