Nazrul Geeti or the songs of Nazrul Islam are equally popular in India and Bangladesh. There are almost 4000 songs, which have been sung by several popular singers around these two countries. Nazrul Geeti songs have even recently been translated and recorded into Oriya language as a studio album. The translated songs have been sung by Namrata Mohanty. In India Anup Ghoshal, Manna Dey, Suprabha Sarkar, Manabendra Mukhopadhyay are the most popular Nazrul Geeti singers among other; from Bangladesh Firoza Begum is the most prominent persona of this genre.
Some Notable Nazrul Geeti Singers
Some of these Nazrul Geeti singers and their contributions are provided in brief below:
Suprabha Sarkar: Suprabha Sarkar is one of the leading exponents of Nazrul Geeti songs. Her association with Nazrul Islam dates back to 1939 during the making of N.T. film "Sapurey". Nazrul Islam was extremely impressed with Suprabha Sarkar"s work, which later resulted in the popular "Kaberi Nodi Jole Je Go Balika" on January 1941. In her last years of life, she served as Nazrul Geeti trainer. She was also appointed in All India Radio as a Nazrul Geeti trainer.
Manabendra Mukhopadhyay: Manabendra Mukhopadhyay is one of the great scholars of Nazrul Geeti songs. Being inspired from his uncles, he got trained in Nazrul Geeti by Angurbala Devi and Indubala Devi, who were directly schooled in Nazrul Geeti. He has sung several popular Nazrul Geeti songs, which are mostly based in Indian Ragas. Some of such songs are-"Bagichay Bulbuli Tui", "Musafeer Mochh Re Ankhi Jol", "Akul Holi Keno", "Britha Tui Kahar Pare", "Aamar Nayone Krishno Nayantara", "Arunkanti Ke Go" etc.
Purabi Dutta: Purabi Dutta is considered to be the authentic singer of Nazrul Geeti songs. She was associated with All Indian Radio for various programs in her earlier days of life. She has sung several popular Nazrul Geeti and dedicated her entire life in teaching the songs of this genre. She was also attached to Bengal Music College. She was a contemporary of Pandit Jnanprakas Ghosh, Biman Mukhopadhyay, Manabendra Mukhpadhyay and Adhir Bagchi.
Anup Ghoshal: Anup Ghoshal is another exponent of Nazrul Geeti who belongs to the golden age of Nazrul Geeti. He did his masters and Ph.D from Rabindra Bharati University. His thesis was entitled as "Nazrul Geeti- Roop O Rashanabhuti".
Indrani Sen: Indrani Sen is a popular Rabindra Sangeet and Nazrul Geeti singer. She was trained in Nazrul Geeti by Purabi Dutta. She has her own music school named Disha, where she teaches Nazrul Geeti along with other genres of music.
Some other notable Nazrul Geeti singers are Nilufar Yasmin, Dhiren Bose, Dhirendra Chandra Mitra etc. Some other singers from Bangladesh are Alaka Das, Kamal Dasgupta, Ferdous Ara, Sadya Afreen Mallick etc.
