Sudhin Dasgupta (9 October 1929 – 10 January 1982) was an Indian music director, lyricist and singer. He primarily worked in Bengali music, but also contributed to various other Indian languages, such as Hindi, Assamese and Oriya.
Personal life Born into a Baidya family on 9 October 1929, Sudhindranath dasgupta, popularly known as Sudhin Dasgupta, was brought up at Darjeeling. The ancestral house of his family was in 'Kalia' village, Jessore District, Bangladesh. His father, Mahendranath Dasgupta was a teacher at Darjeeling Govt. School. His mother was a social activist in those days.
Sudhindranath, alias Sudhin Dasgupta, was proficient in music from his early years. He could play various types of musical instruments with equal expertise, such as Sitar, Sarod, Harmonium, Piano, Mandolin, Piccolo, Guitar, Violin, Esraj etc., along with percussion such as Tabla and Drums. He graduated in music from Royal School of Music London.
Sudhin was also adept in playing various games. When he was in Calcutta (Kolkata) he was a member of the Hockey team in Bhabanipur Club.
It was 1949–50 when Sudhin and his family had to shift permanently to Calcutta (Kolkata), initially at Srinath Mukherjee Lane and then to the house at Sinthi. This was the time when he gradually delved into the world of Bengali modern music. Apart from working as music assistant to the legendary music director Kamal Dasgupta, he maintained his responsibility of creating songs for the Calcutta North Squad of IPTA (Indian Peoples Theatres' Association). And a day came when Sudhin met Khitish Basu of the Gramophone Company of India who gave him the opportunity to compose Bengali modern music. The first two modern songs composed by him was Kato Asha Kato Bhalobasha and Keno Akash Hote recorded by Bechu Dutta in 1953. Eventually the versatile musical journey of Sudhin Dasgupta began which was consistent until the last day of his life.
Sudhin Dasgupta was married to Manjushree Dasgupta (née Sengupta). Their son Soumya is an architect by profession, and daughter Saberi is a fashion designer.
Music The years of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s are considered as the golden era for Bengali modern song as well as Bengali basic song. During this period, Bengali music was enriched by contributions of numerous music directors and lyricists such as Gouri Prasanna Majumdar, Pulak Bandyopadhyay, Shyamal Gupta, Miltoo Ghosh, Pronob Roy, Robin Chattopadhyay, Pabitra Chattopadhyay, Anol Chattopadhyay, Anupam Ghatak, Anil Bagchi, Jnan Prakash Ghosh, Salil Chowdhury, Nachiketa Ghosh, Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhyay, Shyamal Mitra, Bhupen Hazarika and Sudhin Dasgupta. He was also known to be an excellent player of different Indian and Western musical instruments like Tabla, Sitar, Piano, Harmonium, Esraj, Violin and others.
Early years Some time during early fifties, Sudhin Dasgupta was invited by Geeta Dutt and Guru Dutt to join their production house in Bombay (Mumbai). For some time Subir Sen and Sudhin Dasgupta stayed together in Tardeo Sonawala building in Mumbai when Sudhin composed a song "এত সুর আর এত গান" (Eto sur aar eto gaan), which was recorded by Subir Sen much later. By this time the second record of Subir Sen appeared in 1956 containing two compositions of Sudhin Dasgupta, 'ঐ উজ্জ্বল দিন ডাকে স্বপ্ন রঙ্গীন' and 'স্বর্ণঝরা সূর্যরঙে'. These immortal creations made the Composer cum lyricist Sudhin Dasgupta famous and made a permanent place for him in the world of Bengali music.
Since his early years Sudhin Dasgupta was associated with the activities of IPTA (Indian People's Theatre Association), where his was befriended with many stalwarts of that time, such as Salil Chowdhury, Sourindra Mohan Sengupta, Ritwik Ghatak, Utpal Dutt, Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Jyotirindra Moitra, Debabrata Biswas and others. During this time Sudhin Dasgupta composed music for Thikana, a famous poem written by Sukanta Bhattacharya, which was sung at IPTA meetings by Sourindra Mohan during the Teachers' Movement in 1954. However, later another version of the song with music composed by Salil Choudhury was recorded and became very popular.
Sudhin had a professional voice too, and the lone record of his songs written by his close friend Subir Hazra was published in 1961 with two tracks: 'কোকিল কাঁদে কেন ফাগুনে’ based on folk tune, and 'লাল লাল চোখে দেখি একে ওকে’ with the tune of jazz.
