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GeetashreeSandhya Mukherjee
Sandhya Mukherjee (right) with Nupurchhanda Ghosh, in 2014
Background information
Birth name	Sandhya Mukherjee
Born	(1931-10-04)4 October 1931 Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British Raj
Died	15 February 2022(2022-02-15) (aged 90) Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Genres	Playback singing
Occupation(s)	Singer, composer

Geetashree Sandhya Mukherjee (also spelled Mukhopadhyay; 4 October 1931 – 15 February 2022) was an Indian playback singer and musician, specialising in Bengali music. She received Banga Bibhushan, the highest civilian honour of the Indian state of West Bengal in 2011. She also won the National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer for her songs in the films Jay Jayanti and Nishi Padma in the year 1970.

Early life

Mukherjee was born in Dhakuria, Calcutta, on 4 October 1931 to Narendranath Mukherjee, a railway official, and Hemprova Devi. She was the youngest of six children. Her grandfather was a police officer, and the family had lived in Dhakuria since 1911.

Training & career

Sandhya started her music training under the direction of Pandit Santosh Kumar Basu, Professor A T Kannan, and Professor Chinmoy Lahiri. However, her guru was Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, followed by his son Ustad Munavvar Ali Khan, under whom she mastered Indian classical music. According to Manorma Sharma, "Sandhya has been able to maintain her popularity as a classical vocalist even after acquiring the gloss and the glow of playback singing ..."

Though classically trained, the bulk of her work consists of Bengali modern songs. She began her career in Mumbai singing Hindi songs, starting with a song in the film Taarana in 1950. She sang, as a playback singer, in 17 Hindi films. She decided to come back to and settle in her home city Kolkata in 1952 due to personal reasons. She married Bengali poet Shyamal Gupta in 1966. Gupta went on to write the lyrics for many of her songs.

Her best known collaboration is arguably with the Bengali singer Hemanta Mukherjee with whom she sang numerous duets, primarily as playback for Bengali films. Hemanta and Sandhya became known as the voices behind the pairings of the Bengali superstar Uttam Kumar and his numerous heroines, most notably being the actress Suchitra Sen, whose singing voice she became. Besides Hemanta Mukherjee's compositions, her largest body of work is with Robin Chattopadhyay and Nachiketa Ghosh.

During the Bangladesh Liberation War she joined the mass movement among Indian Bengali artistes to raise money for the millions of refugees who had poured into Kolkata and West Bengal to escape the fighting, and to raise global awareness for the cause of Bangladesh. She assisted Bangladeshi musician Samar Das as he set up the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra, the clandestine radio station broadcasting to Bangladesh and recorded several patriotic songs for him. On the occasion of the release of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the imprisoned leader of the new country of Bangladesh, she released a song Bangabandhu Tumi Phirey Ele. She later became one of the first foreign artists to visit Dhaka, performing at an open-air concert in Paltan Maidan in Dhaka to celebrate the first Ekushey February after Bangladeshi independence in 1971.

On 26 January 2022, on the Republic Day and a few days before testing positive for COVID-19, Mukherjee was awarded the Padma Shri for her performance in music. However, she refused the award, labelling it "disparaging and degrading". Mukherjee died of cardiac arrest at a private hospital in Kolkata on 15 February 2022, at the age of 90.

Songs

Bengali film songs

Awards

• Padma Shri in 2022 (refused)
• Banga Bibhushan in 2011.
• Bharat Nirman Award - Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999.
• National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer for the songs "Amader Chuti Chuti" Jay Jayanti and "Ore Sakol Sona Molin Holo" Nishi Padma in 1971.
• BFJA Awards - Best Female Playback Singer for Sandhya Deeper Sikha in 1965.
• BFJA Awards - Best Female Playback Singer for Jay Jayanti in 1972.
• Honorary D.Litt. from Jadavpur University, Kolkata in 2009.

Death

On 27 January, Sandhya Mukherjee was admitted to SSKM Hospital with breathlessness and was later transferred to Apollo Gleneagles Hospital since she was COVID-19 positive. She also had lung infections, hypotension, ischemic heart disease, multi organ dysfunction and a fracture at her left femur. She was showing progressive improvement in her treatment, became COVID-19 negative and underwent a successful femoral surgery on 11 February. In the morning of 15 February, she was transferred to the intensive care unit for sudden severe abdominal pain and hypotension, following which she died at 7.30pm of the same day suffering a cardiac arrest. One of the nurses of the hospital reported that she suffered the cardiac arrest at the time of listening to "Ei shohor theke aro onek dure", a popular bengali song by Manna Dey, with whom she sang numerous duets. She was cremated at the electric pyre of Keoratola crematorium with full state honours.

