Bhupen Hazarika took Assam to the world

Bhupen Hazarika was much more than a music composer. For him, music was an instrument of social reform. He described himself as a wandering minstrel who carried messages of one-ness and global unity in his songs. That  Bhupen Hazarika was both a  singer and a composer placed him in an advantageous position. He was both the singer and the song.

Bhupen came to Mumbai to work in the Indian People’s Theatre Movement (IPTA) with Salil Chowdhury , Balraj Sahni and other Marxist intellectuals. At IPTA Bhupen was pleased to meet his old friend Hemant Kumar who took Bhupen around to meet all the big music directors and singers in Mumbai.

Bhupen wanted Lataji to sing a song for his first film as a director, Tunes From The Deserted Path about a moonlit night in Assam. And she did it. The song became so famous she selected it as one of her personal favourites in her first golden disc. Hemant Kumar, Lataji and Bhupen became friends. But more than Lataji who sang Bhupen’s immortal Dil hoom hoom kare in Rudali, it was Lataji’s sister Usha Mangeshkar who sang innumerable Assamese songs for Bhupen.

Whenever Bhupen came to Mumbai and needed a recording studio Hemant Kumar would cancel his own recording to accommodate Bhupen’s recording. Hemant composed a song for Bhupen in the Uttam Kumar starrer Jeebon Trishna although Hemant was Uttam Kumar’s constant ghost voice. Uttam Kumar insisted that Bhupen sing that particular song in his film. Bhupen tried to wriggle out, pleading he would be assaulted if anyone but Hemant Kumar sang for Uttam Kumar. But Hemant insisted. Fortunately the song Sagor sangame became very popular.

One can’t even begin to comprehend Bhupen Hazarika’s enduring popularity in the North-East, especially in Assam. He is their absolute hero who represented the voice of the common man. Bhupen was inspired by Paul Robson and used his music as an instrument for social change, Bhupen would often tell me he knew only one language, and that’s music. Besides Paul Robson, another idol was painter Pablo Picasso whom Bhupen actually met in Paris in 1949. He didn’t have photographic evidence of the meeting because Bhupen confessed, he didn’t possess a camera.

In 2013, two years after his death, Bhupen Hazarika’s life partner Kalpana Lajmi announced his bio-pic with Prosenjit Chatterjee in the lead. The project never took off. Now we hear of a producer planning a film on the love between Lajmi and Hazarika.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.

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