In 1957, Bhupen Hazarika, then an emerging singer, read a story by Mahadevi Verma that felt a bit like Rabindranath Tagore's Kabuliwala. He loved the story and discussed it with another young, upcoming director, Mrinal Sen, who was just one film old at the time. Sen wrote the script, but couldn't find anyone willing to finance the project. Enter Hemanta Mukhopadhyay. Already an established singer and a fine composer, Hemanta was shuttling between Bombay and Calcutta like a daily passenger back then, and he was thinking of producing a movie. Bhupen Hazarika introduced Hemanta to Mrinal Sen, and after reading the script, Hemanta saw its immense potential and invited Sen to Bombay. There, Mrinal made a few more changes to his script and gave Hemanta Da a final reading, flanked by two other fellow Bengalis: Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Salil Chowdhury. Hemanta Da made up his mind right then to produce the film, giving Mrinal Sen full freedom to choose his cast and crew.
Using his political contacts, Hemanta Babu even organized a special screening at Rashtrapati Bhavan in the presence of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, President Dr. Rajendra Prasad, and Vice President Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, among others. Nehru later spoke highly of the film within his party circle. However, due to the Sino-Indian political tensions of 1962, the movie was briefly banned. When Hemanta Mukherjee got an opportunity to meet the Prime Minister and explained the issue, Nehru immediately instructed the ban to be lifted. Because of this, "Neel Akasher Neechey" earned the unique tag of being the very first Indian film banned in independent India, leaving Hemanta Mukhopadhyay to bear the brunt of the political turmoil as its producer.
Hemanta Babu wasn't just a singer or a music composer, he was a towering personality and a truly great human being.
On his birthday today, let’s remember this titan of Indian music.