Singer Ankon Kumar has returned to Coke Studio Bangla with ‘Mathura: Adhora Bhalobashar Sur’, joining voices with Sanjida Mahmud Nandita for a song centred on longing, separation and an unfinished love story.
The track, released as the fifth song of the ongoing fourth season of Coke Studio Bangla, marks Ankon’s return to the platform a year after his appearance in the programme’s third season. Alongside performing the song, Ankon has written and composed ‘Mathura’, while Shubhendu Das Shub has handled the musical arrangement.
Ankon first drew attention through the Hatirpool Sessions song ‘Up’. Although his musical journey had begun earlier, his wider recognition came through Coke Studio Bangla. His song ‘Long Distance Love’, released during the third season last year, helped introduce him to a much broader audience. Since then, he has also lent his voice to songs featured in web films and cinema.
In ‘Long Distance Love’, Ankon performed with Mumtahina Mehjabin Afrin. This time, he is joined by Nandita, creating a new vocal partnership around a very different emotional theme.
Nandita is already familiar to followers of Coke Studio Bangla. She first attracted attention on the platform during its inaugural season with her rendition of Kazi Nazrul Islam’s ‘Bulbuli’. Her performance of ‘Arale Duare Mor’ in the second season also received appreciation, establishing her as one of the recurring voices associated with the programme.
‘Mathura’ takes a semi-classical musical approach to a story in which two people share an emotional bond but are forced to follow separate paths in life. The concept compares their relationship to two parallel lines: they remain close, can see one another and share an undeniable connection, yet never find the opportunity to meet at the same point.
The song draws on the familiar emotional territory of legendary love stories such as Radha and Krishna, Romeo and Juliet, and Laila and Majnu, particularly the idea of love that remains incomplete. Rather than focusing simply on separation, ‘Mathura’ explores what remains after a relationship has ended without reaching fulfilment.
Memories, unspoken words and unresolved emotions often outlive the circumstances that created them. That lingering quality forms the emotional core of the song. Even when two people eventually move along different paths, the feelings they once shared can remain deeply rooted in memory.
Shub has also played an important role in Ankon’s earlier work on Coke Studio Bangla. He arranged the music for ‘Long Distance Love’ and was also involved in arranging Nandita’s two previous songs on the platform.
The collaboration between Ankon, Nandita and Shub therefore brings together artists with an established connection to the programme. In ‘Mathura’, their combined work gives musical shape to the ache of separation, words left unsaid and a love that continues to live in memory long after the relationship itself has ended.
