Singer Ankon Kumar has returned to Coke Studio Bangla with a new song that explores the lingering emotions of a love story that never reaches fulfilment. Titled ‘Mathura: Adhora Bhalobashar Sur’, the semi-classical track features Ankon alongside Sanjida Mahmud Nandita and has been released as the fifth song of the programme’s ongoing fourth season.
Ankon has written and composed the song in addition to performing it. The musical arrangement has been handled by Shubhendu Das Shubh, who has previously worked with both artists on their Coke Studio Bangla projects.
Ankon’s association with the platform has played a significant role in bringing his music to a wider audience. He first attracted attention through the Hatirpool Sessions song ‘Up’, although his musical journey had started earlier. His appearance in the third season of Coke Studio Bangla with ‘Long Distance Love’ last year brought him greater recognition. He has also performed songs for web films and cinema since then.
‘Long Distance Love’ featured Ankon with Mumtahina Mehjabin Afrin. For ‘Mathura’, he has taken a different musical direction, joining forces with Nandita for a song built around separation, emotional distance and memories that remain after a relationship has ended.
Nandita is already a recognised voice within Coke Studio Bangla. She came to wider attention during the programme’s first season with her rendition of Kazi Nazrul Islam’s ‘Bulbuli’. Her performance of ‘Arale Duare Mor’ in the second season also received appreciation, adding to her association with the platform.
The story behind ‘Mathura’ centres on two people who share an emotional connection but are ultimately forced to follow separate paths in life. Their relationship is portrayed through the image of two parallel lines: they continue alongside each other, remain within sight of one another, yet never find an opportunity to meet.
The song draws on the enduring theme of incomplete love that has appeared across generations of storytelling. The emotional atmosphere is linked to familiar tales such as Radha and Krishna, Romeo and Juliet, and Laila and Majnu, where affection persists despite separation or circumstances that prevent the lovers from finding fulfilment together.
‘Mathura’, however, focuses not simply on the moment of parting but on what remains afterwards. A relationship may end in practical terms while its memories and emotions continue to live on. Unspoken words, unresolved feelings and recollections of a shared past can remain part of a person’s emotional world long after two people have gone their separate ways.
That idea forms the central emotional thread of the new song. Even when life takes two people in different directions, the affection they once shared may continue to survive in memory. The song uses that enduring emotional connection as its main point of expression.
Shubh’s role also connects ‘Mathura’ with Ankon and Nandita’s earlier work on Coke Studio Bangla. He arranged the music for Ankon’s ‘Long Distance Love’ and was also involved in the musical arrangements for Nandita’s two previous songs on the programme.
With Ankon contributing the lyrics and composition, Nandita joining him on vocals and Shubh shaping the musical arrangement, ‘Mathura’ brings together three artists with established links to the programme. The result is a song centred on longing, words left unsaid and the lasting memory of a love that could not find its way to completion.
