Birendra Krishna Bhadra

Birendra Krishna Bhadra Biography

Birendra Krishna Bhadra was a theatre personality and broadcaster from Bengal. He was a play director, playwright as well as an actor who was a contemporary of Pankaj Mallick and Kazi Nazrul Islam. He had long term association with All India radio, beginning in the 1930’s. He has also written one film script - Nishiddha Phal (1955). He is known most for reciting Mahishashura Mardini in Sanskrit. Through this two hour audio program telecasted during 1931 at 4 am in the dawn of Mahalaya, he is popular still now.

Birendra Krishna Bhadra was born on August 4, 1905 to Roy Bahadur Kalikrishna and Sarala Bala Devi at Kolkata. Police Court lawyer Kalicharan Ghosh was his maternal grandfather. When he was 7, family shifted to Ramdhan Mitra Lane. His father was a linguist, fluent in 14 languages and was awarded the title of Roy Bahadur in 1927. Birendra has one brother named, Bhupendra Krishna. Birendra graduated from Scottish Church College, Kolkata in the year 1928. Then he began his career in All India radio where he adapted classic novels to produce radio plays.

In the 1930s All India Radio, Kolkata started broadcasting a two hour program called Mahishashura Mardini. He recited the Sanskrit verses for this radio program and became immensely popular. His rendition, Mahisasura Mardini, is still played by All India Radio, every Mahalaya, marking the beginning of Durga Puja festivities. In 1976, AIR tried to recite the program in Uttar Kumar’s voice, but it was not popular and hence switched back to the original. Bhadra also wrote some plays like Mess No. 49 and Subarna Golak. He directed a theatre production called Sahib Bibi Gulam, originally authored by Bimal Mitra.

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Updated: February 12, 2014