Spl plaque on Pankaj Mullick’s S Kol house

Kolkata: The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage and Rotary International have launched a movement to highlight residences of eminent personalities who lived in Kolkata. On Sunday, a stainless steel plaque was fixed to the facade of singer, composer, actor Pankaj Kumar Mullick’s house on 2/2 Sebak Baidya Street near Ritchie Road in south Kolkata.The honour in Kolkata is designed on the lines of the famous London Blue Plaques that is now run by English Heritage and covers over 950 buildings to honour the notable men and women who have lived or worked in them. Among the houses that have a Blue Plaque in the English capital are that of James Bond creator Ian Flemming; Sister Nivedita (Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had unveiled the plaque during her London visit); Sri Aurobindo, Annie Besant and others.“The first man of Rabindrasangeet, he was the first to popularize Tagore’s songs among the masses. A renowned composer from Indian films, he was a revered singer as well. As a radio and recording artist and as a film personality, he was extremely popular across India and Internationally. His repertoire included songs in Bengali, Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu and other Indian languages,” read the plaque that was affixed on his residence on Sunday.Among the other names that Intach has shortlisted includes scientist Satyen Bose and Meghnad Saha, writer Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay, film director Mrinal Sen, cine-superstar Uttam Kumar, musicians V Balsara and Ali Akbar Khan, artist Jamini Roy and footballer Chuni Goswami. “This is a tentative list. We will approach their families and see if they are agreeable,” said Intach convenor GM Kapur. Mullick’s grandson Rajiv Gupta and grand daughter-in-law Jhinuk said they were delighted at the initiative taken by Intach and Rotary International. But not everyone is enthused. Some have misgivings over whether the plaque will mean a heritage tag to the property. “We wish to explain that this has got no bearing on KMC’s graded heritage list. It is just an attempt to create awareness among people in the neighbourhood that an eminent person once lived there,” explained Kapur.