Sandhya Mukherjee-Hemanta added music to Suchitra Sen-Uttam Kumar’s chemistry
India Today
Sandhya Mukherjee passed away on February 15. The Bengali legend who recorded her first song at the age of 12, will always be remembered for her evergreen melodious voice.
It is the end of an era. What else one could when writing about Bengal's one of the most celebrated music icons after her demise. The city of joy mourns after its beloved and melody queen, Geetashree Sandhya Mukherjee, who passed away on February 15 evening.
As it has always been acknowledged, the Bengali film industry came of age while iconic stars Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen were on screen. It was Sandhya-Hemanta and Manna-Sandhya duets that gave the richness to Bengali playback singing back then.
Those were the days in the 50s when Sandhya Mukherjee became a household name in every Bengali family. The legend took Bengal’s playback industry very far and gave it an identity. She was a maestro of Indian shastriya sangeet, modern songs, Nazrul geeti and Rabindra sangeet. Apart from Bengali songs, she also sang for Hindi cinema.
Sandhya Mukhopadhyay recorded her first song for radio at the age of 12. She was only 13 years old when HMV published her first basic record. Within two years, she gave her voice for two playbacks in Bengali cinema. That gave the iconic singer widespread recognition.
Sandhya Mukherjee was born in October 4, 1931, in a family with a musical background. She was the youngest daughter of Narendranath Mukhopadhyay and Hemprova Devi. Her father was her first 'guru', as Mr Mukherjee was fond of Bhakti geeti. She was a gem of a voice in Tappa.
Sandhya Mukherjee, a student of legendary classical singer Begam Akhtar, won Geetashree Award in a competition. At that time, she was only 14. Since then, she was called 'Geetashree Sandhya Mukherjee’. She was also a student of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan during the initial days of her career. The legendary semi-classical singer also worked with leading music directors such as SD Burman, Naushad and Salil Chaudhury.
The singer, a recipient of Banga Bibhushan and National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer, had refused an offer of a Padma Shri Award when she was contacted by government officials before Republic Day this year.
