Samar Das
Encyclopedia
Samar Das (December 10, 1929–September 25, 2001) was a Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

i musician and composer, from Dhaka
Dhaka
Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka Division. Dhaka is a megacity and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, had a population of over 15 million in 2010, making it the largest city...

. He became one of the most important music directors in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

 and subsequently Bangladesh and was the composer of over 2,000 songs.

Early life

Samar Das was born into a Bengali Christian family in the Nabadwip Basak Lane of old Dhaka
Dhaka
Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka Division. Dhaka is a megacity and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, had a population of over 15 million in 2010, making it the largest city...

. His family was deeply involved with music and he received his initial training at home. He started his musical career playing the bansi (Indian flute), guitar and piano at the Dhaka center of All India Radio
All India Radio
All India Radio , officially known since 1956 as Akashvani , is the radio broadcaster of India and a division of Prasar Bharati. Established in 1936, it is the sister service of Prasar Bharati's Doordarshan, the national television broadcaster. All India Radio is one of the largest radio networks...

.

Career as leading Music Director

In 1953, he joined HMV
HMV
His Master's Voice is a trademark in the music business, and for many years was the name of a large record label. The name was coined in 1899 as the title of a painting of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone...

 as a pianist in their backing orchestra. In 1966 he became the chief music director of the Cultural Academy, Karachi, Pakistan. Also in 1966, he led the Pakistan Delegation to the Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...

 Music Festival in London. In 1967, he was appointed a music director at Dhaka Radio.

He was the music director for over 50 Bengali and Urdu films in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. His most famous score for an Indian film was for the Bengali film from Kolkata
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...

, Lottery. He burst onto the Pakistan movie scene with his score for the first Bengali film made in Pakistan, Mukh O Mukhosh
Mukh O Mukhosh
Mukh O Mukhosh was the first Bengali language feature film to be made in Bangladesh . It was produced by Iqbal Films and directed by Abdul Jabbar Khan. The movie was released in East Pakistan on 3 August 1956. It was released in Dhaka, Chittagong, Narayanganj, and Khulna...

, and became famous overnight. Other famous scores under his direction were Asiya and Nabarun. He wrote the haunting melodies for one of the first films made in independent Bangladesh, Dhirey Bahey Meghna and was responsible for bringing Hemanta Mukherjee and Sandhya Mukhopadhyay
Sandhya Mukhopadhyay
Sandhya Mukhopadhyay is an Indian singer and musician, specialising in Bengali music. She was born in Kolkata, India. She is also known as Sandhya Mukherjee.She was very close friends with the late Alpana Banerjee...

, two of India's most prominent Bengali singers of the time, to Bangladesh to record the playback songs.

He was chosen to be the Music Director for the South Asian Federation Games, held in Dhaka, in both 1985 and 1995, where his orchestrations were seen and heard by an estimated audience of over 500 million across the SAARC countries during the opening and closing ceremonies.

Samar Das was the founding president of the Bangladesh Sangeet Parishad.

Role as a Freedom Fighter

Samar Das played a prominent role in the Bangladesh War of Liberation in 1971. He was one of the chief organizers of the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra
Mujibnagar
Also See: Provisional Government of the People's Republic of BangladeshMujibnagar , formerly known as Baidyanathtala is a town in the Meherpur District of Bangladesh...

, the clandestine radio station broadcast to the Mukti Bahini
Mukti Bahini
Mukti Bahini , also termed as the "Freedom Fighters" or FFs, collectively refers to the armed organizations who fought against the Pakistan Army during the Bangladesh Liberation War. It was dynamically formed by Bengali regulars and civilians after the proclamation of Bangladesh's independence on...

 liberation army and the general population under Pakistani occupation. Das was appointed the Chief Musical Director of the radio station, and during this time, composed numerous patriotic songs that became immensely popular. Among these were Purba Digantey Surjya Uthechey, Bhebo Na Ma Go Tomar Chhelera and Nongar Tolo Tolo, Samay Je Holo Holo.

When Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature...

's song Amar Shonar Bangla
Amar Shonar Bangla
Amar Shonar Bangla is a 1905 song written and composed by the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore , the first ten lines of which were adopted in 1972 as the Bangladeshi national anthem...

was chosen as the national anthem of Bangladesh, Das recognized that there was no Western notation of this piece for orchestras to play, as is common for national anthems. Das transcribed Tagore's song into Western notation, and rendered an almost martial version of what was originally a folk song. This version of the national anthem is still played every morning and evening on Bangladesh Television and radio.

Until a paralyzing stroke one year before his death, Samar Das was actively involved in cultural activities to highlight the Bangladesh Liberation War. In 1985, for instance, he worked with the Muktijoddha Kalyan Trust (Freedom Fighter Benevolence Trust) to compile a collection of songs from the liberation war featuring the original singers from the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra, to raise funds for the families of injured freedom fighters. The album was released in a set of two LP discs titled Ekti Phool Ke Bachabo Bole.
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