Full Name: Indra Mohan Rajbongshi

Affiliation: Government Music College, Dhaka

Current Position: Deceased

Date of Birth: January 26, 1946

Date of Death: April 07, 2021

Place of Birth: Bangladesh

Home District: Dhaka

Nationality: Bangladeshi

Profile:

Indra Mohan Rajbongshi (26 January 1946 – 07 April 2021) was a Bangladeshi Ekushey Padak recipient Folk Singer and Voice Artiste of Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra. He won the Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin award in 2007 and the World Master Certificate award in the same year in South Korea. He received Ekushey Padak in 2018 for his contribution to the country’s music sector.

Rajbongshi was born in Dhaka in a musical family. He was the fifth generation singer of their family. As a boy of about four or five in the early 1950s, he learnt music under his grandfather, Krishna Das Rajbongshi. Though involved with other art forms such as Jatra, Palagaan and Nazrul songs as a young boy, he found his calling in folk songs. In 1957 he performed on stage as a child artiste for the first time. Then he was admitted to the Bulbul Lalitakala Academy in Nazrul song in the late 1960s and completed the five-year course. But the turning point of his life came in 1963 when he first heard the songs of Abdul Alim. After that day he quit all other types of songs and started to learn folk songs under Hafizur Rahman.

Rajbongshi wanted to join the war in 1971 but the Pakistani army caught him. As the Pakistan army unleashed wrath on the minor Hindu people, he took a fake name and worked as an interpreter of the Pakistanis to survive. Later, he fled from there and joined the “Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra” to inspire the freedom fighters in war. After the war of independence he joined the Government Music College in 1974.

Rajbongshi was closely associated with the film industry and worked as a playback singer and lyricist in many short films and feature films produced in Dhaka and Kolkata. He has given voice for numerous songs on films, radio and television. He made his first playback in a film named “Chena-Ochena” in 1967.

In 1998, Rajbongshi established a folk organisation, Bangladesh Lok Sangeet Parishad (Folk Song Council) to practice, preserve, and promote folk songs. Apart from singing, the artiste used to collect folk music from various regions. There are about a few thousand songs in his collections, written by over 1,000 poets from different regions in the country.

Rajbongshi was awarded the best singer by the Bangladesh Cine Journalist Association in 1976 for the film “Nayan-Moni” directed by Amjad Hossain. He is also the proud recipient of the “Meril Jay Jay Din Award” in 1995 for being the best singer of the year.

Rajbongshi had written about 100 folk songs for children, including songs on our Liberation War and Language Movement.

Rajbongshi tested positive for COVID-19 on April 01, 2021 when he was admitted to Metropolitan Hospital of the capital. Later, he was shifted to the BSSMU as his condition deteriorated and he started having breathing problems. He had also been suffering from diabetes. He died of COVID-19 while undergoing treatment at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University on April 07, 2021.

Register for comment

Comments

No data found