Robin Chatterjee and Robin Banerjee: Filmography and some info
Prithviraj Dasgupta
had inquired about the work of MD Robin Chatterjee.
UVR also inquired about other Robin-s in
the music industry.
I am aware of 3 Robin-s associated with Hindi music.
Robin Chatterjee: MD, mostly active in Bengal
from mid 40s to mid 70s
Robin Chatterjee: Sound recordist for Hindi movies
in the 60s and 70s.
Robin Banerjee: MD and singer in early 60s to mid 70s.
The movies he composed music for
have interesting names (see below)
UVR mentioned one Robin Ghosh. I haven't heard his
name before. Another Robin - Robin Majumdar was a
very popular singer in Bengal in the 40s and 50s.
He died in 1988. Many of KamalDG's hits are in his
voice. I am not aware of any Hindi songs by him.
Following is some information I could gather from
different sources including the Web, books,
articles in magazines and CD/CS. Lot of it is
written from memory, so there could be minor
inaccuracies. First RobinC, then RobinB.
Robin Chatterjee
================
Robin Chatterjee was one of the top composers of film
music in Bengal. However, unlike other contemporary
MD-s he was relatively non-prolific in non-film
Bengali songs; considering the fact that 50%+ Bengali
songs released in a year are non-film.
His work in Hindi is much less in quantity and popularity
as compared to his Bengali output. It seems that he
composed in Hindi only in the early part of his career.
His favorite instrument was the piano and most
of his songs are piano based. Almost every
movie of his had one piano song. In fact, as many as
three out of four songs of the movie Sagarika are
picturized sitting at the piano. After the piano,
he used the organ a lot for orchestration.
In non-film Bengali songs he has composed for
Talat, Satinath Mukherjee, Sandhya Mukherjee.
(and others too I am sure that I am not aware of).
Sandhya Mukherjee was his protege
and till his last days RobinC gave his
best female songs to her. (Arti Mukherjee
mentioned this in an interview: RobinC
would ignore any singer besides Sandhya.)
His earliest work that I know of is 7 number
bari. This movie gave Hemant Kumar his first
break in Bengali films with two songs - 'tomaare
bhuliya apanare chhinu' and 'phele asa din guli'
(according to Hemant's autobiography - Anand dhara).
The most popular song of this movie
'katha noi aaji raate' was sung by Talat Mehmood
under the pseduonym of Tapan Kumar.
A pioneering work of RobinC was the Bengali film
'Lalu Bhulu'. This movie was later remade into 'Dosti'
in Hindi (story only, not music). 'Lalu Bhulu' was a
huge success owing largely to its music. 'Lalu Bhulu'
songs got passed on by generations - the print
of the movie is lost, the songs rarely feature
on HMV re-issues, but even now, young people who
are not very interested in old Bengali music
say that they have heard Lalu-Bhulu's songs.
AFAIK, RobinC's last popular soundtrack was
Pita Putra(1969). The last work of RobinC
that I am aware of is an album called
'Ramakrishnayan' depicting the life of
Sri Ramakrishna through songs.
Hindi Filmography (possibly partial)
------------------------------------
(compiled from HFGK and other Web based sources)
Rajlaxmi (1945) Co-MD: Dhiren Mitra
Ratan Deep (1952)
Pehli Shadi (1953)
Firdaus (1953) Co-MD: Roshan
Africa (1954)
Majboori (1954)
Shobha (1954)
Bengali Filmography (partial)
----------------------------
(I have written this largely from memory, I have mentioned
singers for each movie to give an indication that he worked
with relatively few singers.)
