Sagar Sen
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Sagar Sen | |
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Rabindrasangeet, Bengali Modern Songs and Playback | |
Occupation(s) | Singer/Organizer |
Years active | 1958–1983 |
Labels | HMV, EMI, Columbia Records |
Sagar Sen (15 May 1932 – 4 January 1983) was a
Career
Born 15 May 1932 in a zamindar family of Rajbari, Faridpur district in erstwhile East Bengal, Sagar Sen was the youngest son of Bijon Behari Sen and Noyonmanjari Sen. Though his early childhood was spent in what is now Bangladesh, his entire musical career spanning more than 2½ decades mostly based out of Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
In his early days, Sagar Sen showed remarkable range and depth, a prodigious ability to convey complex emotions as a singer, impressing audiences through his local performances and building up a strong following. His songs were first broadcast on All India Radio (AIR) Akashvani, Kolkata in 1958. Frequent live AIR broadcasts of his renditions through the following decades became the listening staple of his ardent fans and followers. The legend cut his first album in 1961 under the Megaphone Records label with record topping songs Nupuro Bejey Jaye and Ogo Joler Rani.
In 1962, the legend founded the Rabi Rashmi, a Tagorean music academy. The project registered student enrolment in the thousands and garnered a manifold increase in the number of his ardent followers. His singles Apnake Ei Jana Amar and Keno Aamaye Pagol Kore Jaas under the Columbia record label were released in 1964 followed by the release of the songs Oei Malatilata Doley and Aamaar Nayano Tabo Nayaner under the same label. He participated in the recordings of Tagore's operas namely, Shap Mochan (1966) and
1968, the defining year of Sagar Sen’s musical journey, saw the release of his cult single Ami Jene Shune Bish Korechhi Paan, a song from Tagore’s first operatic ballad Mayar Khela, under the EMI record label. Jene Shune Bish instantaneously transported Sagar Sen to luminous heights; his dizzying fame transformed Rabi Rashmi to a living institution; the most coveted by students of Tagorean music and adored by music lovers & aficionados. A legend was born.
His first stereophonic
In 1979, the BFJA, a premier cinematic award was conferred upon him for best playback singing of the Tagore song Aaj Jyotsnaratey Shobai Gechhey Boney in the film Parichay; it was the first time that anyone had won a Bengal film award by singing Rabindrasangeet in a film playback track.
Sagar Sen’s unique understanding & spiritual insight of Tagore's songs has been invariably watermarked in each of his enigmatic renditions. His mellifluous dulcet renditions harmonising with his attention to infinitesimal Tagorean nuances breathed life into the songs he rendered. His golden baritone voice and his near perfect emotional delivery brought out the best that Tagore music had to offer to the listener; and yet he fastidiously stuck to the rigid notations set by Tagore, not once digressing from them in any of his magical renditions. Sagar Sen was the consummate minstrel who satisfied the puritans and yet popularised Tagorean music and brought it to the masses.
Sagar Sen has left behind a rich, musical legacy of contemporary Rabindrasangeet renditions through his hundred plus soundtracks recorded with the Megaphone, Columbia, EMI-HMV in several chartbusting albums traversing two and half decades. Apart from staging & conducting innumerable musical theatricals rendering various Tagorean operatic ballads, he has been an exemplary torchbearer in popularising Tagorean music not only through his singular contribution as a virtuoso artiste par excellence, but also through regular concerts & performances of various Tagorean thematic stage shows conceptualized, presented & conducted by him. Sagar Sen had pioneered the model of conceptualizing thematic stage shows & concerts, based solely on Tagorean music. Among his popular stage shows & concerts were Shrabon Sandhya (Monsoon Evening), Bishwajana Mohichhey (World Spellbound in Music), Gaaner Jharnatalaye (Under the Cascade of Songs), Swadeshi Naye Bideshi Kheya (Tagore songs from Western Tunes), Rituranga (Season’s Varieties); Shraban Sandhya was the most acclaimed. Through these thematic stage-show concerts organised at prestigious venues in
Although the legend of Sagar Sen revolves around his being an archetypal Rabindrasangeet singer, he was also an exemplary music mentor, organiser, music director, and a humanist. Through his countless charitable public performances Sagar Sen tirelessly contributed to social causes, especially to the West Bengal Chief Minister’s relief fund that was instituted to provide relief to the millions affected by the havoc of floods in Bengal during the decade of 70s. He was a larger-than-life humanitarian persona providing succour to many of his students and admirers; he was their mentor, their altruistic peer figure, their Sagarda.
In the mature years of his musical career, Sagar Sen started recording numerous Bengali modern songs, notably under the music directions of maestro composers Hemanta Mukherjee & Salil Chowdhury. The AIR archives have recordings of a number of Bengali modern songs sung by him. He performed as a playback artist notably in Bengali movies Je Jekhane Dariye (1974), Mantramugdha and Abirbhab (1979) amongst others. Sagar Sen music directed the Bengali movie Abirbhab; not known to many, Hemanta Mukherjee & Bhupen Hazarika have sung under his music direction. His renditions Ei Jibon Emni Kore Ar To Soy Na and Ki Holo Chand Keno Meghe Dheke Gelo, modern Bengali song tracks composed by Salil Chowdhury and recorded in 1980, were runaway hits.
Style
His style of rendition appealed to every dedicated listener of the genre for its perfect blend of emotional delivery (which is a unique attribute of
Modern songs and playback
Sagar Sen performed as a
Personal life and death
In 1962, he married Sumita Sen. Pritam, his first son was born in 1964. His second son Priyam was born in 1966 and his youngest son Promit was born in 1967.
In 1981, he was diagnosed with cancer. Despite this diagnosis, he continued recording and performing in concerts in with full zest and vigour throughout the last one and a half years of his life. He died on 4 January 1983, at the age of 50.
He was survived by his wife and three sons, Pritam Sen, Priyam Sen and Promit Sen.
Promit Sen is a
References
- ^ Dasgupta, Priyanka (27 December 2020). "Sagar Sen kin create app as global ode to musician". The Times of India. Retrieved 31 December 2020.