FEATURE

Legendary Bengali singer Sandhya Mukherjee passes away at 90

Legendary Bengali singer Sandhya Mukherjee, who worked with leading music directors such as SD Burman, Naushad and Salil Chaudhury, died on Tuesday evening following a massive cardiac attack, said an official of the hospital where she was admitted. Mukherjee was 90. She left behind a daughter.

She was in hospital since the last week of January due to ill health. She was put on vasopressor support earlier in the day as her blood pressure dropped.

“She suffered a massive heart attack at around 7.30 PM following which she expired,” the senior hospital official told PTI.

The singer had tested positive for Covid-19 along with cardiac ailments, multi-organ dysfunction and fracture in the femur bone due to a fall.

Also known as Sandhya Mukhopadhyay, Mukherjee had recently grabbed headlines as she turned down the Padma Shri award from the Indian Government. The awards were bestowed on January 26, on Republic Day.

Soumi Sengupta, daughter of the veteran playback singer, said that her mother declined the honour because “To confer a Padma Shri to a legend like her at the age of 90 is extremely demeaning”.

Reportedly Sandhya Mukherjee wasn’t keeping well when she received a call from Delhi and she rejected the honour saying, “It’s a big humiliation for me. I don’t want to receive an award after such humiliation.” The singer also said that the people who called her from Delhi didn’t know about the work she did over eight decades, and they didn’t know about Indian music.

Mukherjee added that they reached her without even basic knowledge, which hurt her. Also, they called her at the last moment of the announcement. The singer also mentioned that they want to give her the award when she can’t even stand on the stage. Hence, she didn’t want to take it.

Considered one of the sweetest voices of playback singing in the 60s and 70s, Sandhya Mukherjee has thousands of songs in Bengali and nearly a dozen other languages to her credit. Her duets with legendary singer Hemanta Mukherjee are particularly revered by music lovers.

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