This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Sandhya Mukherjee is one of the relatively lesser known playback singers of 50s as far as Hindi film industy is concerned. But she has gone on to become one of the top most playback singers of Bengali films. I first came to know about her as a playback singer when I bought a 78 RPM record (No. N. 36794) of the film ‘Sazaa’ (1951) for the iconic song ‘tum na jaane kis jahaan mein kho gaye’. The other side of the gramophone record had “aa gupchup gupchup pyaar karen” sung by Sandhya Mukherjee and Hemant Kumar. When I first listened to this song, I felt that I got a bonus song along with the iconic song of the film.
While gathering information about some lesser known personalities associated with Hindi film songs of golden era, I was browsing on the internet to collate the information about Sandhya Mukherjee. My search result is summarised in the following two paragraphs:
Sandhya Mukhopadhyay (Mukherjee) was born on Ocotber 4, 1931 in Calcutta (Kolkatta). She was initiated into music at the age of 10 under maestros like Jamini Ganguli, Pandit D T Joshi, Pandit Chinmoy Lahiri, Pandit A T Kanan, Pandit J P Ghosh. In order to have better mastery over Hindustani classical music, she became the disciple of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan in 1950 and after his death, of his son Ustaad Munawwar Ali Khan. In 1943, she made her debut as a classical singer at the All India Bengal Music Conference. Her classical performances were highly appreciated and she was honoured with a title of ‘Geetashree’ in 1946. She began her playback singing with New Theatres’ film ‘Anjaan Garh’(1948) under the baton of R C Boral. Later she shifted to Bombay (Mumbai) and sang for the films like ‘Sazaa’ (1951),‘Taranaa’ (1951), ‘Izzat’ (1952), ‘Baaghi’ (1953), ‘Ek Do Teen’ (1953), ‘Manohar’ (1954), ‘Jaagte Raho’ (1956), ‘Mamta’ (1966) among her films. She had also sung songs for two Pakistani films some time in the 60s.
Following her marriage with Bangla poet Shyamal Gupta in 1966, she went back to her home city Calcutta. Here, she actually wanted to pursue her training in Hindustani classical music but somehow got associated with playback singing where over a period of time, she became one of the top playback singers for Bengali films. As a playback singer,she sang over 700 songs in Bengali, Hindi, Assamese, Oriya and some other regional languages and rendered a large number of non-filmy songs. In Bengali films, she was known as the voice of Suchitra Sen. At one time the combination of Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen as lead actors, Hemant Kumar and Sandhya Mukherjee giving playback for them under the baton of Robin Chattopadhyay (Chatterjee) was a sure shot for the box office success of the film. She got the National Film Award for the best playback singer in 1970. In 2011, she received Banga Vibhushan, the highest civilian honour in West Bengal. She is 81 now and stays in Kolkatta.
Even though she intended to become a Hindustani classical singer, a quick glance through her songs on the internet indicates that majority of her songs, both filmy and non filmy belonged to the genre of semi classical and modern songs. She did occasionally participate in the Hindustani classical music concerts specialising mostly on khayal and thumri in Patiala gharana style. As far as her career as a playback singer in Hindi films was concerned, she could not establish herself as one of the leading playback singers. She came to Mumbai at a time when Geeta Dutt and Shamshad Begum were already become leading female playback singers and Lata Mangeshkar was emerging as one of the leading playback singers. I find that Sandhya Mukherjee’s voice was a blend of Geeta Dutt and Meena Kapoor which may also be a factor that may have gone against her.
I have selected for discussion, one of her songs which gave me an impression of three-in-one voice – a blend of Geeta Dutt and Meena Kapoor with a shade of Suraiya. The song is ‘yeh baat koi smajhaaye re’ from the film SAZZA (1951). The song was written by Rajinder Krishan and set to music by S D Burman. This beautifully worded and foot tapping song was lost against the popularity of the iconic song from the film “tum na jaane kis jahaan mein kho gaye”. The song is picturised on a happy looking Nimmi in contrast to her usual role of an eternal suffering woman. After watching this song, I feel that her performance in happy situations is better than that of a suffering lady. I have given links to both video and audio clips as I feel that sound quality is better in audio clip than in the video clip. However, it is good to watch the video clip for Nimmi’s performance.
After listening to this song, I feel that Hindi film industry lost a good and talented singer Sandhya Mukherjee to Bengali film industry. No wonder, she was called ‘Nightingale of Bengal’.
Video
Audio
Song-Ye baat koi samjhaaye re (Sazaa)(1951) Singer-Sandhya Mukherji, Lyrics-Rajinder Krishan, MD-S D Burman
Lyrics(based on video clip)
hmm
hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm
aaa aa aa aa aa
o o o o o
yeh baat koi samjhaaye re
kyun aaj nazar sharmaaye re
yeh baat koi samjhaaye re
kyun aaj nazar sharmaaye re
maine dil se kahaa kyaa baat hai
kahaa dil ne milan ki raat hai
maine dil se kahaa kyaa baat hai
kahaa dil ne milan ki raat hai
kaahe ghoonghat mein mukhda chupaaye re
kyun aaj nazar sharmaaye re
yeh baat koi samjhaaye re
kyun aaj nazar sharmaaye re
mera manwaa manaaye rang raliyaa
paas aa gayi hai saajan ki galiyaan
mera manwaa manaaye rang raliyaa
paas aa gayi hai saajan ki galiyaan
meri chunri hawa mein lehraaye re
kyun aaj nazar sharmaaye re
yeh baat koi samjhaaye re
kyun aaj nazar sharmaaye re
o dekho dekho baji shehnaaiyaan
mohe aane lagi angdaaiyaan
dekho dekho baji shehnaaiyaan
mohe aane lagi angdaaiyaan
meri patli kamar bal kahaayi re
kyun aaj nazar sharmaaye re
yeh baat koi samjhaaye re
kyun aaj nazar sharmaaye re
