Kolkata, February 16 (Hindustan Times): Kolkata Sandhya Mukherjee, who was considered a legend during her lifetime, refused to accept the Padma Shri award on January 24. Three days later, she tested positive for Covid-19 at the state-run SSKM Hospital in Kolkata when she was rushed there with signs of lung infection and breathlessness.
Doctors found that Mukherjee was suffering from a serious heart problem that complicated her condition. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee decided to shift her to Apollo Hospital. Doctors said the singer’s condition deteriorated on Tuesday afternoon and she suffered a massive cardiac attack in the evening.
The singer, who lived in south Kolkata’s Lake Gardens area, rendered thousands of songs for Bengali cinema and her albums of modern and semi-classical music. She also recorded many songs for Hindi cinema. Her duets with the legendary Hemanta Mukherjee, who became popular in the Hindi film industry as Hemant Kumar, are considered assets by millions of her fans. The industry gave her the title Geetashree.
Born in Kolkata in 1931, Sandhya Mukherjee recorded her first song in 1948 for the Hindi movie Anjaan Garh. The music was composed by Rai Chand Boral. She sang under the direction of famous composers such as S D Burman, Roshan and Madan Mohan.
Her illustrious career spanned over 70 years. She was a student of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan.
Mukherjee received the Banga Bibhusan, highest civilian honour given by the Bengal government, in 2011 and the National Film Award for best female playback singer in 1970 for the movies Jay Jayanti (a Bengali remake of Sound of Music) and Nishi Padma. Nishi Padma was remade in Hindi as Amar Prem, starring Rajesh Khanna.
Paying his last tribute to the singer, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a tweet, “The passing away of Gitashree Sandhya Mukhopadhyay Ji leaves us all extremely saddened. Our cultural world is a lot poorer. Her melodious renditions will continue to enthral the coming generations. My thoughts are with her family and admirers in this sad hour. Om Shanti.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee wrote: “Deeply saddened that Geetashree Sandhya Mukhopadhyay, the queen of melody in Bengal, is no more. Her departure creates an eternal void in our world of music and in the hearts of millions of her followers here and in the diaspora. I used to look up to her as my elder sister and this is a grave personal loss to me. She used to be the moving spirit in our Sangeet Akademi and we had conferred upon her Bangabibhushan( 2011), Sangeet Mahasamman ( 2012) etc.”
Famous actor from yesteryears, Biswajit Chatterjee, who was known in the Mumbai film industry as Biswajit, told a television channel that two icons of the music world passed away over a short span of time.
“I knew how close friends Sandhya Didibhai (elder sister) and Lata Mangeshkar were. Both of them were Saraswatis (Goddess of music). Didibhai sang for the heroine of my first movie. We lost a legend. It affected me when she felt hurt by the decision to honour her with the Padma Shri. She deserved much more,” said Chatterjee.
Noted Bengali singers and musicians expressed their sadness on hearing the news.
“Like Lata Mangeshkar, Sandhya Mukherjee was the incarnation of Saraswati. These voids can never be filled,” singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya, a known name in the Mumbai film industry, told a television channel.
Mukherjee refused the Padma Shri award when a central government official called her up from Delhi on January 24 when the awards were announced. She told him that Padma Shree is not an award that should be conferred on a veteran like her. It would be demeaning for her to accept it, the singer said, according to members of her family.
The issue raised a major controversy. Noted members of the civil society in Kolkata condemned the Centre’s decision. Incidentally, Hemanta Mukherjee, too, refused the Padma Shri in 1970 and the Padma Bhusan in 1987, two years before his death.
Tabla maestro Anindya Chatterjee also refused the Padma awards last month. Chatterjee said he was awarded the Padma Shri by people who know nothing about his career.