References

1. "Geetashree Sandhya's Journey Of Songs Comes To An End At 90". The Times of India. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
2. Singh, Shiv Sahay (15 February 2022). "Legendary Bengali singer Sandhya Mukhopadhyay passes away at 90". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
3. State honours nine with Banga-Vibhushan. The Times of India.
4. "18th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
5. Saleheen, Mesbah-us- (6 February 2015). "A singer with a transparent voice". The daily oberver. Retrieved 10 October 2017.
6. ^ Sharma, Manorma (2006). Tradition of Hindustani Music. APH Publishing House. pp. 119–120. ISBN 9788176489997. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
7. Express, The Financial. "Sandhya Mukherjee hospitalised with Covid". The Financial Express. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
8. "Meet Sandhya Mukherjee, the 90-year-old Bengali music legend who turned down Padma Shri". The Indian Express. 27 January 2022. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
9. "Bengali singer Sandhya Mukhopadhyay, whose golden voice enthralled generations, passes away at 90". The Indian Express. 15 February 2022. Retrieved 15 February 2022.
10. Mondal, Rittick (26 January 2022). "'Felt insulted': Veteran playback singer Sandhya Mukherjee turns down Padma Shri". India Today.
11. "Bangabibhushan title for luminaries". The Hindu. 24 July 2011.
12. "Sandhya Mukherjee Is No More: 10 Facts About The Legendary Singer From Bengal". news.abplive.com. ABP News. 15 February 2022.
13. সংবাদদাতা, নিজস্ব. "Mamata meets Sandhya: কোভিড আক্রান্ত সন্ধ্যা, সরানো হচ্ছে বাইপাসের ধারে বেসরকারি হাসপাতালে: মমতা". www.anandabazar.com. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
14. "Sandhya Mukhopadhyay Critical But Stable: Hosp | Kolkata News - Times of India". The Times of India. TNN. 29 January 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
15. সংবাদদাতা, নিজস্ব. "Sandhya Mukhopadhyay: গুরুতর অসুস্থ সন্ধ্যার চিকিৎসায় পাঁচ সদস্যের মেডিক্যাল বোর্ড, করানো হল একাধিক পরীক্ষাও". www.anandabazar.com. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
16. সংবাদদাতা, নিজস্ব. "Sandhya Mukhopadhyay: সন্ধ্যা মুখোপাধ্যায়ের বাঁ পায়ে সফল অস্ত্রোপচার, শারীরিক অবস্থাও স্থিতিশীল". www.anandabazar.com. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
17. "সন্ধ্যা মুখোপাধ্যায়ের শারীরিক অবস্থার অবনতি, রয়েছেন ICU-তে ভেসোপ্রেসার সাপোর্টে". Hindustantimes Bangla (in Bengali). 15 February 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
18. সংবাদদাতা, নিজস্ব. "Sandhya Mukhopadhyay Death: প্রয়াত গীতশ্রী সন্ধ্যা, পাতায় পাতায় রামধনু রং ছড়িয়ে সাদাকালো ফ্রেমে গানের প্রজাপতি". www.anandabazar.com. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
19. "Veteran singer Sandhya Mukhopadhyay passes away - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
20. ঘোষ, শান্তনু. "Sandhya Mukhopadhyay Death: হাসপাতালে গানে গানেই কেটেছিল শেষ কয়েক ঘণ্টা". www.anandabazar.com. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
21. সংবাদদাতা, নিজস্ব. "Sandhya Mukhopadhyay Funeral: সন্ধ্যা-প্রদীপ নিভেছিল মঙ্গলেই, বুধ সন্ধ্যায় চিরতরে বিলীন তাঁর নশ্বর দেহ". www.anandabazar.com. Retrieved 27 February 2022.

External links

• Sandhya Mukherjee at IMDb

• 1931 births
• 2022 deaths
• 20th-century Indian singers
• 20th-century Indian women singers
• Bengali musicians
• Bengali playback singers
• Bengali singers
• Best Female Playback Singer National Film Award winners
• Best Female Singer Bachsas Award winners
• Bollywood playback singers
• Indian women playback singers
• Singers from Kolkata
• Women musicians from West Bengal