Bengal's iconic singer and Rabindra sangeet exponent, Sumitra Sen, breathed her last at her residence in Kolkata on Tuesday.
She was 89 and was hospitalised for broncho-pneumonia in December. After a prolonged stay, she was brought home on Monday.
Her daughters, Srabani and Indrani, are exponents of Tagore songs, but they are also known for their renditions of other Bengali songs, including those written and composed by Kazi Nazrul Islam. Their mother was, however, an icon in the world of Rabindra sangeet (songs written and composed by Rabindranath Tagore), along with Kanika Bandyopadhyay, Suchitra Mitra and other legendary singers who left this world much before. Sen was the last of them to bid farewell.
Tagore composed most of the songs he wrote. But musicians like Pankaj Mullick and Shantideb Ghosh, who spent his entire life in Shantinekatan, also composed many songs written by Tagore. From Mullick to Hemanta Mukherjee, Debabrata Biswas and Chinmoy Chatterjee, many male singers, too, have lent their voices to Tagore's words and music. It is, however, the soothing voice of female singers like Sen, Bandyopadhyay and Mitra that immortalised Tagore songs and touched Bengali music lovers. Some of the iconic renditions include Bandyopadhyay’s 'Chokher Jale Laglo Joar' (There is a tide in my eyes), Mitra’s 'Jibano Jokhono Sukaye Jay' (When life gets decimated) and Sen's 'Chinno Pataya Sajai Tarani', 'Eka Eka Kori Khela (When I play alone with the boat I made with torn leaves) and 'Kadale Tumi More, Bhalo Bashari Tore' (You made me cry, but only for love).
Sen never met Tagore but her life revolved around the maestro. She was associated with the Rabindra Bharati University and many other institutes of eminence related to Tagore. When Kabir Suman made his foray into Rabindra Sangeet in the nineties, he consulted Sen for the selection of songs.
Interestingly, to train her daughters in music, she approached Debabrata Biswas, another Rabindra sangeet icon, as she believed they should be coached by the best people and not by near and dear ones.
Sen believed Tagore wrote each song for a particular season and that songs written for spring or summer should not be sung in winter. Sadly, Sen passes away months before the month of Chaitra—Tagore's favourite season.
