Just recently we lost the legendary singer and ‘Nightingale of India’ Lata Mangeshkar. Her death sent shock waves in the music and entertainment industry. It also left us Indians feeling heartbroken and just as we were emerging out of the shock of this loss, another death has left us dismayed. Bengali singing legend Sandhya Mukherjee aka Sandhya Mukhopadhyay breathed her last on Tuesday. The legendary singer passed away in Kolkata after suffering a massive cardiac arrest at the age of 90.
The Bengali singer was hospitalised in Kolkata in the last week of January after she complained of breathlessness and tested positive for Covid-19. According to media reports, Sandhya Mukherjee was put on vasopressor support earlier on Tuesday as her blood pressure dropped. TMC leader Shantanu Sen shared the sad news of the demise of the legendary singer on Twitter.
Several other leaders including Mamata Banerjee and other public figures condoled the demise of the Bengali singer. Take a look.
Sandhya Mukherjee recently made headlines after she refused to accept the Padma Shri award. She had called the award ‘disparaging and demeaning’ as it had come too late for her. She had stated that even a junior artist would have been more deserving.
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Sandhya Mukherjee was born and brought up in Kolkata. She started her music training under Pandit Santosh Kumar Basu, Professor A T Kannan, and Professor Chinmoy Lahiri but Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan was her guru. After his demise, she continued her training with his son Ustab Munavvar Ali Khan and mastered Indian classical music. She started her career as a playback singer in Bollywood with a song in the 1950 film Taarana. She went on to sing for 17 Hindi films till she decided to return to Kolkata in 1952. She later married a Bengali poet, Shyamal Gupta in 1966 who went on to write lyrics for many of her songs. She sang for many Bengali films and worked with big names like S.D. Burman, Naushad and Salil Chaudhury. Sandhya Mukherjee won several awards including Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer.