Suman Chattopadhyay is a Calcutta-based modern Bengali songwriter and poet. He has currently changed his name to Kabir Suman, after embracing Islam. He shot to fame in the 1980s with Tomake Chai (I Need You), Base Anko (Sit-and-Draw Contest), Banshiwala (Flautist), and other albums with lyrics soaked in everyday life. This genre of songs has come to be known as Jeebonmukhi Gaan (Songs from Life) (see also Chandrabindoo) and has become a large movement in modern Bengali music. Most songs are played with just a guitar, ballad style. Suman has also sung a Bengali version of Blowin' in the Wind.

Since the late-1990s, Suman has turned more towards Rabindra Sangeet (Songs of Rabindranath).

Sample Work

Chander Kaste (চাঁদের কাস্তে, The scythe of the Moon), opens:

মাঝরাত্তিরে চাঁদের কাস্তে
ধারালো হচ্ছে আস্তে আস্তে

mAjhrAttire chA~Nder kAste
dhArAlo hachhe Aste Aste

At midnight
The scythe of the moon
Whets its blade
On the stone of darkness.

Among his better known songs is his very first, Tomake Chai, তোমাকে চাই, a love song set in an urban Bengali setting

tomAke chAI

nijhum andhakAre tomAke chAi
rAtbhor hale Ami tomAke chAi
sakAler kaishore tomAke chAi
sandher abakAshe tomAke chAi.

...

Desire

suman bandopadhyay

In the depths of my darkness - I want you
At the passing of night - I want you
In the innocence of dawn - I want you
In the languour of evening - I want you.

In the thundering monsoon-storm - I want you
In the dark clouds of July - I want you
In this respiteless rain - I want you
Amid these festival drums - I want you.

In the ancient streets of this ancient city
Amid faces old and new, windows dark and gritty
In the tired footsteps of countless processions
A glimpse of unexpected leisure - I want you.

In the daily grind of city life - I want you
At every passing peaceful moment - I want you
In the weariness of a long walk - I want you
... In what was left unsaid - I want you

...

In the fierce determination of my birthright
In the rebel colours of my painting all night
In the svelte poetry of rhyme and language
In the stark prose of reason, hopes of a new age
In the everlasting dream of classless society
In my hunger for change, more spontaneity
In the dreams - that these days of doubt will pass
In sleep and in awakening - in the calls to end class!

Amid unrest and revolution - I want you
Amid impossible tumult - I want you
Amid war, amid peace - I want you
Amid my rudderless confusion - I want you.

First of all, I want you.
Second of all, I want you.
Third of all, I want you.
And last of all, I want you.