The man which the deep resonant voice, Hemant Kumar was born in Baharas in 1920. though his ambition was the become an engineer, the songs he sang on All India Radio, became immensely popular, thereby making him a household name. Buoyed by the success, Hemant decided on a singing career. He studied under Phani Banerjee and Shailendra Prasad Gupta.
The first film in which he lent his voice was ‘Nemai Sanyasi’ in 1940. S.D. Burman gave Hemant Kumar his first break as a playback singer in the film ‘Taal’. The song - ‘Yeh raat, yeh chaandni phir kahan’ was an unforgettyable melody. Hemant Kumar’s first film as a music director was ‘Anand Math’.
Hemant Kumar not only had numerous hit songs to his credit, he also gave us some haunting melodies and fine tunes as a music director in films like ‘Nagin’, ‘Jagruti’, ‘Bees Saal Baad’, ‘Khamishi’, etc. This great doyen of film music left the mortal world in 1989.