Utpala Sen (12 March 1924 – 13 May 2005) was a prominent

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

playback singer. She was a very popular playback singer of her time in the 1950s alongside

Sandhya Mukherjee Geetashree Sandhya Mukherjee (also spelled Mukhopadhyay; 4 October 1931 – 15 February 2022) was an Indian playback singer and musician, specialising in Bengali music. She received Banga Bibhushan, the highest civilian honour of the Indian sta ...

, Pratima Banderjee, Alpana Banerjee, etc. She has sung numerous duets with prominent male singers such as

Hemanta Mukherjee Hemanta Mukhopadhyay (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989), known professionally as Hemanta Mukherjee and Hemant Kumar, was an Indian music director and a playback singer who primarily sang in Bengali and Hindi, along with several other India ...

Manna Dey Prabodh Chandra Dey (; 1 May 1919 − 24 October 2013), known by his stage name Manna Dey, was an Indian playback singer, music director, and musician. He had a classical music background, being part of the Bhendibazaar gharana, Bhendibazaar Gh ...

and also her husband, Satinath Mukherjee.

Career

Utpala Sen was born on 12 March 1924 in

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...

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(now in Bangladesh) in a Hindu family. She took her initial lessons in music from Hiranbala Devi and then from Ustad Gul Mohammad Khan. She first sang publicly at the age of 11 in Dhaka Radio in 1935. She recorded her first song in 1939. In 1941, she got immense popularity with the devotional song "Ek Hate Mor Pujar Thala" which was composed by Sudhirlal Chakraborty. The song "Mahishasur Mardinir Shanti Dile Bhari" added her popularity. During the early 1940s, she moved to

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

(now

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

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) and since then became associated with Radio Akashvani. In 1944, she made her debut with the film '' Meri Bahen''. Then she played back in a few Hindi films till 1954. She sang a total of 17 songs in 11 Hindi films. She usually sang

Tagore Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...

songs in films such as "Amar Mallika Bone" in '' Bicharak'' (1959). The song "Prantateri Gaan Amar" in a 1953 film composed by

Salil Chowdhury Salil Chowdhury (19 November 1925 – 5 September 1995) was an Indian music director, songwriter, lyricist, writer and poet who predominantly composed for Cinema of West Bengal, Bengali, Hindi cinema, Hindi and Malayalam films, Malayalam films. ...

gave her eternity and is considered to be her best work to date. She also sang some Adhunik Geet songs, most of them with Satinath Mukherjee. She sang "Saptaranger Khela" with

Shyamal Mitra Shyamal Mitra (14 January 1929 – 15 November 1987) was an Indian versatile playback singer and music director along with Hemanta Mukherjee and Manna Dey. Mitra worked in many Hindi and Bengali films as a music director and film producer. He w ...

in 1957.

Personal life

She was married to Benu Sen and after his death, her mother-in-law insisted her to marry co-singer Satinath Mukherjee. Satinath died on 13 December 1992. Utpala was suffering from cancer for five years and finally died on 13 May 2005 leaving behind her only son.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sen, Utpala 1924 births Indian women singers Indian women playback singers Bengali playback singers 2005 deaths 20th-century Indian singers Artists from Dhaka 20th-century Indian women singers Singers from Kolkata Women musicians from West Bengal