Hemant Kumar

in the early 1900s.

Hemanta grew up and attended the Nasiruddin School and later the Mitra

Institution school in the Bhowanipore area, where he met his longtime friend Subhas Mukhopadhyay

who later became a Bengali poet.

He also developed a friendship with the noted

writer Santosh Kumar Ghosh during his studies.

Hemanta joined the Bengal Technical Institute at Jadavpur (now Jadavpur University) to pursue Engineering Diploma.

However, he quit academics due to health problem and to pursue a career in music, despite objections from his father.

Hemanta Mukhopadhyay (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989), known professionally as Hemant Kumar and Hemanta Mukherjee, was a legendary Indian music director and playback singer who primarily sang in Bengali and Hindi, as well as other Indian languages like Marathi, Gujarati, Odia, Assamese, Tamil, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, Konkani, Sanskrit and Urdu.

He was an artist of Bengali and Hindi film music, Rabindra Sangeet, and many other genres.

He was the recipient of two National Awards for Best Male Playback Singer and was popularly known as the "voice of God".

Hemanta was born in Varanasi, in the house of his maternal grandfather who was a physician.

His paternal family originated from the town of Jaynagar Majilpur, and migrated to Kolkata

He experimented with literature and published a short story in a Bengali magazine Desh, however he focused on music by the late 1930's.

Hemanta's first film song was in the Bengali film Rajkumarer Nirbbasan released in 1940 which was scored by S.D. Burman.

In the mid-1940s, Hemanta became an active member of the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA) and started an association with another active IPTA member — songwriter and composer Salil Chowdhury.

This was followed by Nimai Sanyas in 1941, in which music was scored by Hariprasanna Das.

His first Hindi film songs were in Meenakshi in 1942.

Hemanta's first compositions for himself were the Bengali non-film songs "Katha Kayonako Shudhu Shono" and "Amar Biraha Akashe Priya" in 1943.

The lyrics were by Amiya Bagchi.

One of the main driving forces behind the establishment of IPTA was the Bengal famine of 1943 and the inaction of the British administration and wealthy Indians to prevent it.

followed by Irada in 1944, with music composed by Amar Nath.

Hemanta is considered the foremost exponent of Rabindra Sangeet.

His first recorded Rabindra Sangeet was in the Bengali film Priya Bandhabi (1944).

The song was "Pather Sesh Kothaye".

He recorded his first non-film Rabindra Sangeet disc in 1944 under the Columbia label.

The songs were "Aamar Aar Habe Na Deri" and "Keno Pantha E Chanchalata".

Prior to that, he had recorded the song "Aamaar mallikabone" on All India Radio/Akashvani but, unfortunately, the record has passed into oblivion.

In 1945, Hemanta married Bela Mukherjee, a singer from Bengal.

Although she had sung some popular songs in the movie Kashinath, she did not actively pursue her musical career after marriage.

They had two children, a son Jayant, and a daughter Ranu.

His first movie as a music director was the Bengali film Abhiyatri in 1947.

Although many of the songs Hemanta recorded during this time received critical acclaim, major commercial success eluded him until 1947.

Some contemporary male singers of Hemanta in Bengali were Jaganmay Mitra, Robin Majumdar, Satya Chowdhury, Dhananjay Bhattacharya, Sudhirlal Chakraborty, Bechu Dutta and Talat Mahmood.

Hemanta had three brothers and a sister Nilima.

His younger brother Tarajyoti was a Bengali short story writer.

His youngest brother Amal composed music as well as sang for some Bengali movies, most notably for Abak Prithibi and Hospital.

Amal recorded a few songs in the 1960's as well with Hemant as music director, most notably the song Jiboner Anekta Path Eklai.

Ranu also pursued a music career in the late 1960's and early 1970's, with somewhat limited success.

Jayant is married to Moushumi Chatterjee, a Bengali film actress.