PART 0 OF 10: THE ORIGINAL PATRIOT-MUSICIAN

My Top Ten list does not start till the next chapter (sorry for the bait and switch). I wanted to kick off proceedings with a song composed by legendary singer and composer Hemant Kumar Mukherjee, popularly known as Hemant Kumar. I did that for two reasons. One, music lovers in India and across the world celebrated the centenary of this gifted musician, earlier this year. Two, much to my regret, my top 10 does not feature a Hemant Kumar number either as a singer or as a composer. One of my all-time favorite songs from 'Pyaasa' narrowly missed making this list. (Three, I wanted to keep my Bengali friends in good humor).

Hemantda was a very prolific and accomplished singer: by the end of his career, he had recorded over two-thousands songs in various languages, notably in Bengali and Hindi, and won numerous awards, including two national awards and the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi award, for his seminal work on Rabindra Sangeet. He was no flash in the pan as a music director either. He composed music for over fifty Hindi movies and an equal number of Bengali films during his career. In fact, a lesser known fact is that he had composed music for quite a few Tamil movies as well, the most noted of them being the still-famous number, 'Unnai kann theduthe (hic!)', from the 1955 movie 'Kanavane kann kanda deivam'.

Bankim Chandra Chatterjee
The song I want to feature in this chapter is from a movie named 'Anand Math', Hemant Kumar's debut as a music composer in Hindi. The movie was based on a Bengali novel (1882) of the same name written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, in the backdrop of the events surrounding, what the British termed, the 'Sanyasi Rebellion'. What intrigued me about this song is Hemant Kumar's wonderful take on Bankimda's poetry that was originally set to music by Rabindranath Tagore - 'Vande Mataram' is now venerated as India's National Song. In fact, Hemant Kumar had a penchant for composing patriotic songs and actively lent his name (and voice) to national causes. Aside from his work on 'Anand Math', he also composed scores for movies like 'Jagriti', 'Humara Watan', and others, which perhaps makes him the original 'pop' nationalist of India - a good forty-plus years before AR Rahman had his own take on 'Vande Mataram'.

Comic strip of 'Ananda Math'
A cause for further fascination on this topic is the 'Sanyasi Rebellion' itself. There are debates, to this date, on what led to and really happened during the rebellion. The British had dismissed it as violent thuggery by gangs charading as sants and sufis. Today, some believe the revolt to be one of the earliest popular uprisings against the British and the East India Company and a pre-cursor to the First War of Independence. So be prepared to see Ajay Devgan, in the near future, in a home production based on the 'Sanyasi Rebellion', with the same stony stare as you saw in 'Drishyam', 'Tanhaji', and 'Bhagat Singh'. Paaa! What range of roles he has done in his career. Legendary.
Back to the rebellion, it started as fakirs and sanyasis from North India that were making their annual pilgrimage to various holy places in the province of Bengal (current day Indian states of West Bengal, Odisha, and Bihar, and parts of Bangladesh) were stopped on their tracks by the East India Company. The Company did not like the practice of the sanyasis collecting their customary annual pilgrimage "tax" from the zamindars and considered it tantamount to looting - "that is our job", the East India Company perhaps said, thumping the desk. After all, their decisive victory in the Battle of Buxar in 1764 made them in one fell swoop, the sole custodians of the entire Ganges valley. 

A portrait of the plight of peasants during the Bengal Famine, 1770

The zamindars possibly didn't like sanyasis making an annual visit and asking for money either, since they were reeling under the aftermath of the Bengal Famine of 1770. The sanyasis and fakirs got together under the leadership of men and women from their ranks and carried out guerilla-style insurrections against British properties and interests. The clashes and sometimes full-on battles went on for nearly thirty years. It is said to have inspired subsequent events such as the Chuar and Santhal revolts. 'Anand Math' is Bankimda's take on those events.

So, with that false but spectacular start, let me jump into my Top Ten list from the Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.


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