songs
Salil as a Lyricist

As I have mentioned earlier, Salil almost always wrote the lyrics of his Bengali songs. There are a few exceptions though, but not many. Salil wrote the lyrics for quite a few songs which were composed by others. He was so moved by the Marathi version of an Asha Bhonsle song composed by Hridaynath Mangeskar that he wrote the Bengali lyrics for that song (Jibono-o-gaan) and Asha recorded that in Bengali. In fact he wrote the lyrics for several songs composed by Hridaynath.
Salil also wrote a few songs under the psudonym 'Sudarshan'.

Lyrics: Salil

Nr

Song

Year

Singer

Music
LS1 Tumi aamaar na gaaoaa gaan 1953 Tarun Banerjee,
Sanat Banerjee,
Geeta Mekherjee and others		 Based on a western hymn;arranged by Salil
LS2 Tumi kothaay 1953 Tarun Banerjee Based on a western hymn;arranged by Salil
LS3 Champaa aamaar ogo sono 1954 Tarun Banerjee Sudhin Dasgupta
LS4 Aandhaare lekhey gaan 1958 Sabita Banerjee Nachiketa Ghosh
LS5 Sonaay dheke anga 1967 Geeta Dutta Kanu Ghosh
LS6 Jaaknaa muchhey jaak 1967 Geeta Dutta Kanu Ghosh
LS7 Oi path durey 1968 Asha Bhonsle Hridaynath Mangeskar
LS8 Jibono gaan 1968 Asha Bhonsle Hridaynath Mangeskar
LS9 De dol dol dol
1970 Hemanta Mukherjee and
Lata Mangeskar		 Hridaynath Mangeskar
LS10 Ogo maa gangaa
1970 Lata Mangeskar Hridaynath Mangeskar
LS11 Baadol kaalo ghirlo go
 1970 Lata Mangeskar Hridaynath Mangeskar
LS12 Saade saatkoti bangaalir 1972 Manna Dey Kanu Ghosh
LS13 O bhaai re bhaai 1972 Manna Dey Kanu Ghosh
LS14 E din to jaabe naa 1975 Lata Mangeskar Hridaynath Mangeskar
LS15 Naao go maa phool naao 1975 Lata Mangeskar Hridaynath Mangeskar
LS16 Ogo Saathi
(From the film: Bandi)		 1977 Shyamal Mitra
Sulakshana Pandit		 Shyamal Mitra
LS17 Jaay ude mon 1988 Antara Chowdhury Sanjay Chowdhury
LS18 Meghe meghe 1988 Antara Chowdhury Sanjay Chowdhury
LS19 Dhoroniro parapaarey 1988 Antara Chowdhury Sanjay Chowdhury
LS20 Chal maajhi 1988 Antara Chowdhury and
Sabita Chowdhury		 Sanjay Chowdhury
LS21 Kaamini kanyaa tumi 1992 Partho Ghosh and Antara Sanjay Chowdhury
LS22 Jodi tumi 1992 Antara Chowdhury and
Sanchari Chowdhury		 Sanjay Chowdhury
LS23 Jaaninaa Kano 1992 Antara Chowdhury Sanjay Chowdhury
LS24 Eso Bosonaa 1992 Antara Chowdhury Sanjay Chowdhury
LS25 Puraano haaraano 1992 Antara Chowdhury and
Sanchari Chowdhury		 Sanjay Chowdhury
LS26 Aajkaal_aami_aar 2014 Lata Mangeshkar Mayuresh Pai

Songs # 18 to # 20 were released in a cassette called 'Aamraa' along with some other Salil songs. These songs composed by Salil's youngest son, Sanjay are really excellent. He definitely has a unique style.  'Dharaniro Parapaarey' is one of the most interesting compositions I have heard. Later in 1992 he composed some more songs and Salil wrote the lyrics under the pseudonym 'Sudarshan'.
HMV has recently released a CD of Geeta Dutt's bengali songs and very callously they have attributed Salil as the composer of Geeta Dutt's two songs (#6 and #7). In fact the composer is Kanu Ghosh. This is not the only time HMV has made this faux pas with Salil's songs.
Hridaynath, a brilliant composer always admitted that his greatest inspiration is Salil and Salil also admired and liked Hridaynath's compositions. In fact, they worked together in the past when Salil wrote the lyrics for a number of songs composed by Hridaynath (see Lata's page and Hemanta Mukherjee's page for details). Salil was so moved by one of Hridaynath's marathi compositions that he wrote the bengali lyrics for it. The original marathi song was "jeeva lagaa" which became "jeebon gaan" in bengali. Salil wrote the lyrics for another superb composition of Hridaynath. This was "hee vaat door jaate" - which became "oi path durey" in bengali. Both superbly performed by Asha.
LS24 and LS25 has two Hindi versions in the TV film "Hamari Shaadi" with superb arrangement.
The newest surprise is Lata's "aajkaal aami aar" (LS26) recorded in 2014 when she turned 85 ! Quite an achievement really.