The ambience and the audience at Kamani Auditorium turned nostalgic as the legendary singer-composer Pankaj Mullick’s grandson and grand daughter-in-law rendered some of his best compositions.
Organised by Pankaj Mullick Music and Art Foundation (PMMAF) as a tribute
to the illustrious music maestro, the show celebrated his musical genius by an ode to his Hindi and Bengali film songs, Hindi and Urdu ghazals, bhajans, Sanskrit hymns and many other works.
The evening began with the screening of a documentary ‘Pankaj Mullick – The Reel Story’, directed by his grandson Rajib Gupta. The film commemorated the life and times of the music maestro, whose achievements include being the first music director to be awarded the Dada Saheb Phalke Puraskar and to sing the inaugural song on Indian television. He also conducted Sangeet Shikshar Ashar on All India Radio for nearly 50 years on the trot and was the first man to popularise Rabindra Sangeet among the masses.
The audio-video film highlighted all these feats of Pankaj Mullick also known as Pankaj Kumar. With archival footage and quotes legendry musicians and singers like Lata Mangeshkar, Naushad, O P and Tapan Sinha, the film traced Mullick’s journey in cinema.
Rajib said: “We organised this evening to connect the present generation of music lovers and the heritage of Indian music. Pankaj Mullick, the late music maestro had carved a niche for himself in the annals of the cultural heritage of our country through the sheer dint of his stupendous achievements. He was a repository of multifarious talents that helped him gain immense fame as a singer, a music composer, a radio artiste, a stage and film actor, a trainer, a playwright and a writer.”
After the film, Rajib and his wife Jhinuk Gupta presented their grandfather’s popular renditions like Piya milan ko jana from Kapalkundala (1939), Chale pawan ki chaal from Doctor (1941), Murliwale Se Lagi Nain from Kasturi (1954) – composed by Pankaj Mullick and sung by Asha Bhosle – Pran Chahe Nainana Chahe, a non-film song. It is a Hindi version of Rabindranath Tagore’s song Pran Chahe Chokkhu Na Chahe.
The husband-wife duo also presented Tagore’s poems from Geetanjali. Pankaj Mullick was the only music composer to be allowed by Gurudev to set tune to quite a few of his lyrics. A poster and photograph exhibition captured the various aspect of his life. For instance, the tune for Kadam kadam barhaye jaa was set by Pankaj Mullick at the behest of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose.
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