Prince Mahmud is a living legend of Bangladeshi music, no one else could give so many love songs to every generation from the 90s to the present generation and is still giving them. No matter how much we appreciated him, he didn’t turn away, he didn’t stop making music.
Then the new leaves on the branches of our youth. A chorus of wind on the leaves. With flocks of boundless birds we then desperately seek the sky’s blue border. A strong attraction to anything new. We were village boys. It is a humble village. Jhenai river country. The land of Hellenchavati. Navagram This is far from the capital. Our days are surrounded by the waves of the Yamuna. One day a cassette reached our village. My mamun uncle took me. Mamun Mama taught us to be modern to float on the latest tide of Bengali music. The name of that album that day was ‘Shakti’. Song of Prince Mahmud. Sung by the proverbial men of Bengali band music.
At the beginning of the ‘Shakti’ album, Partha Baruya’s voice ‘Ken sei Hrydoheena broke my heart’, Ayub Bachchu’s voice that famous song ‘If you love me, only that’s why you want to escape’, Guru Azam Khan’s voice, ‘Manke mubai tu kende, dukh nadi geile’. , Naqeeb Khan’s sweet voice ‘Meghtake sekesh, neel aakash khabit sekhon’ stuck in the balcony of our lips with eternal appeal.
Mamun Mama brought another album to Dhaka. They are eleven. A song from that album still throws in a rhythm. Obscure Band’s Tipu sings ‘Haat gaara se hai bhu bhu bhu bhu bhu bhu hai bhu bhang bhag sathi bhob’. There was another song in this album ‘Bhoy Bhoy Harabar Bhoy, Teke Aaram Just Harabar Bhoy’. Biplab sang the song. We are indebted to this song. I can’t count how many times I have sung this song in that life. Prince Mahmud took a permanent place in our lives and hearts everywhere.
Then began the reign of Prince Mahmud in our lives. The name of that album is ‘Kshama’. By that time we are in the university. It is a unique life story. I fell deeply in love, I heard the wedding bell before my eyes, I lost the face of my beloved in the familiar path. At that time, Khalid’s song “Abar Dakha Ho, Nayyy Dakha Nai Last Dakha” was released. In this song Aache Kalija Porate Porate from the same album, Tipu of the band Obscure sang ‘Chand Jaga Ei Raat, Duchokher Varshay Vje, Bhabchi Tome Jage Jage Raat, Tumi Yoo Ki Bhabhacha Amay’. This song, a thousand nights of loneliness, burned like us and soaked the lover’s pillow with secret tears.
Prince Mahmud’s another album ‘Ghrina’ came to hand. One of the songs in that album was ‘Abhimanini Bhule Acho, Kishin Edadin Bhule Acho’ in the voice of Ashikuzzaman Tulu. I have sung this song countless times while passing in front of my lost lover’s house with bicycle ringtone.
Suddenly Prince Mahmud vandalized us a bit. The album named ‘Vyadhan’ came to hand. Kumar Biswajit’s voice ‘Bad Bei Bhai hai Gelo, Love Bese Tome’, Khalid Hasan Milu’s voice ‘You don’t understand, You don’t look, how helpless I am’ is the narration of the new song challenging us with familiarity.
While waiting we find a single album. Its artist is Kamal Ahmed. All songs of Prince Mahmud. You have to listen. I heard Another song gripped us ‘Every man once has true love, the dream of living in happiness, that floats in his eyes’. I know why I still hum that song.
Then we stay in the university hall. From loadshedding, I flocked and ran to the forest of love in the girls’ hall in the western neighborhood. Begum Rokeya Hall, Taapsee Rabeya Hall North Side Pond Bank. There is like a bed of jochana. In that silver light, I started singing each song. Prince Mahmud’s album ‘Kehe Dekha’. The first gold-plated album of our youth. I used to sing Ayub Bachchu’s song ‘I don’t want your gift after my burial, don’t leave your rights to the dead body’ with the pain in my chest. It’s a day of a life with smoke. “Maybe this is the last meeting, maybe this song is the last song” in James’s raspy voice. A violin that saws through the middle of the song. I still remember everything. everything In Rajshahi University, I got great fame as the alternative voice of Hasan’s song with the voice of ‘Sanai’s melody will take you away, little by little, tonight you will be someone else’s, thinking about it makes my eyes wet with water, why so much pain in love’. Those who were in the Rajshahi campus in the late nineties still remember it.
Mother’s words can be embedded in Bengali songs in such a way, so well-crafted words and tunes can be sent to the land of stars, we got proof of that in James’s voice, “Stars of the night can you tell me, where are they, how are they, mother”. Those of us who leave our mother and spend our days and nights in a distant campus, Prince Mahmud’s album ‘Ekhan Duchokhe Banya’ comes as a great medicine for us. Another song for us in the same album, it’s Hasan’s song ‘Etdin Pari Sartan Jagae Tori Ki Harechhi Ami’. Khalid’s voice came out with such a song, the song that spread sadness in the path of our grief, innumerable sad stars floated in the sky of our pain.
When Prince Mahmud dominated our playlists to spread the scent of heart-warming love, he floated an album titled Daag Jae Jaye. The album started with Ayub Bachchu’s song ‘Bela Nakhe Pai Eshe Paini Tome’. This song has made a separate place in the map of Bengali songs since that day. Prince Mahmud in the voice of Shafin Ahmed gave the one and only theme song of Apamar Bengali’s birthday party. Today is your birthday. After this song, no other song has come to this festival, nor will it come. “If you accept my friend to be the winner, I accept the defeat and think you are the winner”. This song with James’ voice almost led us astray. Dear Paris road covered with the shade of Gagan Shirish knows how far we have traveled along the wandering night. I took a song from this album in my book pocket. Where there is pain, there is sorrow. In Khalid’s voice, it’s not time to go, why did you leave after finishing everything at the beginning? The songs of this album of Prince Mahmud really left a mark in life. That stain is love or hate.
We bought an album with a long serial at a cassette store one day. That is Prince Mahmud’s ‘stream’. Ayub Bachchu’s ‘Abhiman Ni’, James’s ‘Papi’ and Pius’s voice ‘The mind is guarded, the mind is bound, the mind will still be lost’. We were shocked once again.
We are still obsessed with consistency. Prince Mahmud’s new songs are highly anticipated. “Wall” came to hand. That James’s song on the wall ‘Ful Nebe Na, Ashru Nebe Bandhu’ and Ayub Bachchu’s ‘Jivananand Kavitaye’, taught us the new meaning of love.
One day we did not understand the meaning of the day, the day we got Prince Mahmud’s album ‘Harjit’. Where in James’s voice, he gave a song about the lamentation of many children who lost their father, a song of refuge for the children who went into the battle of life leaving their father away, ‘Baba kadi kadi kadi na takhi na tome’. There is no other song like this about father in Bengali songs.
Not only one of the most successful albums of Prince Mahmud, ‘Piano’ is a shining history in the history of Bengali music. Every song sung by Ayub Bachchu and James, the two frontmen of Bangla band, is new in the heart of every Bengali who loves music. The song ‘Bangladesh’ sung by James is a unique song to inspire the youth of this country with patriotism. Ayub Bachchu’s singing of ‘Taj Mahal’, ‘O Duniya Man’, will spread fragrance in our soul, no doubt.
Today is Prince Mahmud’s birthday. Best wishes and endless love for Prince Mahmud from the family of Bengali singers of the golden days.
