Poems written by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore and set to tune by the late legendary musician Pankaj Kumar Mullick have now been compiled into a CD for the first time.
“He was the only film music director who had been allowed by Tagore personally to set tune to his lyrics. These songs were in the form of handwritten notations found in our family archives. Now we have restored it, digitised it and presented it in the form of songs,” Jhinuk Gupta, granddaughter-in-law of Pankaj Mullick said.
An accomplished artiste herself, she has given voice to the songs while her husband, Rajib, has recited excerpts from the original poems in Bengali and English.
Brought out by Saregama, the CD titled ‘Ashruto Rabindranath’ (Tagore: Unheard) has eight songs.
Mullick, a Dadasaheb Phalke award winner, is best known for composing and singing the unforgettable Hindi song Piya Milan Ko Jaana from the 1939 film Kapal Kundala .
In Bengal he is still revered for composing Mahishasuramardini , a radio musical played every year at the dawn of the ‘Mahalaya’ day, which has an uninterrupted run since its beginning in 1931. It is said when Tagore heard Mullick crooning one of his songs Diner Sheshey Ghumer Deshey , he announced that he was free to set tune to those writings of his which he would not be able to accomplish during his lifetime.
