Khayal and Thumri by Sandhya Mukherjee

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 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 Anjan Garh at the age of 17. Following her marriage to the Bengali poet Shyamal Gupta she settled in her home city of Kolkata. 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 produced from Kolkata. 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 has also sung notable songs under Salil Chowdhury and Sudhin Dasgupta's baton.

During the Bangladesh Liberation War she joined the mass movement among Indian Bengali artistes to raise money for the millions of refugees who had poured into Kolkata and West Bengal to escape the fighting, and to raise global awareness for the cause of Bangladesh. She assisted Bangladeshi musician Samar Das as he set up the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra, the clandestine radio station broadcasting to Bangladesh and recorded several patriotic songs for him. On the occasion of the release of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the imprisoned leader of the new country of Bangladesh, she released a song Bangabandhu Tumi Phirey Ele. She later became one of the first foreign artistes to visit Dhaka, performing at an open-air concert in Paltan Maidan in Dhaka to celebrate the first Ekushey February after Bangladeshi independence in 1971. She also recorded several songs for Samar Das's film Dhirey Bohey Meghna and Salil Chowdhury's Raktakta Bangla.

She is an institution in Bengal and has a huge following among the young and the old in both India and Bangladesh.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Sandhya
• Mukherjee
• Bade
• Ghulam
• Ali
• Khan
• Khayal
• Thumri
• Bengali
• Singer

[tapomoy1]

bihag is beautiful

[Swapansur]

Can somebody upload Kya Karu Sajani Aye Na Baalam by Sandhya Mukherjee please.

[parthasarathimukher1]

nice

[shamkdutta]

vry nice vry clear voice

[abhidon82]

her voice sounds so different when she sings adhunik bengali songs!!!oh how her adhunik singing undermined her true class as a classical singer!!

[rebhos1]

I remember watching her learning from Bare Ghulam Ali Khan in the late 50's. She was the best of all the female artists in India. I am looking for one of her Sugam Sangeet duet with another male artist ( forgot his name) Akhri Raat Hai, Kal Subhe na payo gey Hameen. If anyone can upload that Please

[decentdesidude]

I recall she was taught by Pt. Gyanprakash Ghosh also.

[SPATHIK]

I was really searching her indian classical music! Thank you a lot

[DharmaYoga]

This is very rare and very precious! Amazing to see and hear the legendary singer singing Hindustani classical, and that too, at her prime. Thank you so much!

[ShriShubhashish]

Sandhya Mukherjee also learned from Prof. Jamini Ganguly for a long time.