Dear Netters:
I would venture to suggest that so far the best obituary ever to have
appeared in the Anglo-American journalism is today's contribution from
Kent Hunt in the Independent(14 11 2011). No need to click on the
weblink; I give it to you:
-bhuban
Bhupen Hazarika, Musician,poet, film director and socil activist
Bhupen Hazarika was Assam's most famous product not to come off a tea
plantation.
In a life as a film industry all-rounder, vocalist-composer, journalist
and cultural activist, his name became synonymous with Assam. The
aptest comparison is Rabindranath Tagore and Bengal; Hazarika's legacy,
like Tagore's in his region, is imprinted on the popular and
intellectual Assamese and Bangla imagination.
Hazarika, the eldest of 10, was born in 1926 in Sadiya, then the
British Raj's furthermost North-eastern frontier station. In 1935 the
Assamese poet Jyoti Prasad Agarwala made Assam's first film, an
historical drama called Joymoti. Already writing songs by the age of
10, Hazarika acted and sang his own composition in Agarwala's second
film, Indramalati (1939). "The melody he inherited was from my mother,
Santipriya, although our father was well acquainted with the kirtan and
other holy verses," his sister Sudakshina Sarma said.
Academically gifted, he went to Banaras Hindu University, where he
obtained a BA and MA in political science. He then worked as a producer
for All India Radio's Guwahati station before obtaining a scholarship
to study in New York; he received a PhD in mass communication from
Columbia University. Absorbing Greenwich Village's music scene, he sang
with Paul Robeson and was briefly jailed for participating in civil
rights demonstrations.
He applied his American studies well. His re-contextualisation of the
Mississippi in "O Ganga Tum..." flaunted melodic lifts from "Ol' Man
River". In 1972 and 1973 he sang at East Berlin's Festival of Political
Songs. His extensive song output ranged from escapist fare sung by Lata
Mangeshkar and his sister Sudakshina to political songs – and was a
beacon of how to fuse folk traditions with classical or popular forms.
His "Manush Manusher Jonno" ["Humans are for humanity"] came second
only to Tagore's national anthem "Amar Sonar Bangla" ["My country of
gold"] in a recent Bangladeshi poll.
Returning home married and with a son, he rose to directing film, first
in Assamese then in Bengali. Assamese cinema book-ended his directorial
credits, from Era Bator Sur (1956) to Siraj (1988). He also contributed
music to entertainment and documentary films and TV programmes in
Assamese, Bengali and Hindi. In 1992 the Government of India conferred
on him the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, its highest prize for contributions
to Indian cinema.
As a social activist he straddled causes. During the Assam Movement
protests between 1979 and 1985, he wrote and sang songs that others
sang in the streets. Spearheaded by the All Assam Students' Union, this
mass populist movement railed against illegal immigrants and their
alleged involvement in voting scams – and whipped up xenophobia. He
also took up the cause of the indigenous peoples, known in Indian
parlance as "Tribals", and their cultures. This included directing For
Whom the Sun Shines (1974), a documentary about Tribal folk music and
dance. He was fêted with many of the subcontinent's most prestigious
awards.
Hazarika led an unconventional life by Indian standards. Aged 45, he
met the 17-year-old Kalpana Lajmi, the niece of the film director,
producer and actor Guru Dutt; Kalpana's mother, the artist Lalitha
Lajmi, was Dutt's sister. A year later they were living together. Still
stung by his first marriage's failure, they entered into what amounted
to a no-marriage pact. Their personal and professional lives remained
entwined until the end, with Hazarika contributing music to a series of
her "parallel cinema" films, many socially engaged, many addressing
women's issues, including Ek Pal (1986), Darmiyaan (1996) and Kyon
(2003). After his stroke, she effectively put her career on hold from
2007.
Bhupendra Kumar Hazarika, composer, poet, film director and actor,
journalist and social activist: born Sadiya, Lakhimpur district, Assam
and Eastern Bengal (now Tinsukia district, Assam) 8 September 1926;
married Priyamvada Patel (one son); partner to Kalpana Lajmi; died
Mumbai 5 November 2011.
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