Pannalal Bhattacharya

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Pannalal Bhattacharya (পান্নালাল ভট্টাচার্যয্) was a famous Bengali singer. Most of the songs he sang were written by Ramprasad Sen and Kamalakanta Bhattacharya, both of whom were Shakta poets of Bengal. He was eight years younger than his elder brother Dhananjay Bhattacharya. He developed a special style of singing, Shyama Sangeet, that continues to be used. He committed suicide at the age of 36.

His Childhood

Very little is known about his background. Even the Bengali 'Cąritavidan' is insufficient to provide information about his early life or childhood. He was born in Bally, Barendrapara, Howrah and most of his life he spent there.

First Appearance

Pannalal started singing in 1947 with Sanat Sinha, another renowned musician, only at the age of 17. The elder brother of Pannalal, Prafulla took both of them to a function, where none of them were selected because of voice immaturity, and then to the HMV, where they encountered the same problem. Then both sang in Megaphone. At first he sang modern Bengali songs, until a friend of Sanat Sinha named Bishwanath Kumar recruited Pannalal to sing his first hit Shyama Sangeet, "Aamar sadh na mitilo aasha na purilo, sokoli phuraye jay ma..." (None of my desires were fulfilled, nor my hopes have come true, O mother...). This rendition is now acclaimed as a classic in Bengal.

Music director

A music director may be the director of an orchestra or concert band, the director of music for a film, the director of music at a radio station, the head of the music department in a school, the coordinator of the musical ensembles in a university, college, or institution (but not usually the head of the academic music department), the head bandmaster of a military band, the head organist and choirmaster of a church, or an Organist and Master of the Choristers (a title given to a Director of Music at a cathedral, particularly in England).

Orchestra

The title of "music director" or "musical director" is used by many symphony orchestras to designate the primary conductor and artistic leader of the orchestra. The term "music director" is most common for orchestras in the United States. With European orchestras, the titles of "principal conductor" or "chief conductor" are more common, which designate the conductor who directs the majority of a given orchestra's concerts in a season. In musical theatre and opera, the music director is in charge of the overall musical performance, including ensuring that the cast knows the music thoroughly, supervising the musical interpretation of the performers and pit orchestra, and conducting the orchestra.

Shyama Sangeet

Shyama Sangeet (Bengali: শ্যামা সঙ্গীত ) is a genre of Bengali devotional songs dedicated to the Hindu goddess Shyama or Kali which is a form of supreme universal mother-goddess Durga or parvati. It is also known as Shaktagiti or Durgastuti.

Shyama Sangeet appeals to the common man because it is a musical representation of the relationship of eternal and sublime love and care between the mother and her child. It is free of the common rituals of worship and also the esoteric practice of the Tantra.

Origin

During the 12th-13th centuries when Shaktism grew in Bengal, it inspired a number of poets to compose poems on Kali. Mukundarāma, known as Kavikaṅkaṇ or 'gem of poets, ' wrote his chief poem, the epic Chaṇḍī, in 1589. Towards the middle of the 18th century, the poet Ramprasad Sen instilled new life into it and turned it into a distinct genre of Bengali songs.

Ramprasad was succeeded by number of composers like Kamlakanta Bhattacharya (1772–1821), Rasikchandra Ray (1820–1893), Ramchandra Datta (1861–1899), and Nilakantha Mukhopadhyaya. In modern times both Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam have composed poems of Shyama Sangeet genre.

Shyama

Shyama (born Khurshid Akhtar; 7 June 1935, Lahore) is a former Bollywood actress. Her best known roles were in Aar Paar (1954), Barsaat Ki Raat (1960) and Tarana. She was also noticed in 'Sawan Bhadon', 'Dil Diya Dard Liya', 'Milan' and 'Sharda' for which she was awarded Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress. Like Shammi Kapoor in male actors, she is the actress who has been most responsive to the rhythm and lyrics of the music directors and poets. Songs picturised on her like 'ae dil mujhe bata de', 'O chand jahan wo jaye', 'ae lo main hari piya', ' dekho, wo chand chhup ke karata hai kya ishare', 'chhupa ke meri aankhon ko', 'ja re ka re badara' are examples of her sensitive acting.

Director Vijay Bhatt gave her the stage name Shyama by which she is credited in her movies. She had starring roles in Guru Dutt's classic Aar Paar and later in Barsaat Ki Raat which was perhaps her best performance. She was a major star in the 1950s and 60s and acted in more than 200 movies, many in starring roles.

Anuradha Paudwal

Anuradha Paudwal (मराठी: अनुराधा पौडवाल) is an Indian playback singer in Bollywood.

She is noted in Hindi cinema with a career spanning three decades.She is a five-time winner from 15 nominations of the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer,a recipient of the National Film Award. She has sung in several languages including Hindi, Kannada, Marwari, Pahari, Marathi, Sanskrit, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Oriya, Assamese, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, Nepali and Maithili.

Biography

Her singing career started in 1973 with the movie, Abhimaan, (starring Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan) in which she sang a Shloka (a Sanskrit verse). In the same year she also made her Marathi film debut with "Yashoda" (music by Datta Davjekar). In 1974, she brought out a record of Non-film Marathi songs or "bhav geeten" which became very popular.

In 1976, she got her break as a playback singer in Hindi films with Kalicharan (starring Shatrughan Sinha and Reena Roy). Her first solo was in the movie, Aap Beati, (starring Hema Malini and Shashi Kapoor). Laxmikant-Pyarelal were the music-composer duo for that movie. She also occasionally sang songs for composers Rajesh Roshan (Udhar Ka Sindoor), Jaidev (Dooriyan, Laila Majnu), Kalyanji Anandji (Kalaakar, Vidhaata), and Usha Khanna (Souten, Saajan Bina Suhagan).