Anil Harpal, Singer of famous Sambalpuri song ‘Panbala Babu’ no more
He has many famous Sambalpuri numbers to his credit including 'Panbala Babu' & 'Bombay Ka Babu'
Bhubaneswar: The singer of famous Sambalpuri/Koshli song Anil Harpal is no more. He passed away on Thursday at about 11 am, informed Gopal Pradhan, his mentor.
Initiating his career as a singer in the nineties with the song ‘E Panbala Babu, Paan bide Ke Kete Nebu’ Harpal sang a number of Sambalpuri/ Koshali songs. His another super hit song is ‘Hai Go Bombay Ka Babu’. Not only in Sambalpuri, Harpal has a number of songs to his credit in other languages including Bhojpuri, Marathi and Bengali.
Anil Harpal’s first song ‘Panbala Babu’ was released by Samrat Cassette Company of Cuttack in December 1990. The song was made an album later that was directed by Ghanteshwar Guru. Himanshu and Rashmi played the lead actors of this album and Harpal’s another super hit album ‘Bombay Ka Babu’.
After lending voice to a number of famous Sambalpuri song Harpal came in contact with Padmashree Dr. Jitendra Harpal, the famous singer of Rangabati song, who is regarded as the Bhishma Pitamah of Sambalpur music world. Accordingly, he got invitation to sing in other languages.
On the other hand, despite all this success Harpal’s last days were not so good. After the age of cassette was over, he hardly got any song to record. Reportedly, situation turned so ugly that he worked as a lobourer in the MGNRGA scheme. Yet, this was not the end of the story. He then became ill and could not work. Hence, his wife worked and nourished the family.
Anil Harpal was originally from Dabkani, however he was living in a village of Agalpur block in Balangir district. His father is late Abdhut Harpal and mother is Dahana Harpal. They were working as daily wage labourer in the mines area of Biramitrapur area in Sundergarh district. His wife is Kuntala while Rahul and Ankita are their son and daughter respectively.
Harpal has been awarded as a singer from many organisations. In his last days he had applied for the artist stipend. Yet, before that would have been sanctioned he passed away today.
Ms Kalinga