Hemanta Mukherjee : the Golden Voice

ami jhorer kache rekhe gelam [1961 Bengali]
(I left my whereabouts in the storm...)
Singer- Hemanta Mukherjee
Lyrics- Salil Chowdhury
Music- Salil Chowdhury

Hemanta Mukherjee (also known as Hemant Kumar in Hindi film/music scene) is well-known for his brilliant compositions in Hindi-films like Bees Saal Baad(1962) Kohra(1964) and Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam(1962). As a composer, he was not very prolific, but each one of them were a gem. Hemant-da clearly had a talent for composing music with an ethereal quality. Perhaps that's why he composed  mostly in noir/thriller/horror

movies. His music can be at best enjoyed in the chilly weather of the rainy season or at a hill-station.(And if   you catches a cold, you may even imitate his brooding baritone voice!)

Hemant-da was more prolific as a singer, his baritone voice and singing style perfectly suits romantic and sentimental numbers. Almost every  Hindi/Bengali composer of  yesteryears have used his renditions. In Bengal, he also renowned for his extensive work in Rabindra Sangeet(Tagore-music). He also teamed up with another legend Salil Chowdhury to create many evergreen hits - such as this song ami jharer kache. 
  

 Hemant-da was apolitical (like me) but not Salil-da. Besides being a great composer, Salil-da was an ardent communist. Through his music, poems and lyrics, Salil-da always aligned himself with the oppressed and down-trodden of that time. He was also influenced by 'socialist realism' of the erstwhile Soviet Union and Eastern bloc countries. Apart from Bengal, Salil-da was very prolific in Kerala where he created many hits and revered as an iconic figure. And from his stable came another legend - the genius of Ilaiyaraja !

Salil-da composes folk and (Indian) classical music aided by western orchestration. He frequently used counter-point technique (including this song). Certainly, if there is any musician after Tagore who gave Bengal its own music-idiom, it is Salil Chowdhury. 

Gitanjali ( Song Offerings)

Excerpts from Tagore's Gitanjali (Song Offerings)

Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads! Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut? Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee!

He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and where the pathmaker is breaking stones. He is with them in sun and in shower, and his garment is covered with dust. Put of thy holy mantle and even like him come down on the dusty soil!

Deliverance? Where is this deliverance to be found? Our master himself has joyfully taken upon him the bonds of creation; he is bound with us all for ever.

Come out of thy meditations and leave aside thy flowers and incense! What harm is there if thy clothes become tattered and stained? Meet him and stand by him in toil and in sweat of thy brow.


Gitanjali (1912) written by Rabindranath Tagore - originally in Bengali, translated to English by the author himself.

Tagore : essay on Nationalism

Excerpts from Rabindranath Tagore's book Nationalism (1917)

What is dangerous for Japan is, not the imitation of the outer features of the West, but the acceptance of the motive force of the Western nationalism as her own. Her social ideals are already showing signs of defeat at the hands of politics. I can see her motto, taken from science, 'Survival of the Fittest,' writ large at the entrance of her present-day history - the motto whose meaning is, 'Help yourself, and never heed what it costs to others'; the motto of the blind man who only believes in what he can touch, because he cannot see. But those who can see, know that men are so closely knit, that when you strike others the blow comes back to yourself. The moral law, which is the greatest discovery of man, is the discovery of this wonderful truth, that man becomes all the truer, the more he realizes himself in others.This truth has not only a subjective value, but is manifested in every department of our life. And nations, who sedulously cultivate moral blindness as the cult of patriotism, will end their existence in a sudden and violent death.

In past ages we had foreign invasions, but they never touched the soul of the people deeply. They were merely the outcome of individual ambitions. The people themselves, being free from the responsibilities of the baser and more heinous side of those adventures, had all the advantage of the heroic and the human disciplines derived from them. This developed their unflinching loyalty, their single-minded devotion to the obligations of honour, their power of complete self-surrender and fearless acceptance of death and danger. Therefore the ideals, whose seats were in the hearts of the people, would not undergo any serious change owing to the policies adopted by the kings or generals.

