Bengal mourns death of Bappi Lahiri, Sandhya Mukherjee; state pays tribute

The passing of veteran singer Sandhya Mukherjee and music director Bappi Lahiri has left millions in West Bengal heartbroken.

KOLKATA: The death of famous music director Bappi Lahiri in Mumbai on Wednesday and the passing of veteran singer Sandhya Mukherjee in Kolkata the night before left millions in West Bengal heartbroken with the state government paying tribute to both the legends.

Bappi Lahiri (left) died of obstructive sleep apnea at the age of 69. Sandhya Mukherjee (right) died of cardiac failure at the age of 90. (File Photos/ANI)

Lahiri, who was born in north Bengal’s Jalpaiguri town, died of obstructive sleep apnea at Mumbai’s CritiCare Hospital at the age of 69. He was the only child of classical musicians Aparesh and Bansuri Lahiri and started playing the tabla at the age of 3. Though named Alokesh by his parents, he became famous in the Indian music industry as Bappi.

Mukherjee, who was born in Kolkata, died of cardiac failure on Tuesday evening at Apollo hospital at the age of 90. She was found to be infected by the coronavirus on January 27. Mukherjee rendered thousands of songs for Bengali and Hindi cinema and her albums of modern and semi-classical music.

Their deaths were mourned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

The chief minister cut short her north Bengal tour to attend Mukherjee’s funeral in Kolkata on Wednesday evening. She announced that the singer would be honoured by the state with a gun salute.

A large portrait of Bappi Lahiri was kept at the same venue as the state mourned the death of the music director whose compositions enthralled the audiences of both Bengali and Hindi cinema. Banerjee paid floral tributes to Lahiri.

Famous actor from yesteryears, Biswajit Chatterjee, who was known in the Mumbai film industry as Biswajit, told a television channel on Tuesday that Mukherjee and Lata Mangeshkar, who died on February 6, were Saraswatis (Goddess of music).

On Wednesday, Biswajit’s son, Prasenjit Chatterjee, a Bengali movie star, said, “Bappida composed music for many of my films and they were all hits. He leaves a permanent void.”