Utpala Sen

Utpala Sen (12 March 1924 - 13 May 2005) was a prominent Indian Bengali playback singer. She was a very popular playback singer in the 1950s alongside Sandhya Mukherjee, Pratima Banerjee and Alpana Banerjee etc. She has sung numerous duets with prominent male singers such as Hemanta Mukherjee, Manna Dey and also her husband, Satinath Mukherjee.^[1][2]

Career

Utpala Sen was born on 12 March 1924 in Dhaka, Bangladesh in a Hindu family. She took her first lessons in music from Hiranbala Devi and then from Ustad Gul Mohammad Khan. She first sang publicly at the age of 11 in Dhaka Radio in 1935. She recorded her first song in 1939. In 1941, she got immense popularity with the devotional song "Ek Hatey Mor Pujar Thali" which was composed by Sudhirlal Chakraborty. The song "Mahishasur Mardinir Shanti Dile Bhari" added her popularity. During the early 1940s, she migrated to Kolkata and since then became associated with Radio Akashvani. In 1944. she made her debut with the film Meri Bahen. Then she played back in a few Hindi films till 1954. She sang total 17 songs in 11 Hindi films. She usually sang Tagore songs in films such as Amar Mallikabane in 'Bicharak' (1959). The song "Prantateri Gaan Amar" in 1953 film composed by Salil Chowdhury gave her eternity and is considered to be her best work till date. She also sang some Adhunik songs, most of them with Satinath Mukherjee. She sang "Saptaranger Khela" with Shyamal Mitra in 1957.

Personal life

She married her co-singer Satinath Mukherjee. He died on 13 December 1992. Utpala was suffering from cancer for five years and finally died on 13 May 2005.

References