7 number bari (1946) - Hemant, Talat
Samapika (1949)[not 100% sure about this] - Sandhya
Babla (1951) - Utpala Sen, Dhananjay Bhattacharya
Ratnadeep (1951) - Hemant, Supriti Ghosh
Shubha da (1952) - Gayatri Bose
Niruddesh (1955) - Robin Majumdar
Chandranath (1955) - Hemant, Sandhya
Sagarika (1956) - Sandhya, Shyamal Mitra, Alpana Banerjee
Lalu Bhulu (1957) - Manabendra Mukherjee, Sandhya,
Pratima Bannerjee
Sindoor (1957) - Shyamal
Pathe Holo Deri (1957) - Sandhya, Alpana
Jal Jangal(1959) - Hemant, Sandhya
Indradhanu (1959) - Hemant
Kajal (1960) - Shyamal
Shaharer Itikatha (1960) - Shyamal
Suno Baranari (1960) - Hemant
Surya Shikha (1963) - Hemant, Sandhya
Akash Pradip (1963) - Shyamal
Mayar Sansar(1962) - Hemant, Sandhya, Shyamal, Pratima
Abhisarika (1962) - Hemant, Sandhya
Jaya (1964) - Hemant, Sandhya, Manabendra
Abhaya O Srikanta (1965) - Hemant, Arti Mukherjee
Shudhu Ekti Bachhor (1968) - Hemant
Kamallata (1969) - Shyamal, Sandhya, Hemant, Pahadi Sanyal
Pita Putra (1969) - Hemant, Sandhya
Non-film Albums (musicals)
--------------------------
Sri Radhar Maan Bhanjan (1969) - Manna De,
Sandhya, Arti Mukherjee, etc.
Ramakrishnayan (1974) - Manna De, Sandhya,
Hemant, Arti Mukherjee, etc.
Robin Banerjee
===============
Another Robin with a different last name - Banerjee
was more active in Hindi films as an MD than in
Bengali. Masoom (1960) is probably his best
known work. His other films have spectacular names.
There is a singer by the same in Bengal who used to
sing in late 60-s to mid 70-s. I think they are
the same person.
Hindi filmography (possibly partial)
------------------------------------
(compiled from HFGK and other Web based sources)
Masoom (1960)
Sakhi (????)
Rocket Tarzan (1963)
Marvel Man (1964)
Aandhi aur Toofan (1964)
Tarzan and King Kong (1965)
Husn ka Ghulam (1966)
Spy in Goa (1966)
Rustom Kaun (1966)
London Express (1968)
Yeh Khoon Rang Layega (1970)
Phir Aaya Toofan (1973)
Chimani ka dhuan (????)
For the following films, conflicting sources claim
the MD-s to be Robin Chatterjee and Robin Banerjee.
Based on the name of the films and their time-frame
I feel inclined to believe that they were MD-ed by
Robin Banerjee.
Wazir-e-Azam (1961)
Flying Circus (1965)
The following film's MD is Robin. He could be one
of the above MD-s.
Miss Toofan Mail (1958)
naniwadekar
"Prithviraj Dasgupta" <prith...@yahoo.com> wrote -
>
> UVR mentioned one Robin Ghosh. I haven't heard his
> name before. Another Robin - Robin Majumdar was a
> very popular singer in Bengal in the 40s and 50s.
> He died in 1988. Many of KamalDG's hits are in his
> voice. I am not aware of any Hindi songs by him.
>
Robin Majumdar had sung two brilliant songs for Kamal-da
in the Hindi film Hospital (1943). I was planning a lyrics post
of 'o matawaale maanjhii' but abandoned the idea.
>
> Robin Chatterjee
> ================
< snip >
>
> In non-film Bengali songs he has composed for
> Talat, Satinath Mukherjee, Sandhya Mukherjee.
> (and others too I am sure that I am not aware of).
> Sandhya Mukherjee was his protege
> and till his last days RobinC gave his
> best female songs to her. (Arti Mukherjee
> mentioned this in an interview: RobinC
> would ignore any singer besides Sandhya.)
>
You have produced a long list of female singers used by
him. The claim by Arati Mukherjee that Robin C 'would
ignore any singer besides Sandhya' needs to be taken with
a pinch of salt.
