A patriotic song on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the republic. HMV had released a series of nationalist songs to commemmorate independence in 1947. I had previously come across the songs relased in Bengali for the occasion. It was quite a surprise when I found a a 78 rpm with a Hindi commemmorative song and that too by Hemant Kumar. This song is evidently from the pre-Hemant Kumar phase of Hemanta Mukhopadhyay. The song does not bear the stamp of the Hemantesque composition style that was typical of Nagin, Anjaan, Taj etc. since the mid fifties. But still it is a feast to hear the young Hemant Kumar. The mukhda of the song ends in a crescendo and the main song starts an octave below, with litle movement in the notes along the song. The co singers are Bela Mukherjee - Hemant Kumar's better half, Samaresh Roy - Hemant Kumar's long time friend and contemporary and Ava Banerjee - Bela Mukherjee's sister. The last singer does not have any solo piece I think. She joins in the chorus repetation after each line. Here is the song then - a chorus rich with patriotic fervour:
I would be interested to know if there were commemmorative songs by other songs by other singers as well in 1947. Is there any collection of such songs available on CD/CS? Regards -Prithviraj PS: My sincere apologies to the ISB maintainers for forgetting to mail the lyrics to the isb_archives address for my earlier posts. I will mail them henceforth.