Hemant Kumar, the voice behind haunting melodies

Remembering the composer and singer, who straddled the worlds of Hindi and Bengali cinema, on his 101st birth anniversary

It was 1952, and a music director in his early 30s was making his debut in Hindi films. He had been fairly successful in Bengali cinema, both as a singer and composer, but Bombay’s industry promised new opportunities. It was the historical drama Anand Math, and newcomer Hemant Kumar chose ‘Vande Mataram’, a song everyone was familiar with. Sung in separate versions by Lata Mangeshkar and Hemant Kumar, though the film had other well-known songs by Geeta Roy (later Dutt), the success of ‘Vande Mataram’ made filmmakers look at Hemant Kumar in a different light. .