Short Biography

Born – 10^th May, 1905

Pankaj Mullick singing live on radio

Died – 19^th February, 1978

Training – 

• Sri Durgadas Bandopadhyay for classical & light classical music
• Sri Dinendranath Tagore (Rabindranath Tagore’s grand nephew) for Rabindrasangeet

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

RADIO –

·     He joined All India Radio (AIR), Kolkata [initially known as the Indian Broadcasting Corporation] in 1927, within a month of its inception.

·         He was an integral part of  AIR for nearly 50 years

·         At AIR he set music to the immortal ‘Mahishasuramardini’, a programme that has become a part of Bengali culture and synonymous with Durga Puja. It is heard every ‘Mahalaya’ morning even till today. It has had an uninterrupted run since its beginning in 1931.

·         He conceptualized and started the immensely popular live-music class titled – ‘Sangeet Shikshar Ashar’ which he did for a record 47 years on the trot.

·         He was part of innumerable Feature Programmes as music director & artiste during his lengthy tenure at AIR

CINEMA –

·         He became a part of Indian cinema  right from the silent era, since 1931

·         He was a part of the star studded New Theatres Studio team for nearly 25 years

·      Luminaries like K L Saigal, S D Burman, Hemanta Mukherjee, Geeta Dutt and Asha Bhosle sang under his music direction as did several other prominent artistes from Bengal and the rest of the country

·         He was the first music director who introduced Rabindrasangeet successfully in films

·         He introduced interlude and interlinking music for the first time in Indian film-songs

·         At a time when movie-making was not as prolific as it is now, he sang in, composed music for and occasionally acted in close to 100 movies

·         He was a part of Indian cinema from 1931 to 1969, a period of about 38 years

·         The movies he was associated with were in Bengali, Hindi, Urdu and Tamil

·         He along with director Sri Nitin Bose was instrumental in the introduction of playback singing in Indian cinema

SALIENT FACTS –

·         He recorded his first song when he was only 18 years old

·         He was the first person to popularise Rabindrasangeet by unleashing the magic of Tagore’s songs amongst the masses

·         His music career spanned an awe-inspiring 50 years  

·         He officially composed over 5,000 songs in those 50 years

·         Singers like K L Saigal, S D Burman, Hemant Kumar, Kanan Devi, Geeta Dutt and Asha Bhosle amongst others sung his compositions

·         His co-stars in films included K L Saigal, P C Barua  and Kanan Devi amongst others

·         He was appointed as the Honorary Advisor to the Folk Entertainment Section of the Government of West Bengal, from 1953 to 1968, by the Chief Minister of West Bengal

·         He was regarded as one of the founding fathers of Bangla Adhunik Gaan, a sub-genre of Bengali songs

·         He had several popular non-film songs in Hindi, Urdu and Bengali to his credit

·         He was the first to introduce elements of Western Music to Indian cinematic & non-cinematic songs

MAJOR AWARDS –

·         He won the National Award  for Best Music Direction in movies on quite a few occasions

·         He received the BFJA award  for his work as music director

·         He received Life Time Achievement Awards from AIR and HMV (now Saregama)

PRESTIGIOUS TITLES –

·         Title of “Surosagar” in 1931

·         Title of “Sangeet Ratnakar” in 1962

·         Padmashree in 1970

·         DADASAHEB PHALKE PURASKAR in 1972 – the highest award presented by the Government of India in the field of Indian Cinema. He was the first music-director to be honoured so.

·         Title of Rabindra Tattacharya in 1977

RARE HONOURS –

·         Rabindranath himself allowed him to set tune to a few of his poems, the most popular instance of which is “Diner sheshey ghumer deshey…”

·         He was invited to sing the inaugural song during the launch of television (Doordarshan) in the country

·         At the behest of Sri Sarat Bose, Netaji’s elder brother, he sang “Kadam kadam barhaye jaa…”, set to his version of the tune, with Prime Minister  J L Nehru being present during the recording. Other members of Netaji’s family too lent their voices to this record

·         On Prime Minister Nehru’s request he sang and recorded the Indian National Anthem – “Jana gana mana…” in a style that was deemed to set the parameters to be followed during the singing of the anthem by all Indians. The recording was also played nation-wide at almost every public place to familiarise every Indian citizen with the anthem of their newly formed independent country

·         In the days when ‘globalisation’ was quite unheard of, he enjoyed great fame and popularity both nationally and internationally

POSTHUMOUS HONOURS –

·         The Government of West Bengal renamed Ritchie Road as Pankaj Mullick Sarani in his honour

·         The Department of Information and Culture of the Government of West Bengal celebrated his birth centenary in 2005 with great pomp and splendour

·         The Government of India, paid tribute to his memory by issuing a commemorative postage stamp in 2006

·         The Kolkata Municipal Corporation declared his residence at Sebak Baidya Street a Heritage Site in 2007

·         The Kolkata Municipal Corporation supported the erection of a statue in his honour at Maddox Square Park on Pankaj Mullick Sarani in 2010