“I have a loyal band of listeners who like my classical vocal but they are mostly elderly people and they do not go around discussing or canvassing for me. Rabindrasangeet, on the other hand, appeals to all sections of the masses, cutting across age and
Singer Mohan Singh has always chosen difficult songs. Was it that the audience too found them difficult to comprehend and hence Mohan Singh’s fan following happens to be lesser than that of his contemporary Rabindrasangeet singers? In his own words Mohan Singh says: “I never
Bengalis love to listen to Mohan Sigh’s rendition of Rabindrasangeet. Surprisingly, he gave up his surname Khangura and most Bengalis identify with his gayaaki, rather than his surname. For more than 25 years, thus Mohan Singh has built a niche for himself amidst the Bengali
Santiniketan’s Dinendranath Tagore, or Dinu da knew the perfect way of singing Rabindranath Tagore’s songs and had a deep impact on Mohan Singh’s gayaki. At the age of 46, Mohan Singh’s anchor was his Dinu da. Singh believed music has no genre – be it
Bikram Singh Khangura was a dreamer and a poet. Kanika Bandopadhyay often called him ‘Kobi,’ as he loved penning down lines himself and infusing rhythmic words amidst lines of Rabindrasangeet. Bikram often talked to the trees, the fallen leaves of Sonajhuri and listened to their
Mohan Singh’s son Bikram was a nature lover. Often, he spent his time cycling through the Sonajhuri forests of Santiniketan, or watching the Palash blooms, seeping in the fragrance of the wild Chhatim trees and then heading towards Patha Bhavan through the Bokul trees. Or
Mohan Singh always believed Rabindrasangeet should have the inner soul expressed in its rendition. For him the tune and the feeling with which the words are sung was of prime importance. In his lifetime, the singer had primarily chosen the lesser known songs of Tagore.
Mohan Singh was not just a singer, he was also a great musician and loved playing instruments while singing, including Tanpura and Esraj. These two instruments incidentally were also a great favourite of Rabindranath Tagore himself. Mohan Singh’s two sons, Bikram and Abir, were also
The story of Mohan Singh’s wife, Suchismita, a Bangali was mentioned in an earlier episode. Mohan fell in love with the Bengali language after reading Sahaj Path gifted by his wife. In Visva Bharati, he had five girls in his class and he was the
One late evening, Mohan Singh was sitting near the canal in Santiniketan with Tuku. Suddenly he saw two men walk towards them. In the darkness in the beginning he could not make out who they were. But as they came forward, Mohan Singh realised, one