Shyamal Mitra was a playback singer, composer and producer in Bengali and Hindi film industries. He has also sung in other languages including Assamese and Oriya.
Shyamal Mitra was born in Naihati near Kolkata. His talent for singing was evident early on but it was only while he was in college that music became a career option. While studying at college, he found his guru Sudhirlal Chakraborty and started training under him. Shyamal got his first break in the film “Sunandar Biye” (1951) for which his guru had composed music. When Sudhirlal Chakraborty passed away in 1952, Shyamal composed and recorded two songs as a tribute to him. One of these, “Smriti Tumi Bedonaar” became very popular and came to be consider a classic. The song helped launch Shyamal’s career and he went on to sing as well as compose many hits over the next two decades. Shyamal Mitra, along with Hemant Kumar and Manna Dey, was the voice of the golden era of Bengali films.In Bollywood, Shyamal Mitra had two separate stints. The first, less successful stint was in the 1950s as a singer for Salil Chowdhry’s compositions for “Biraj Bahu” (1954) and “Musafir” (1957). The second, more successful stint came in the 1970s as composer/singer starting with the critically acclaimed “Amanush” (1975). He went on to compose a few more films Hindi/Bangla films, including “Anand Ashram” (1977) and “Safed Jhooth” (1977).
In the 1980s, the quality of Bengali films declined and so did Shyamal’s career. He passed away in 1987.