Vishmadev Chattopadhyay

Vishmadev Chattopadhyay shaped the musical legacy of Bengal with his genius.

He was born on 8th November 1909 at Sarai village, near Pandua station, Hooghly district, West Bengal. He became famous as a child prodigy at the age of five. His parents were Ashutosh Chattopadhyay and Prabhabati Devi, the descendant of Sadhak Gangananda Swami of that Chattopadhyay family of Hooghly district. Sri Ramkrishna was part of another branch of this Chattopadhyay family. His family had a spiritual legacy. But Vishmadev was the first in his family to take up music.

He was brought to Kolkata when he was one year old. He was admitted to the Sanskrit Collegiate School and appeared for the Proveshika examination from Calcutta Training Academy. Thereafter he took admission in Vidyasagar College.

Vishmadev had taken his initial training in music from Shri Nagendranath Datta. Later on he was under the tutelage of Khalifa Badal Khan of Delhi gharana for fourteen years. At the age of twelve his first record was published from HMV with two Tappas of Nidhu babu. He obtained the first posaition in three categories - Khyal, Tappa and Thumri - for two years consecutively in an inter college music competition and was awarded the Best man prize. This achievement enabled the college to attain the first rank. Kazi Nazrul Islam was an admirer of Vishmadev. Vishmadev joined Megaphone Record Company in the year 1933 as a Music Director as well as Trainer. During this year, Megaphone published his record on Khyal which was based on Malkaush & Aasha raga. His fame now spread outside Bengal. He started receiving invitations from Allahabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Benaras, Delhi, Mathura and even from the distant places like Sikarpur near Karachi (of the then undivided India). All India Radio would regularly broadcast his performances live. Megaphone Company had released many of his records on Khyal and Thumri based on different ragas. He popularized "Raagpradhan" Bengali songs as an innovative musical form. Records of his musical performances including Bhajan singing and Harmonium playing were released during this time. In addition, he used to compose songs for other singers. Records of many drama performances with Vishmadev as the music director, were released by Megaphone Record Company.

Vishmadev joined Film Corporation as a Film Music Director in 1937. He composed the misic for twelve films. The music he composed for the movie 'Rikta' was based on a fusion of eastern and western styles for the first time in Indian movies. This created quite a stir. The well-known music director, Sachin Dev Burman was his assistant for four of these films.

Vishmadev had a religious temperament from his boyhood. He had no attraction for materialistic things. In 1940, he gave up his fame, money at the peak of his career. He left his wife and sons behind and joined the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry. He returned to Kolkata for a short period from the Ashram during Durga puja in 1941. He spent eight years at Pondicherry and finally returned during 1948 with a broken health.

During the Post-Pondicherry period in Kolkata, he recorded Khyal, Thumri and Bengali songs released by Megaphone Co. He also sang in functions. But he refused offers to work for the Film Industry. His life-style was that of a sage.

Vishmadev had a great reputation as a teacher. Some of his well-known students are: Rajkumar Shyamanand Singh of Banaili Estate, Sachin Mukherjee, S.D Burman (Music Director), Suresh Chakraborty and Film personalities like Kanon Devi, Chhaya Devi, Lily Chakraborty. Additionally Begum Akhtar, Uma Bose, Juthika Roy, Prakash Kali Ghoshal, Protima Bandyopadhyay, Bhabani Das, Himansu Roy, Saila Devi, Chinmoy Chattopadhyay and Jayanta Chattopadhya also trained under him.

Vishmadev introduced a new genre of Bengali Raagpradhan songs and founded a new style of Harmonium playing. He received many awards. He received a honorary D.Lit. (Rabindra Bharati University) in 1972. The title of "Sangeet Nayak" (Prachin Kalakendra of Chandigarh) was conferred upon him in 1976. UNESCO choses four of his songs as introduction to Indian Music. The West Bengal Government made a documentary film covering his life on celluloid in 1975. Kolkata Doordarshan made two documentary films on his life and music - in 1991 and in 2006. Swami Santadas Institute of Culture paid homage to him by awarding the "Swami Santadas Smarak Samman" posthumously in 2006.

Source: An article from SwarGanga Music Foundation