Composer of Basic Songs The first Bengali song recorded in Sudhin's composition were in Bechu Dutta's voice: 'কত আশা কত ভালোবাসা'Viewable on YouTube: ; (accessed 3 March 2019) and 'কেন আকাশ হতে'Viewable on YouTube: ; (accessed 3 March 2019) in 1953. In basic Bengali song, Sudhin Dasgupta gifted the audience a number of super-hit tracks, including "Ei Jhir Jhir Batase", "Bhanga Torir Sudhu E Gaan", "Ami Taar Thikana Rakhini", "Ekta Gaan Likho Amar Jonno", "Oi Ujjwalo Din", "Saat Ronga Ek Pakhi", "Akash Eto Meghla", "Naam Rekhechi Bonolata" and many others. Again, he contributed both as composer and lyricist in many of the items. He worked extensively with all the legendary singers like Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhyay, Manna Dey, Dwijen Mukhopadhyay, Shyamal Mitra, Manabendra Mukhopadhyay, Satinath Mukhopadhyay, Sandhya Mukhopadhyay, Pratima Bandopadhyay, Arati Mukhopadhyay, Talat Mahmood, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle, Mohammed Rafi etc. In the year 1967 itself both Sudhin and Salil presented Puja Albums containing ten songs each, such was the popularity of the duo.
Composer/Music Director in Movies In 1957, Sudhin Dasgupta entered the Bengali Film industry as the music composer for film called "Ulka". His second film was "Dak Harkara" (1958), where famous Bengali novelist, Tarashankar Bandopadhyay contributed the lyrics. Sudhin never looked back and Bengali film industry got a series of mega hits from him like "Antaral", "Shankhabela", "Tin Bhuboner Pare", "Prothom Kodom Phul", "Chaddabeshi", "Picnic", "Har Mana Har", "Basanta Bilap", "Hangsaraj", "Amrito Kumbher Sondhane" and many more. In many of the films he acted both as the lyricist and the composer. He worked for around fifty Bengali films. While composing music for the film "Goli Theke Rajpoth" Sudhin inducted Manne Dey for the first time to make play back song in the lip of Uttam Kumar, in the song "লাগ লাগ লাগ ভেল্কির খেলা". The great trio, Sudhin Dasgupta, Uttam Kumar and Manna Dey produced several magical songs in films "Shankhabela", "Kokhono Megh", "Manjari Opera", "Chhadmabeshi", "Har Mana Har", "Raater Rajanigandha" etc. afterwards.
Experimentation Sudhin Dasgupta experimented with different forms of music all through his musical career. He used Baul, South Indian Tunes, Folk, and Western Chorus in his various creations. Sometimes he adopted tune of various origin into his creations. In Shyamal Mitra's voice "Kato dur kato dur" he used the tune of "Jingle bells". One such song was "I come from Alabama" which inspired the Bengali song Oi meghe meghe, sang by Gayatri Basu in 1954. In the same year Sudhin composed Mor gaan shishirer khora sure go, sang by Sandhya Mukherjee, which could be inspired by Tchaikovsky's composition Danse Choinoise (1882), having a faint resemblance in the first line only.Viewable on YouTube: He created the song "হারিয়ে ফেলেছি মন জানি না তো কোথায় কখন" based on "Casanova".
Advertisement jingles Sudhin Dasgupta also worked for commercial advertisement jingles. One such composition by Sudhin has become a legend: "Mathar Ghonochul Jokhon, Morubhumi Hoye Jai…”.
Music for Children He contributed to the music albums for the children, titled "Hingsute Doitto" and "Chotoder Ramayan".
He also composed music for many of the well-known Bengali poems from authors like Sunirmal Basu, Jogindranath Sarkar, Jatindranath Sengupta ('থই থই শাওন এল ওই' by Sandhya Mukherjee), Batakrishna Dey ('কৃষ্ণচূড়া আগুন তুমি’ by Geeta Dutt) and Jatindra Mohan Bagchi ('বাঁশবাগানের মাথার ওপর' by Pratima Bandopadhyay) etc.
Sudhin as a poet Sudhin Dasgupta wrote lyrics for many songs. Immense popularity of these songs itself speak of the poetical values of these lyrics with their literary value. One of the first of his creations was the song he wrote for Subir Sen in 1954, Eto Sur Ar Eto Gaan, which had become a milestone in Bengali music world: এত সুর আর এত গান যদি কোনদিন থেমে যায় সেইদিন তুমিও তো ওগো জানি ভুলে যাবে যে আমায়।
কতদিন আর এ জীবন কত আর এ মধু লগন... তবুও তো পেয়েছি তোমায় জানি ভুলে যাবে যে আমায়।
আমি তো গেয়েছি সেই গান যে গানে দিয়েছিলে প্রাণ...। ক্ষতি নেই আজ কিছু আর ভুলেছি যত কিছু তার... এ জীবনে সবই যে হারায়, জানি ভুলে যাবে যে আমায়।.