>
> Hindi Filmography (possibly partial)
> ------------------------------------
> (compiled from HFGK and other Web based sources)
>
> Rajlaxmi (1945) Co-MD: Dhiren Mitra
> Ratan Deep (1952)
>
Tum Aur Mai.n (1947) . This film adds two more names to the
list of women singers used by Robin Chaterjee : Kanan and
Suprova. Last year, I had posted lyrics of a beautiful
Talat-Suprova duet from this film : 'purawaaii pawan laharaae'.
- dn
Vinayak K.Gore
> >
>
> >
>
> > > Hindi filmography (possibly partial)
> ------------------------------------
> (compiled from HFGK and other Web based sources)
>
> Masoom (1960)
> Sakhi (????)
Sakhi Robin
>
In addition to these he was MD for the film :Adventures of Robinhood.
One of the two movies had a good Manna - Asha duet "zulfo.n kii ghataa
lekar saaavan kii parii aa_ii, barasegii tere dil par ha.Ns ha.Ns ke
jo leharaa_ii"
Vinayak
Animesh Kumar
AFAIR, zulfon ki ghaTaa lekar is from Reshmi Rumal, composed by Babul
and penned by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan.
Adventures of Robin Hood is popular for "maanaa mere hasiin sanam" (I
vaguely remember listening to a mediocre duet fromthe same movie).
Sakhi Robin boasts of "tum jo aao to pyaar aa jaaye, zindagii me.n
bahaar aa jaaye", a duet by Manna De and Suman K'pur.
Best regards
Animesh
>
> Vinayak
Prithviraj Dasgupta
have worked with RobinC (only) in my list. That is
Suchitra Sen.
I think Ms. Sen's songs were released by Megaphone
Co. in 1957 or 1958 (the record does not have a year
of release on it). The songs fared pretty poorly for
the simple reason that Ms. Sen was not a singer. She
goes off-key in more than one place in the heavily
orchestrated 2 stanza songs. The songs are
'aamaar natun gaaner nimantrane' and 'bane naY aaj mane
haY'. Lyricist is Gauriprasanna Majumdar.
-Prithviraj
Urzung Khan
Prithviraj Dasgupta wrote:
>
> In a recent post Mr. Kamalakar Pasupuleti
> had inquired about the work of MD Robin Chatterjee.
> UVR also inquired about other Robin-s in
> the music industry.
>
> I am aware of 3 Robin-s associated with Hindi music.
>
> Robin Chatterjee: MD, mostly active in Bengal
> from mid 40s to mid 70s
> Robin Chatterjee: Sound recordist for Hindi movies
> in the 60s and 70s.
> Robin Banerjee: MD and singer in early 60s to mid 70s.
> The movies he composed music for
> have interesting names (see below)
>
> UVR mentioned one Robin Ghosh. I haven't heard his
> name before.
Robin Ghosh was from (the then) East Pakistan. His
most successful movie was 'aaiinaa'. It is said that
he got assignments on account of his wife's influence
who (Shabnam) was a popular actress.
Urzung Khan
Rirfan6
I have never heard of this allegation before. Robin Ghosh's first urdu film
was
CHANDA, which incidently was also
the first film of Shabnum(1963). Both got
married after that. Shabnum is a Budhist
actual name Jharna whereas Robin Ghosh is Christian. Robin Ghosh has been
fairly successful composer although
he never had a song by Noor Jehan.
Regards,
Irfan
Gurcharan Sandhu
"Rirfan6" <rir...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20031019232227...@mb-m07.aol.com...
Prior to 'Chandaa' (1962) Robin Ghosh had two Bengali
movies to his credit:
Harano Din (1961)
Rajdhani Bukey (1961)
His memorable compositions include:
'Kabhi to tumko yaad aayenge, woh bahaaren woh samaa...'
by Ahmed Rushdie from 'Chakori' (1967) ; and
'Sonaa naa chaandi naa koi mahal jaaneman, tujhko main,
naa de sakungaa...' by Akhlaq Ahmed from 'Bandish' (1980).
-Gurcharan