S D Burman's house to become museum: PM

Agartala, Jan 14 (bdnews24.com) - Prime minister Sheikh Hasina has assured members of a Tripura-based socio-cultural organisation that she would convert Comilla, Bangladesh-located ancestral house of legendary singer Kumar Sachindra Dev Burman, popularly known as S D Burman, into a folk cultural institute-cum-museum. Barman, a royal scion of the Manikya dynasty that ruled Tripura for more than 500 years, was born on Oct 1, 1906 in the Comilla Raj Bari of Tripura, then a part of Chakla Roshanabad, an estate of the undivided Tripura under the British rule. "Madam Hasina has actively considered our proposal to convert the ancestral house of S D Burman at Comilla into a folk cultural institute-cum-museum," said Gautam Das, one of the eight writers and cultural activist, who had met the Bangladesh prime minister Friday in the state guest house here. Das added, "The house known as 'Tripura Raj Bari' was in dilapidated condition and some local people had encroached upon it and started a poultry farm there. But after the Hasina government came to power, we under the banner of Tripura Cultural Co-ordination Committee, along with a few intellectuals from Bangladesh, had alerted the government about it and steps were taken in the right direction." Meantime, renowned poet Kalyabrata Chakraborty, who also met Hasina said, "We are hopeful that the Bangladesh prime minister will fulfil our desire as she in her different speeches here mentioned about the cultural affinity between the people on both sides of the border and how Nobel laureate Tagore and revolutionary poet Nazrul's influences has brought us together." He added that as Hasina has a great respect for Tripura, which is close to her heart, she will surely take steps to revive the historical bonding between Bangladesh and Tripura through S D Barman, whose compositions were influenced by folk-tunes from Bengali Bhatiali, Sari and Dhamail and other traditional music and song forms of Bangladesh. S D Barman was the youngest son of Nabadwip Chandra Dev Burman who was the chief minister of Maharaja Bir Bikram Bahadur Manik of Tripura. "Burman, a multi-talented musician, composer and singer, did his initial schooling from Comilla and finished BA in English Literature from Calcutta University. In 1932, he started working as a radio singer with Calcutta Radio Station, and soon made a reputation for himself. "His first record was released by Hindustan Records on semi-classical and folk based songs. Later after few compositions in Bengali films, S D shifted to Bombay to in 1944 to join the Hindi film industry and rest is history," said Biblab Goswami recipient of the Tripura government 'Sachin Dev Burman Memorial Award' in 2007 for his research work and documentary film on the musician. S D Barman was married to Meera Dasgupta, the grand-daughter of Justice Raibahadur Kamalnath Dasgupta from Dhaka. Their only son was Rahul Dev Burman whose music and songs since mid-1970s were as popular as his father's. bdnews24.com/corr/nir/2345h