In the 1950s and 1960s, many notable singers both male and female sang immortal songs for Bengali films. While Manobendra Mukherjee, Hemanta Mukherjee, Dhananjoy Bhattacharya, Shyamal Mitra, Manna Dey did the majority of playback singing for heroes, Sandhya Mukherjee, Alpona Banerjee, Geeta Dutt and others did the playback singing for the heroines.
Robin Chatterjee used Shyamal Mitra very successfully in the Bengali film Sagarika in 1956. Shyamal Mitra’s song “amar sapne dekha rajkonya thake” became a big hit. In Hrithik Ghatak’s Bari Theke Paliye, Salil Choudhury used Shyamal Mitra for the song “anek ghuriya sheshe ailam re Kolkata”.
Shyamal Mitra composed music
in many Bengali films. In Uttam Kumar’s Bhrantibilas and Sakher Chor his compositions were appreciated. His own songs in the film “aha basoro nei bashori nei bhor je hoye gelo” was very impressive. Shyamal Mitra composed the music of the film Jomalaye Jibonto Manush. Bhanu Banerjee was the hero of the film. Shyamal Mitra’s song “bom bom bom bholanath” was very impressive.
Shyamal Mitra’s song “ganer bhubon bhoriye debo”, “ami cheye cheye dekhi saradin” and “jibonkhatar proti patae jotoi lekho hisab nikash” became the greatest hit songs of 1963. He composed the music of the film Deya Neya and Uttam Kumar’s lips in those songs made the film blockbuster.
Composer Robin Chatterjee composed two landmark songs for Shyamal Mitra in the film Deeper Naam Tiya Rong. The songs titled “phiriti bosakor” and “o amar saat rajari dhon” were composed with tunes inspired by Portuguese music. The songs stand out of few Shyamal Mitra’s best songs of his life.
Also the bhaktigeeti in Uttam Kumar’s film Kamallata titled “o mon kokhon shuru kokhon je shesh ke jane” was very impressive. Again Robin Chatterjee exploited the great nasal voice of Shyamal Mitra in the film.
Shyamal Mitra sang the song “ami tomar kache phire asbo” which became super hit in the mid 1960s. Also his songs in Uttam Kumar’s film Rajodrohi became super hit like “kothae amar nei chola thamar”. He also composed music in Uttam Kumar’s films Bon Polashir Podaboli, Amanush and Ananda Ashram.
All his songs in Bonpolashir Podaboli had folk andaz and Shyamal Mitra sang the songs beautifully. Some of them included “aha mori mori cholite cholite”, “dekhuk para porshite” and “udas bayul nei go bayul aar”. His song “teenti montro niye tader jibon” in the film Ananda Ashram was very impressive.
It will take many articles to compile the film songs of Shyamal Mitra because he had sung more than 500 songs in Bengali films. But all his songs and films require restoration.
