Legendary playback singer and musician, specialising in Bengali music, Sandhya Mukherjee turned 88 on Friday.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wished her on the occasion.
“Wishing legendary singer Sandhya Mukherjee a very happy birthday,”
Banerjee posted on her social networking page. “In 2011, we had the privilege of felicitating her with the Banga Bibhushan
Samman,” she added.
Born on this day in 1931, 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.
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 personals 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.
She also sang several of Salil Chowdhury’s hit Bengali songs, such as
Ujjwal Ek Jhank Payra, regarded as a classic
She received Banga Bibhushan, the highest civilian honour in West Bengal
in 2011 and National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer for her
songs in the films Jay Jayanti and Nishi Padma in the year 1970. (UNI
