From 1928 to 1932 Nazrul become directly involved with His Master’s Voice Gramophone Company as a lyricist, composer and trainer and a good number of records of Nazrul songs sung by some of the most well-known singers of the time were produced. The newly established Indian Broadcasting Company also enlisted Nazrul as a lyricist and composer and he remained actively involved with several gramophone companies and the Radio till his last working days. Nazrul songs were in great demand on the stage as well. He not only wrote songs for his own plays, but generously provided lyrics and set them to tune for a number of well-known dramatists of the time. A colourful national reception accorded to Nazrul in 1929 in Calcutta and attended by the scientist Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray, Barrister S. Wazed Ali, Subashchandra Bose and others was a demonstration of his rising fame and popularity. In the midst of these productive activities, tragedy struck twice in rapid succession: first, his mother died in 1928; a year later, his four-year son Bulbul died of small pox, five months after the birth of his second son Sabyasachi. By 1931, the bulk of Kazi Nazrul Islam’s literary works had been published; subsequent anthologies mostly included his songs. According to a contract with the Megaphone Record Company many Nazrul lyrics were set to music by others, and it became a practice adopted by the H.M.V. Company subsequently. Devotional songs with an Islamic content (Murshidi, Marfati, etc) were part of the tradition of Bengali folk music. By composing songs dealing with various aspects of Islam (Namaz, Roza, Hajj, Zakat, etc. ) Nazrul for the first time introduced Islam into the larger mainstream tradition of Bengali music. The first record of Islamic songs by Nazrul was a commercial success and many gramophone companies showed interest in producing these. But an even more significant impact of Nazrul’s ‘Islamicization” of Bengali music was that it forced a conservative Bengali Muslim community: averse to music, to turn a willing ear to listen to Islamic Bengali songs by the “Bulbul” of Bengal and others. One of the foremost exponents of this new music was the singer Abbasuddin Ahmed. Nazrul also composed a number of notable Shyamasangeet, Bhajan and Kirtan, combining Hindu devotional music. Between 1930 and 1933 Nazrul’s creative energy was devoted mostly to song-writing and music. In 1933 Nazrul published one of his most important essays entitled “Modem World Literature”. This essay demonstrates his acquaintance with the literature of different languages. He draws a distinction between two trends in current literature. One trend is similar to that of Shelley’s “Skylark” reaching heavenwards above this dusty earth; the other clings to this earth with passionate devotion. In 1934 Nazrul first became associated with the film world. Right at the beginning he played an important role as song and music writer, music director and even actor. Between 1928 and 1935 he published 10 volumes of songs containing over 800 songs of which more than 600 were based on classical ragas, almost 100 were folk tunes after kirtans and some 30 were patriotic and other songs. Thus during the thirties, Nazrul established a firm classical foundation for the Bengali song. In 1936 the film Vidyapati was produced based on Nazrul’s recorded play. In the same year Rabindranath Tagore’s novel Gora was filmed with Nazrul as its music director and included one of his own songs. In June 1936, Sachin Sentupta’s important play, Serajuddoula was staged. The songs and music were written and directed by Nazrul. The play and songs met with such unprecedented success that a gramophone recording was made, which at that time could be commonly heard in most households in Bengal. In October 1939 Nazrul’s relationship with Calcutta Radio was formalized, and a large number of musical programmes were directly broadcast under his supervision. Worth mentioning are the critical and research oriented programmes such as “Haramoni” and “Navaraga-malika”. From 1939 to 1942 (the time of his illness), the music programmes broadcast on radio are an important chapter in the history of Bengali music. One novel development during this period which illustrates Nazrul’s originality are the songs based on the raga “Bhairav” whose diversity is remarkable. During 1939 different recording companies issued a total of over 1000 records, 1648 of which were Nazrul’s songs. The total number of his unrecorded songs is perhaps twice as much. Nazrul’s songs were broadcast also from Dhaka Radio. During 1939-40 the richness of the music programmes of Calcutta Radio deriving from Nazrul’s prolific creativity defies comparison. This trend continued throughout 1941, with songs based on many different