Foreword by GULZARWith a study of his Bengali repertoire by
Antara Nanda Mondal and Sounak Gupta
Hemant Kumar, what a wonderful singer, what a gifted composer! Decades after this amazing man left us, we sing his songs and enjoy his tunes, not just in Mumbai and Kolkata, but everywhere music buffs live.
The Unforgettable Music of Hemant Kumar looks in detail at specific areas of Hemant Kumar's work. Chapters include the journey of his life, from Varanasi to Calcutta to Bombay and back to Calcutta. It lists his discographies as a singer-both in Hindi and Bengali films-as also out of cinema in many languages. It identifies his songs as a composer, again in his work in many languages.
The essays address his singing-in that famous baritone voice, his compositions, the classical raags that his tunes romanced with, the instruments he frequently used, the singers and lyricists that he worked with, and his Rabindra Sangeet.
Featured is an interview with his son Jayanto and much more. Popular personalities like him, who have spent decades doing stellar work, often have plenty of trivia attached to them and their work. As such, we have put together a largish chapter on such trivia about Hemant Kumar.
About Manek Premchand
Manek Premchand has a diploma in Journalism and a degree in Arts from Bombay University. He has many friends in the film industry and remains fascinated by the enormous role that Hindi cinema's music has played as a key bonding medium in a country as disparate as ours. This fascination has motivated him to write several books on the subject. These are: Yesterday's Melodies, Today's Memories, Musical Moments From Hindi Films, Romancing The Song, Shiv Kumar Sharma, The Man and His Music (co-authored with two others), Talat Mahmood-The Velvet Voice, Hitting The Right Notes, The Hindi Music Jukebox and The Unforgettable Music of Hemant Kumar. Besides these, he has written hundreds of music-related articles for a variety of newspapers.
He has also been a consultant with Saregama India Ltd. and a show host on many radio platforms including WorldSpace Satellite Radio. He also teaches elements of Broadcasting to post-graduate students at Xavier Institute of Communications, a part of Xavier's College, Mumbai. He is currently an adviser to Manipal University Press.