Collection... Pankaj Mallick

Composer, musician, audio innovator, singer, music director, teacher and a part-time actor Pankaj Mullick is a colossal figure not only in the field of Bengali cinema but ranks among the greatest cultural icons of Bengal.
He was born on 10th May, 1905. His parents Monimohan and Monomohini were devout vashnavaites and the young Pankaj often sang shlokas and devotional songs during family religious ceremonies. He took talim in dhrupad, khayal, tappa and other forms of Indian classical music under the tutelage of Shri. Durgadas Bandopadhaya. He came in contact with Dinendranath Tagore, Tagore's grand-nephew and the composer, music arranger for many of the Gurudevs songs and thus developed a lifelong passion for Rabindrasangeet. Tagore himself grew fond of the young man and soon Pankaj Mullick became recognised as one of the finest exponents of Tagores songs. He was the first person to use the tabla as an accompaniment in these songs. He made his first recording at the age of eighteen and the first of his numerous commercial recordings was made with the Vielophone Company in 1926. The song was Nemecche Aaj Prothom Badal. Pankaj Mullicks rendition of many a Rabindrasangeet is extremely popular even today.
In 1927, when India Broadcasting Corporation, the forerunner of All India Radio (AIR) was launched, Pankaj Mullick along with Rai Chand Boral joined in as one of its earliest employees. His association with AIR lasted for over four decades and produced the musicteaching program Sangeet Shikshar Ashar (1929-1975, excluding 1944). The programme was instrumental in popularising Rabindrasangeet among the Bengali middle-class for generations. Mahishashura Mardini, which was aired first in 1932, was a joint creation of Pankaj Mullick, Bani Kumar and Birendra Krishna Bhadra. The program, a musical evocation of the goddess Durga, used to be broadcast live on the crack of dawn on the auspicious day of Mahalaya (the first day of Devipaksha the fortnight that includes Durga Puja). Eminent singers such as Angurbala, Suprabha Ghosh, Supriti Ghosh, Arati Mukherjee, Sumitra Sen, Sandhya Mukherjee, Hemanta Mukherjee, Pannalal Bhattacharya, Dwijen Mukherjee and Manabendra Mukherjee considered it to be a privilege to be invited to sing for this prestigious program. Mahishashura Mardini, is a now a part of the Bengali identity and cultural ethos. The recorded version which is aired even to this day is still listened to by millions.
Pankaj Mullicks association with the cinema began as a conductor and music arranger for the orchestra at the Chitra cinema hall that played live mood music during the screening of two silent films Chashar Meye (he also had a walk-in part in this film) and Chorkanta. Both films released in 1931, were produced by International Film Craft, the company floated by Birendra Nath Sircar in order to judge the prospects of the movie business. Later in the same year when Sircar formally launched the now legendary New Theatres, Pankajbabu was an obvious choice to join the galaxy of talents that gathered under its aegis. Dena Paona (1932), the first film produced by New Theatres was also the first Bengali talkie. Pankaj Mullick along with Rai Chand Boral composed music for this ground-breaking film. The following year 1933, he made his debut as an independent music director for a Hindi/Urdu film Yahudi Ka Ladki, a New Theatres costume drama directed by Premankur Atorthi. Pankajbabu was one of the first music-arrangers and orchestra conductors to extensively use western musical forms and instruments like the piano and the accordion in composing music for Indian films. The imaginative use of background music to emphasise the mood, action and tempo of the film scenes is one of Pankaj Mullicks great contributions to music in Indian cinema.

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[catcherloc08]

*KC Dey (Manna's uncle), Pankaj Da and Jaganmoy Da (Jagmohan was for those who don't know Janganmoy Moitra) are immortal in Indin music!

[samjhave]

he was just great so was his singing & his music which is immortal..samjhave

[marianchatterjee]

truly a genius and once in a generation singer. Love his rabindrasangeet especially!

[afzzaidi27]

What a grand singer, song writer and musician.

[trubel987]

Pankaj Mallick was the greatest multi-talanted genius of Indian music. Everytime I hear his immortal songs, I'm back to my childhood and young adult age in the 40's and 50's. I'm 78 now & live abroad (since 1956). Sometime in early 50's I met him back-stage at a musical show in Calcutta, held to raise money for starting a Student Medical Centre. He & Pandit Ravi Shankar were chatting ever so amicably about some musical thing. Thank you Mr.Mirza, hoping you 'll add more.

Santosh Dalal, Canada

[trubel987]

Pankaj Mallick was the greatest multi-talanted genius of Indian music. Everytime I hear his immortal songs, I'm back to my childhood and young adult age in the 40's and 50's. I'm 78 now & live abroad (since 1956). Sometime in early 50's I met him back-stage at a musical show in Calcutta, held to raise money for starting a Student Medical Centre. He & Pandit Ravi Shankar were chatting ever so amicably about some musical thing. Thank you Mr.Mirza, hoping you 'll add more.

Santosh Dalal

[guddo9]

पुराने गीत  धडकन तेज नहीं शब्द लिखने को

[anee1508]

thanks for uploading these rare songs which are not available in any of the music stores.I gave request to number of them but to no avail. i am so happy to discover the you tube to listen to my childhood favs and remember my lovely mom who loved these evergreen songs. Cheers to the great person.

[2665ash]

these songs leads to old days. Fabulous.

[sarlashahani]

unforgetable

[gkiyer1]

I totally agree.Yes they were great singers.Melody flowed with their rendition.

Gopal Krishna Iyer Delhi

[6545802]

Greatest singer and music director. No singer could match his "pahadi" voice.

Bengal gave us  immortal singers like Pankaj, Mannadey, Kishore,KC Dey, Geeta Dutt ,Kanan devi, Parul Ghosh,Hemant Kumar, Jagmohan..

M.Porecha