Pankaj Kumar Mullick (10 May 1905 – 19 February 1978) was an Indian music composer, playback singer and actor, who was a pioneer of film music in Bengali cinema and

Hindi cinema Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

at the advent of playback singing, as well as an early exponent of

Rabindra Sangeet ''Rabindra Sangeet'' ( bn, রবীন্দ্র সঙ্গীত; ), also known as Tagore Songs, are songs from the Indian subcontinent written and composed by the Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore, winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize in Li ...

.Biography
He was awarded the

Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is confe ...

in 1970, followed by the

Dadasaheb Phalke Award The Dadasaheb Phalke Award is India's highest award in the field of cinema. It is presented annually at the National Film Awards ceremony by the Directorate of Film Festivals, an organisation set up by the Ministry of Information and Broadc ...

(India's highest award in cinema, given by the

Government of India The Government of India ( ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

) in 1972 for lifetime contribution to

Indian cinema The Cinema of India consists of motion pictures produced in India, which had a large effect on world cinema since the late 20th century. Major centers of film production across the country include Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, K ...

Early life and training

Pankaj Kumar Mullick was born in Kolkata to Monimohan and Monomohini Mullick. His father Monimohan had a deep interest in traditional Bengali music. He started his early training in

Indian classical music Indian classical music is the classical music of the Indian subcontinent. It has two major traditions: the North Indian classical music known as ''Hindustani'' and the South Indian expression known as '' Carnatic''. These traditions were not ...

under the tutelage of Durgadas Bandyopadhyaya. He studied at the

Scottish Church College Scottish Church College is a college affiliated by Calcutta University, India. It offers selective co-educational undergraduate and postgraduate studies and is the oldest continuously running Christian liberal arts and sciences college in ...

of the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a public collegiate state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered one of best state research university all over India every year, C ...

. An important turning point in his life came when, after finishing his studies, he came in contact with Dinendranath Tagore, who was

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

's grand-nephew. This led to Pankaj Mullick's lasting interest in

. Rabindranath Tagore, in turn, grew fond of him, and soon Mullick became known as one of the leading exponents of Tagore's songs.

Career

Tagore's song ''Nemecche Aaj Prothom Badal'' became his first commercial recording, with the Kolkata-based Videophone Company in 1926, at the age of twenty one. This was the first of many albums which made him a household name in Rabindra sangeet. He started his career with the Indian Broadcasting Corporation in Calcutta in 1927, the forerunner of

All India Radio All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All ...

(AIR), along with composer

R. C. Boral Rai Chand Boral (19 October 1903 – 25 November 1981) was an Indian composer, considered by music connoisseurs to be the Bhishma Pitamah, the father of film music in India. He was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest award in India ...

, where he contributed as a music director and artist for nearly fifty years. Apart from composing songs for movies, he also composed the programme called Mahishashur Mardini. This program was based on the triumph Maa Durga over the demon Mahishashur. The programme included Chandi Path by Birendra Krishna Bhadra and agomoni songs by various singers. This programme gained such a huge popularity that till date, the recorded version of this programme is played by All India Radio on the day of Mahalaya at 4:00 am. He contributed in various capacities to Bengali, Hindi, Urdu and Tamil language films for 38 years, starting in 1931. He worked as music director to artists like K.L. Saigal,

S.D. Burman Sachin Dev Burman (1 October 1906 – 31 October 1975) was an Indian music director and singer. A member of the Tripura royal family, he started his career with Bengali films in 1937. He later began composing for Hindi movies and became one o ...

Hemanta Mukherjee Hemanta Mukhopadhyay (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989), known professionally as Hemant Kumar and Hemanta Mukherjee, was a legendary Indian music composer and playback singer who primarily sang in Bengali and Hindi, as well as other Indian ...

Geeta Dutt Geeta Dutt (born Geeta Ghosh Roy Chowdhuri; 23 November 1930 – 20 July 1972) was an Indian playback singer and a famous Hindi and Bengali classical artist, born in Faridpur before the Partition of India. She found particular prominence as a ...

and

Asha Bhosle Asha Bhosle (; Mangeshkar; born 8 September 1933) is an Indian playback singer, entrepreneur and occasional actress and television personality who predominantly works in Indian Cinema. Known for her versatility, she has been described in th ...

. He acted with famous film actors like K L Saigal,

P.C. Barua Pramathesh Chandra Barua (24 October 1903 – 29 November 1951) was an Indian actor, director, and screenwriter of Indian films in the pre-independence era, born in Gauripur, Dhubri, Assam. Early life Barua was the son of the royal family o ...

and

Kanan Devi Kanan Devi (22 April 1916 – 17 July 1992) was an Indian actress and singer. She was among the early singing stars of Indian cinema, and is credited popularly as the first star of Bengali cinema. Her singing style, usually in rapid tempo, was ...

. Along with

Nitin Bose Nitin Bose (26 April 1897 – 14 April 1986) was an Indian film director, cinematographer and screenwriter of the nation's film industry. He was born in Calcutta and died in the same city. In the 1930s and early 1940s, he worked with New Theatre ...

and his renowned sound engineer brother Mukul Bose, Mullick introduced playback singing in Indian cinema. He worked with one of the early film studios,

New Theatres Calcutta New Theatres is an Indian film studio. It was formed in Calcutta by producer B. N. Sircar (Birendranath Sircar, the recipient of Dadasaheb Phalke Award of 1970). It was formed on 10 February 1931. Motto of this company was– ''Jivatang Jyotire ...

for 25 years.

Legacy

The

Indian Postal Service India Post is a government-operated postal system in India, part of the Department of Post under the Ministry of Communications. Generally known as the Post Office, it is the most widely distributed postal system in the world. Warren Hastings ...

released a postage stamp on his birth centenary in 2006 on 4 August, and on 10 May,

Doordarshan Doordarshan (abbreviated as DD; Hindi: , ) is an Indian public service broadcaster founded by the Government of India, owned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and one of Prasar Bharati's two divisions. One of India's largest b ...

, India's state television channel, telecast a special music programme to commemorate the occasion. Five decades earlier, it was he and

Bharatanatyam Bharatanatyam () is a major form of Indian classical dance that originated in Tamil Nadu. It is one of the eight widely recognized Indian classical dance forms, and expresses South Indian religious themes and spiritual ideas, particularly of ...

danseuse

Vyjayanthimala Vyjayanthimala (born 13 August 1936) is a former Indian actress, dancer and parliamentarian. She is the recipient of several accolades, including two BFJA Awards and five Filmfare Awards. She made her screen debut at the age of thirteen wi ...

who were lead performers at the nationwide launch of the channel in 1959.

Filmography

Works

* ''Aamar Jug Aamar Gaan'' (Bengali). Firma KLM Pvt Ltd., Calcutta 1980.

References

External links

* * http://pankajmullick.com/ : A comprehensive resource centre for research and documentation of Pankaj Mullick songs & related memorabilia * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mullick, Pankaj 1905 births 1978 deaths Scottish Church College alumni Bengali singers Bollywood playback singers Dadasaheb Phalke Award recipients Bengali playback singers Indian male playback singers Indian male singer-songwriters Singers from Kolkata Rabindra Sangeet exponents Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts University of Calcutta alumni Hindi film score composers 20th-century Indian male singers 20th-century Indian singers Indian male film score composers