Sudhin Dasgupta

He also composed music for many of the well-known Bengali poems from authors like Sunirmal Basu, Jogindranath Sarkar, Jatindranath Sengupta (‘থই থই শাওন এল ওই’ by Sandhya Mukherjee), Batakrishna Dey (‘কৃষ্ণচূড়া আগুন তুমি’ by Geeta Dutt) and Jatindra Mohan Bagchi (‘বাঁশবাগানের মাথার ওপর’ by Pratima Bandopadhyay) etc.

Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards for best Best Music Director for the film Picnic (1972)

Sudhin had a professional voice too, and the lone record of his songs written by his close friend Subir Hazra was published in 1961 with two tracks: ‘কোকিল কাঁদে কেন ফাগুনে’ based on folk tune, and ‘লাল লাল চোখে দেখি একে ওকে’ with the tune of jazz.

In 1957, Sudhin Dasgupta entered the Bengali Film industry as the music composer for film called “Ulka”. His second film was “Dak Harkara” (1958), where famous Bengali novelist, Tarashankar Bandopadhyay contributed the lyrics. Sudhin never looked back and Bengali film industry got a series of mega hits from him like “Antaral”, “Shankhabela”, “Tin Bhuboner Pare”, “Prothom Kodom Phul”, “Chaddabeshi”, “Picnic”, “Har Mana Har”, “Basanta Bilap”, “Hangsaraj”, “Amrito Kumbher Sondhane” and many more. In many of the films he acted both as the lyricist and the composer. He worked for around fifty Bengali films. While composing music for the film "Goli Theke Rajpoth" Sudhin inducted Manne Dey for the first time to make play back song in the lip of Uttam Kumar, in the song "লাগ লাগ লাগ ভেল্কির খেলা". The great trio, Sudhin Dasgupta, Uttam Kumar and Manna Dey produced several magical songs in films “Shankhabela”, “Kokhono Megh”, “Manjari Opera”, “Chhadmabeshi”, "Har Mana Har", "Raater Rajanigandha" etc. afterwards.

Some time during early fifties, Sudhin Dasgupta was invited by Geeta Dutt and Guru Dutt to join their production house in Bombay (Mumbai). For some time Subir Sen and Sudhin Dasgupta stayed together in Tardeo Sonawala building in Mumbai when Sudhin composed a song "এত সুর আর এত গান" (Eto sur aar eto gaan), which was recorded by Subir Sen much later. By this time the second record of Subir Sen appeared in 1956 containing two compositions of Sudhin Dasgupta, 'ঐ উজ্জ্বল দিন ডাকে স্বপ্ন রঙ্গীন' and 'স্বর্ণঝরা সূর্যরঙে'. These immortal creations made the Composer cum lyricist Sudhin Dasgupta famous and made a permanent place for him in the world of Bengali music.

Since his early years Sudhin Dasgupta was associated with the activities of IPTA (Indian People's Theatre Association), where his was befriended with many stalwarts of that time, such as Salil Chowdhury, Sourindra Mohan Sengupta, Ritwik Ghatak, Utpal Dutt, Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, Salil Chowdhury, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Jyotirindra Moitra, Debabrata Biswas and others. During this time Sudhin Dasgupta composed music for Thikana, a famous poem written by Sukanta Bhattacharya, which was sung at IPTA meetings by Sourindra Mohan during the Teachers' Movement in 1954. However, later another version of the song with music composed by Salil Choudhury was recorded and became very popular.

The first Bengali song recorded in Sudhin's composition were in Bechu Dutta's voice: 'কত আশা কত ভালোবাসা' and 'কেন আকাশ হতে' in 1953. In basic Bengali song, Sudhin Dasgupta gifted the audience a number of super-hit tracks, including “Ei Jhir Jhir Batase”, “Bhanga Torir Sudhu E Gaan”, “Ami Taar Thikana Rakhini”, “Ekta Gaan Likho Amar Jonno”, “Oi Ujjwalo Din”, “Saat Ronga Ek Pakhi”, “Akash Eto Meghla”, “Naam Rekhechi Bonolata” and many others. Again, he contributed both as composer and lyricist in many of the items. He worked extensively with all the legendary singers like Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhyay, Manna Dey, Dwijen Mukhopadhyay, Shyamal Mitra, Manabendra Mukhopadhyay, Satinath Mukhopadhyay, Sandhya Mukhopadhyay, Pratima Bandopadhyay, Arati Mukhopadhyay, Talat Mahmood, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle, Mohammed Rafi etc. In the year 1967 itself both Sudhin and Salil presented Puja Albums containing ten songs each, such was the popularity of the duo.

The years of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s are considered as the golden era for Bengali modern song as well as Bengali basic song. During this period, Bengali music was enriched by contributions of numerous music directors and lyricists such as Gouri Prasanna Majumdar, Shaymal Gupta, Mintu Ghosh, Pronob Roy, Robin Chattopadhya, Pabitra Chattopadhya, Anol Chattopadhya, Anupam Ghatak, Anil Bagchi, Jnan Prakash Ghosh, Salil Chowdhury, Nachiketa Ghosh, Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhyay, Shyamal Mitra, Bhupen Hazarika and Sudhin Dasgupta. He was also known to be an excellent player of different Indian and Western musical instruments like Tabla, Sitar, Piano, Harmonium, Esraj, Violin and others.

It was 1949-50 when Sudhin and his family had to shift permanently to Calcutta (Kolkata), initially at Srinath Mukherjee Lane and then to the house at Sinthi. This was the time when he gradually delved into the world of Bengali modern music. Apart from working as music assistant to the legendary music director Kamal Dasgupta, he maintained his responsibility of creating songs for the Calcutta North Squad of IPTA (Indian Peoples Theatres' Association). And a day came when Sudhin met Khitish Basu of His Master's Voice (HMV) who gave him the opportunity to compose Bengali modern music. The first two modern songs composed by him was Kato Asha Kato Bhalobasha and Keno Akash Hote recorded by Bechu Dutta in 1953. Eventually the versatile musical journey of Sudhin Dasgupta began which was consistent till the last day of his life.

Sudhin Dasgupta actively responded through his pen to the distress of people in the time of partition in 1947 and afterwards. He created a few motivational songs during that time for the IPTA. During the Bangladesh war in 1971 too he created unforgettable songs paying homage to the birth of the New Nation and its founder Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: Bangabandhu phire ele.

Sudhin Dasgupta (Bengali: সুধীন দাশগুপ্ত ; 9 October 1929 – 10 January 1982) 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.