Anup Ghoshal passes away but Goopy’s songs play on

Kolkata: Anup Ghoshal, the 78-year-old singer from Bengal whose poetically melancholic voice offered a musical balm to all bruised souls with his ‘Tujshe naraz nahi zindagi’ song from Shekhar Kapoor’s ‘Masoom’, breathed his last at a private nursing home in Kolkata on Friday. Ghoshal had made Satyajit Ray’s ‘Dekhore nayan mele’, ‘Bhuter raja dilo bor’ and ‘Maharaja, tomare selam’ eternal favourites. Ghoshal’s death was a huge loss, said chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday. The Nazrulgeeti expert had joined the political world and was elected the Trinamool MLA from Uttarpara in 2011. Ray had initially wanted to cast Kishore Kumar in the role of Goopy. But Kishore’s busy schedule in Mumbai came in the way and Tapen Chatterjee was cast instead. “When Kishore-da couldn’t act, Baba wanted a fresh voice. That’s when Anup Ghoshal’s name came up as the playback singer,” Sandip Ray had told TOI in an earlier interview. It was Bijoya Ray who had first suggested Ghoshal’s name. “She had heard Anup Ghoshal’s sister, Namita, sing the ‘Bhalobashar tumi ki jano’ number in ‘Chiriakhana’. Both shared good relations and she asked Ray to try out Anup Ghoshal. Ray asked Anup Ghoshal to sing various genres of songs. After finalizing, Ray had recorded all the songs in his voice and given it to him for practice. The standing instruction was not to let anyone hear those songs,” said Riddi Goswami of Ray Society. The film released in 1969 and songs like “Dekhore nayan mele”, “Bhuter raja dilo bor”, “Maharaja! tomare selam”, “Raja shono”, “Ore baghare”, “O mantri moshai”, “Ek je chhilo raja” and “Ore baba dekho cheye” became eternal favourites. A still from "Goopy Gyne O Bagha Byne" In 1980, Ghoshal returned to do playback for Ray and sung 11 of the dozen songs in “Hirak Rajar Deshe (HRD)”. That included "Mora goopy bagha dujon bhayra bhai", "Aar bilombo noy", "Aaha ki anondo akashe batashe", "Aha shagore dekho chaye", "Eje drishyo dekhi anyo", "Ebare dekho gorbito bir", “Eshe hirok deshe", "Dhoronako shantrimoshai", "Paaye podi baghmama", "Nohi jontro" and “Mora Goopy Bagha dujon bhayra bhai". The citation for his National Award for Best Male Playback singer in “HRD” mentioned that Ghoshal received it for “a wonderful range of voice and the sense of rhythm imparted to the songs rendered by him”. According to author Anirudha Bhattacharjee who has penned books on RD Burman and Kishore Kumar, it was Ray who had requested Kishore Kumar to put in a word so that Ghoshal could get some playback assignments in Mumbai. “That’s how Kishore requested RD Burman to get him to sing ‘Tujshe naraz…’ in ‘Masoom’. Though there were multiple rehearsals, it was one-take okay song. Ghoshal even tried to emulate Kishore while singing this. He didn’t even charge any remuneration for this song from producer Devi Dutt,” Bhattacharjee said. In 1987, he again sung for Ray. This time around, it was for the documentary on “Sukumar Ray”. “Tapen Chatterjee had played Hanuman here. It is only natural that Anup Ghoshal was called to sing the song in Hanuman’s lips,” Goswami said. It wasn’t playback in Ray’s films alone that made him popular. He sang in some 22 Bengali films. In 1970, he paired with Arati Mukherji to the sing “Chhoti si panchi” for Tapan Sinha’s “Sagina Mahato”. In 1976, he sang the classical-based song “Se bhalobasile jibane mamo” for Sinha’s “Harmonium”. The same year also saw him sing “Mohanbagan Eastbengaler khela hoyechhe” from Manu Sen’s “Mohanbaganer Meye”. Born and brought up in a musical family, the singer also taught at Rabindra Bharati and wrote an authoritative book on Indian music titled "Ganer Bhubane”. When Manebendra Mukhopadhyay brought in a new dimension to Nazrulgeeti, Anup Ghoshal became another pillar. Few can forget his rendition of “Ganga sindhu narmada” and “Antore achho tumi”. Ghoshal had learnt Rabindra Sangeet from Debabrata Biswas and classical music from Tarapada Chakraborty and Sukhendu Goswami. Proficient in Dwijendrageeti and Rajanikanta’s song, Ghoshal also lent his voice to Bhupen Hazarika’s “Ek khana megh bhese elo akashe” and Sudhin Dasgupta’s “Biye korboi na”. In 1973, he had sung two non-film songs – ‘Emni chirodin toh kobhu jaena’ and ‘Hai faguno din’ – for Salil Chowdhury. The former was remade in Hindi as “Hum nahi dukh se kabhi ghabrayenge” for ‘Jeena Yahan’ where Yesudas and Lata Mangeshkar lent their voice. The Bengal government had conferred the Nazrul Smriti Puroshkar in 2011 and Sangeet Mahasamman to him in 2013. Though the voice of Goopy went silent on Friday with Ghoshal's demise, Goopy's songs will play on.