But now, where the spirit of the Western nationalism prevails, the whole people is being taught from boyhood to foster hatreds and ambitions by all kinds of means, - by the manufacture of half-truths and untruths in history, by persistent misrepresentation of other races and the culture of unfavourable sentiments towards them, by setting up memorials of events, very often false, which for the sake of humanity should be speedily forgotten, thus continually brewing evil menace towards neighbours and nations other than their own. This is poisoning the very fountainhead of humanity. It is discrediting the ideals, which were born of the lives of men, who were our greatest and best. It is holding up gigantic selfishness as the one universal religion for all nations of the world. We can take anything else from the hands of science, but not this elixir of moral death. Never think for a moment, that the hurts you inflict upon other races will not infect you, and the enmities you sow around your homes will be a wall of protection to you for all time to come. To imbue the minds of a whole people with an abnormal vanity of its own superiority, to teach it to take pride in its moral callousness and ill-begotten wealth, to perpetuate humiliation of defeated nations by exhibiting trophies won from war, and using these in schools in order to breed in children's minds contempt for others, is imitating the West where she has a festering sore, whose swelling is a swelling of disease eating into its vitality. 

source :// tagoreweb.in/

the Way of Tao

The Gallop of Life
Do not cramp or constrain your will , as that would cause you to depart from the Way. Do not strive for consistency in your actions, as that would cause you to lose sight of the Way. Be firm with yourself, never making excuses for your shortcomings. Be gentle with yourself, never demanding of yourself more than you can give. Let your mind be as open to the ideas of others, as a field without hedges is open to the four winds.

All living beings are born and die; you cannot depend upon them. All events start and finish; you cannot depend upon them. The years cannot be held back; time cannot be stopped. Growth and decay, fullness and emptiness, birth and death - the rythm of change cannot be halted. Life passes at a gallop; it is like a headlong dash toward death. With moment and every movement your body ages. What should you do and not do to prevent aging ? Nothing.

Yet if you follow the Way, and thence acquire perfect virtue, fire will not be able to burn you, water will not be able to drown you, cold and heat will not be able to discomfort you, and wild beasts will not be able to injure you. This is because you will be indifferent to fortune and misfortune, good and bad.

(teachings attributed to the Taoist scholar Zhuangzi)
 from the book 366 Readings from Taoism & Confucianism.

Jet Li vs Mongol Princess : Hi-NR'Chi' Action !

movie : Evil Cult (a ka Kung Fu Cult Master-1993)
starring : Jet Li, Sammo Hung, Sharla Cheung, Chingmy Yau

Any kung-fu movie aficionado can easily figure out the choreographer of this brilliant, Hi-NRG action sequence. It has 'Sammo Hung' written all over it! In those days,only Sammo Hung can be so spectacular & innovative ! Equally brilliant was his most recent work in Ip Man 2 (2010) which proves that Sammo's creative powers are still intact.

The movie Evil Cult didn't cause much flutter when it was released. But later, esp. after 'neo-wuxia' movies like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon became a rage, Evil Cult also gained a cult following.  Besides Sammo, an array of talents have worked in this movie who are now icons in their own right. They are - Louis Cha (wuxia-novelist),Wong Jing(screen-writer/director),Joseph Koo(musician) and of course Jet  Li(actor/producer). Cinematography and editing are equally brilliant.

The musical instrument involved in this action sequence is Guzheng - the ancient Chinese instrument. I have never seen it or played it (though I have an audio-CD of  which I bought from Singapore). From my long experience in guitar and other similar string instruments, I can certainly say,  Guzheng with its long strings

can have a great resonating effect with the slightest of touch. As for the maneuver by Yuan Princess(Sharla Cheung) with the strings - its only a wuxia-movie , so don't try this at home !

3 Kung Fu Classics

Gordon Liu  in - The 36th  Chamber  of  Shaolin (1978) produced by Shaw Brothers

Blast from the past !  Boxer Rebellion(1975) Another  Shaw Brothers classic. Starring  Alexander Fu Sheng and  Chi Kuan Chun !

Macho man takes on  eunuch !  The hot Don Wang Tao stars - in the kungfu flick  Eunuch of the Western Palace (1979) 

London Olympics : medal tally