Kolkata: Bengali singing icon Sandhya Mukherjee passes away at 90

Kolkata: Iconic Bengali singer Sandhya Mukherjee (90) who had refused to accept the Central Government’s Padma Shri award last month, died on Tuesday evening due to massive cardiac arrest after prolonged illness.

According to the bulletin issued by private hospital in Kolkata where Sandhya breathed her last, it said, “Sandhya Gupta (Mukherjee) suffered a sudden cardiac arrest at around 7:30 pm because of an irregular heart beat and could not be revived. The hospital deeply mourns the passing away of the legendary singer.”

The hospital sources also claimed that she was Covid free but had irregular blood pressure since Tuesday wee hours. On January 27, she was hospitalized after being Covid positive. She also had a fracture in her hip after she fell down in her washroom, two days before she was hospitalized last month. On February 11 she had also undergone a hip surgery.

Condoling the death, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that the death of Sandhya Mukherjee is ‘irreparable loss’ and also creates an eternal void in the world of music and in the hearts of millions of her followers here and in the diasporas.

“In 2011 TMC government conferred Banga Bibhushan to Sandya Mukherjee. In 2012 Sangeet Mahasamman and in 2015 Ustad Bade Gulam Ali Saheb’s special award was given to her. Besides, she has won national award in 1971 and also got BFJ award,” said Mamata in her tweet also adding that she lost her ‘elder sister’.

Mukherjee, a legendary singer, has sung thousands of songs for Bengali cinema and her duets with the legendary Hemanta Mukherjee, who became popular in the Hindi film industry. She sang under the direction of famous composers such as S D Burman, Roshan and Madan Mohan.

Bollywood singer Abhijit Bhattacharya mourning her death claimed that after Lata Mangeshkar another ‘Ma Saraswati’ is lost from the world of music.

Several Bengali singers also claimed that they had lost their ‘mother’ with the death of Geetashri Sandhya Mukherjee.