Sudhin as a social worker and reformer Sudhin Dasgupta actively responded through his pen to the distress of people in the time of partition in 1947 and afterwards. He created a few motivational songs during that time for the IPTA. During the Bangladesh war in 1971 too he created unforgettable songs paying homage to the birth of the New Nation and its founder Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: Bangabandhu phire ele.
Bengali filmography List of all Films for which Music or Lyrics were composed by Sudhin Dasgupta + Sudhin Dasgupta FilmographyYearFilmDirectorCastingPlayback SingersLyricsMusic Composer 1957 Ulka Naresh Mitra Sunanda Banerjee, Satya Bannerjee, Jiben Bose, Sabita Bose Sudhin Dasgupta 1958 Dak Harkara Biswajeet, Sabitri Chatterjee, Kali Banerjee, Sova Sen Tarashankar Bandopadhyay Sudhin Dasgupta 1959 Gali Thekey Rajpath Sudhin Dasgupta 1959 Headmaster Sudhin Dasgupta 1960 Probesh Nisedh Sudhin Dasgupta 1960 Jatri Sudhin Dasgupta 1961 Panka Tilak Sudhin Dasgupta 1962 Kanna Sudhin Dasgupta 1963 Nishithe Sudhin Dasgupta 1964 Tahole Sudhin Dasgupta 1964 Dui Parba Sudhin Dasgupta 1965 Akash Kusum received President's award (Silver Medal) Mrinal Sen Soumitra Chatterjee, Aparna Sen, Shuvendu Chatterjee Sudhin Dasgupta 1965 Antaral Sudhin Dasgupta 1966 Shankhabela Pulak Bandopadhyay Sudhin Dasgupta 1967 Akash Chhoa Sudhin Dasgupta 1967 Abhishapta Chambal Sudhin Dasgupta 1968 Kokhono Megh Agradoot Uttam Kumar, Anjana Bhowmick, Kali Banerjee, Subrota Chatterje Sudhin Dasgupta Sudhin Dasgupta 1969 Tin Bhuboner Pare Asutosh Banerjee Soumitra Chatterjee, Tanuja, Kamal Mitra Pulak Bandopadhyay Sudhin Dasgupta 1970 Prothom Kadam Phool Sudhin Dasgupta 1970 Manjari Opera Sudhin Dasgupta 1971 Joi Bangla Sudhin Dasgupta 1971 Chhadmabeshi Sudhin Dasgupta 1972 Jiban Saikate Sudhin Dasgupta Sudhin Dasgupta 1972 Picnic Sudhin Dasgupta 1972 Jabaan Palash Banerjee Samit Bhanja, Radha Saluja, Amitabh Bachchan, Biswajeet, Dharmendra, Shatrughan Sinha Sudhin Dasgupta 1972 Har Mana Har Salil Sen Uttam Kumar, Suchitra Sen, Pahari Sanyal Pulak Bandopadhyay Sudhin Dasgupta 1972 Rater Rojonigandha Sudhin Dasgupta 1972 Shajarur Kanta Sudhin Dasgupta 1973 Sonar Khancha Sudhin Dasgupta 1973 Basanta Bilap Dinen Gupta Soumitra Chatterjee, Aparna Sen, Rabi Ghosh, Chinmoy Roy, Sumitra Devi, Anup Kumar, Kajal Gupta Pulak Bandopadhyay Sudhin Dasgupta 1973 Nishi Konna Sudhin Dasgupta 1973 Ek Je Chilo Bagh Sudhin Dasgupta 1973 Epar Opar Soumitra Chatterjee, Dilip Roy, Aparna Sen, Shamita Biswas Sudhin Dasgupta Sudhin Dasgupta 1973 Jiban Rahasya Salil Roy Shuvendu Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee, Pran Asha Bhosle, Manna Dey Pulak Bandopadhyay Abhijit Banerjee (Sudhin Dasgupta composed music for songs) 1973 Shajarur Kanta Sudhin Dasgupta 1974 Prantarekha Sudhin Dasgupta 1974 Sangini Sudhin Dasgupta 1975 Sharmila Sudhin Dasgupta 1975 Sedin Dujone Sudhin Dasgupta 1975 Palanka Sudhin Dasgupta 1975 Hangsaraaj Master Arindam, Kali Banerjee, Sandhyarani Pulak Bandopadhyay Sudhin Dasgupta 1976 Aparajita Sudhin Dasgupta 1978 Karunamoyee Sudhin Dasgupta 1979 Dour Sudhin Dasgupta 1979 Job Charnoker Bibi Sudhin Dasgupta 1979 Suvo Sangbad Sudhin Dasgupta 1982 Pipasa Sudhin Dasgupta 1982 Amrita Kumbher Sandhane Sudhin Dasgupta 1983 Suporna Sudhin Dasgupta 1983 Banashree Sudhin Dasgupta
Discography List of all songs for which Music or Lyrics were composed by Sudhin Dasgupta