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Old Bengali songs: 20 adhunik songs, and who made each one
Twenty old Bengali adhunik songs, from Hemanta's Ei Meghla Dine Ekla to Kishore and Asha's Katha Dilam, grouped by the hour they suit, with the lyricist and composer of nearly every one. Every one plays on this page.
In this post (8)
Every Bengali family has a song that belongs to someone who is no longer in the room. It came out of a radio or off a gramophone record, it was sung badly at a wedding, and one line of it still makes a grown man stop what he is doing. Most of those songs are adhunik gaan. This is a list of twenty, with the names of the people who wrote and tuned them, because those names were once as famous as the singers.
What does adhunik gaan mean?
Adhunik gaan is Bengali modern song, the popular song of the twentieth century, and not every old Bengali song is one. On this list we keep it apart from Rabindrasangeet, Nazrulgeeti, folk and devotional song. Bengali Wikipedia's article on it traces the line back to Nidhu Gupta's tappa at the end of the eighteenth century, and says Calcutta radio first put such songs on air as bhabgeeti and kabyageeti, and that Dilip Kumar Roy, with Tagore's approval, was the first to call them adhunik.
What made them last was a working partnership: a lyricist, a composer and a voice. Gauriprasanna Mazumder alone wrote the words of nine of these twenty songs; Hemanta and R. D. Burman wrote nine of the tunes between them. So each song below carries three names, not one.
A grey afternoon: Hemanta Mukherjee
3:14Ei Meghla Dine Ekla
Saregama Bengali
Hemanta sings his own tune to Gauriprasanna Mazumder's words, from the film Shesh Parjanta. Alone on a cloudy day: three minutes, and the song to start with.
3:17Ami Dur Hote Tomarei Dekhechhi
Saregama Bengali
The same pair, Gauriprasanna and Hemanta. I have seen you only from far away: a love song that never gets closer, and at 18 million YouTube views one of the most played songs in our Purono mood.
3:23Pather Klanti Bhule
Saregama Bengali
From the film Morutirtho Hinglaj. Gauriprasanna's words, Hemanta's tune: forget the road's tiredness. For anyone still travelling.
3:34Ei Path Jodi Na Shes Hoy
Saregama Bengali
Hemanta and Sandhya Mukherjee, with Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen on screen in Saptapadi (1961). If this road never ends. You know the one.
Evening: the composers who sang
Some of the best voices in adhunik gaan belonged to people who were mainly composers. As Wikipedia notes, S. D. Burman learnt his first music from K. C. Dey, the same teacher who trained Manna Dey. His son R. D. Burman sings on one of the songs below, in a duet with Asha Bhosle.
3:42Tumi Esechhile Porshu
Saregama Bengali
S. D. Burman sings his own tune to Robi Guha Mazumder's words: you came the day before yesterday. That thin, nasal, unmistakable voice. Under four minutes.
3:31Ami Ek Jajabar
Saregama Bengali
Bhupen Hazarika, the Assamese composer, singing in Bengali: I am a wanderer. Hazarika and Shibdas Banerjee are credited for the words.
6:09Tumi Kato Je Dure
Saregama Bengali
Asha Bhosle and R. D. Burman together, his tune and Sapan Chakraborty's words. Six minutes, from Saregama's old-hits collection.
Dusk: Sudhin Dasgupta and Salil Chowdhury
3:11Ki Name Deke Bolbo Tomake
Saregama Bengali
Shyamal Mitra, with Sudhin Dasgupta's words and tune. What name should I call you by? A soft, unhurried voice.
3:33Na Jeyo Na Rajani Ekhano
Saregama Bengali
Lata Mangeshkar in Bengali, Salil Chowdhury's words and tune: a plea to stay while the night lasts. More of her Bengali songs are on her singer page.
Two from Manna Dey
Only two here, because he has a post of his own, fourteen songs long, the day after this one.
3:27Abar Habe To Dekha
Saregama Bengali
1964, Pulak Bandyopadhyay's words, Ratu Mukherjee's tune. We will meet again, won't we? Nearly 15 million YouTube views.
3:43Ami Je Jalsaghare
Angel Bengali Songs
From Antony Firingee (1967), Uttam Kumar on screen, Gauriprasanna's words, Anil Bagchi's tune.
The drive home: Kishore Kumar
Kishore Kumar's Bengali songs are a different animal from his Hindi ones: he sang them at home, so to speak. Which is exactly how they sound. More are on his singer page.
5:04Haowa Megh Saraye Phul Jharaye
Saregama Bengali
Kishore's own tune to Shibdas Banerjee's words. The wind moves the clouds aside: five minutes with the window down.
4:43Aaj Ei Dintake
Saregama Bengali
From the film Antarale, Bappi Lahiri's tune and Gauriprasanna's words. Today, just this one day. 13 million YouTube views.
5:15Ami Je Ke Tomar
Saregama Bengali
Ajoy Das's tune, Gauriprasanna's words: who am I to you? The question every second Bengali love song asks, and this one asks it plainly.
4:15Ei To Jiban
INRECO HINDI BHAKTI BHAJAN
From Ogo Badhu Sundari, with Uttam Kumar on screen and Bappi Lahiri's music. This is life, then: a shrug set to a tune.
Late night: Asha Bhosle, and the duets
R. D. Burman wrote most of the tunes in this last group. Keep them for after the house has gone quiet, play them in this order, and the night takes care of itself. More of Asha's Bengali songs are on her singer page.
3:09Aaj Gun Gun Gun Kunje Amar
Angel Bengali Songs
From Rajkumari, with Uttam Kumar and Tanuja. Gauriprasanna's words, R. D. Burman's tune, and Asha at her most playful.
5:31Tomari Chalar Pathe
Saregama Bengali
Asha again, to R. D. Burman's tune, with Sapan Chakraborty's words: along the road you walk. Five and a half minutes.
6:02Emon Madhur Sandhyay
Saregama Bengali
From the film Ekanta Apan, R. D. Burman's tune, Swapan Chakraborty's words. On such a sweet evening: six minutes of it.
5:36Amar Swapno Je
INRECO BENGALI
Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar, Gauriprasanna's words, R. D. Burman's tune. My dream: 24 million YouTube views, and every one of them earned.
4:32Katha Dilam
Sony Music Bangla
Kishore and Asha, from the film Surer Akashe, Swapan Chakrabarty's words and tune. I gave my word. At 36 million YouTube views the most played song on this page. End here.
If you only have ten minutes
Play Ei Meghla Dine Ekla, then Ki Name Deke Bolbo Tomake, then Katha Dilam. A cloudy afternoon, a name you cannot choose, a promise. That is most of adhunik gaan in three songs.
We left out a great deal on purpose: Tagore and Nazrul's songs have moods of their own, the Rabindra mood and the Nazrul mood, and the Puja records are in our Durga Puja songs post. And somewhere in your house there is a person who will say the list is wrong because it is missing their song. Ask them which one. Often it is the song of someone who is no longer in the room. That is how the next list starts.
References (3)
- Adhunik gaan (আধুনিক গান), Bengali Wikipedia. Checked 30 Sep 2026.
- K. C. Dey, Wikipedia. Checked 30 Sep 2026.
- Saptapadi (1961 film), Wikipedia. Checked 30 Sep 2026.
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