West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee pays her last respects to Pratul Mukhopadhyay in Kolkata.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
Veteran Bengali singer-songwriter Pratul Mukhopadhyay passed away in a Kolkata hospital after suffering from age-related ailments at the age of 83. He breathed his last on Saturday (February 15). The singer is survived by his wife.
Mr. Mukhopadhyay was known for his songs on social issues and protests, which he mostly sang without any instrumental accompaniment. His companions, who have known him through his long journey in Bengali modern music, remembered him as an “artiste with a cause”.
The singer was suffering from pancreatic ailments and was being treated at Kolkata’s SSKM Medical College and Hospital where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee met him recently. Videos of him singing one of his famous compositions Ami Banglay Gaan Gai (I sing in Bengali) for Ms. Banerjee inside the hospital were widely circulated on social media. A dedicated medical board was formed to oversee his treatment. After his condition deteriorated, he was put in critical care, but he did not recover.
Mr. Mukhopadhyay was bid farewell with State honours and gun salutes; hundreds showed up, including the Chief Minister.
West Bengal Sports and Youth Affairs Minister, Aroop Biswas, said, “The Chief Minister had been taking constant updates of his health.”
Governor Ananda Bose fondly remembered the late singer and said, “We are saddened by his demise. His profound contributions to Bengali music will forever resonate in our hearts.”
Life and works
Mr. Mukhopadhyay was born in 1942 in Barisal, now in Bangladesh. The family later moved to West Bengal.
Manashi Bhattacharya, a retired schoolteacher, who shared the stage with Mr. Mukhopadhyay in her college days, remembered him fondly and said he was a “free thinker and very different from the crowd”. She told The Hindu, “I knew him during the 80s when we were college students. He also used to join our meetings and protests and sing his songs on social issues.”
Satyaki Majumdar, a 31-year-old singer and research scholar from Jadavpur University who has been associated with many protests, remembered being inspired by the songs of Mr. Mukhopadhyay. “He was the torchbearer to a continuing tradition of anti-establishment poetry and music that was made famous by the Indian People’s Theatre Association. He sang along to his own metre. His unique mannerisms were ridiculed across large swathes of masculine society. For us, he left behind a treasure trove of deeply political songs,” he said.
Some of his famous songs were Ami Banglay Gaan Gai, Dinga Bhasao Sagore, and Amra Dhan Katar Gaan Gai. Ami Banglay Gaan Gai, – with its lines “I sing my songs in Bengali. I sing songs from Bengal. I have forever found myself in the familiar lands of Bengal. I see dreams in Bengali. I make music in Bengali. I have walked this far in the magical land of Bengal” – has resonated with the emotions of the Bengali people.
The mortal remains of Mr. Mukhopadhyay was taken to Rabindra Sadan, the cultural hub of the State, where common people to pay their respects to the late singer. His body will then be taken back to the SSKM Hospital and will be donated.
Though famous as an anti-establishment artist, he was seen sharing the stage at Trinamool Congress’s events at the later stage of his life, something that his old companions criticised.
Published – February 15, 2025 08:06 pm IST
