Kolkata, June 24: Well-known Bengali singer Mrinal Chakraborty, whose romantic voice captivated audiences from the fifties to the seventies, died following multi-organ failure, his family said Thursday night.
Chakraborty, 80, is survived by his wife and son. He was admitted to a south Kolkata nursing home with stomach pain and underwent an operation on June 18. Although he showed initial sings of improvement, his condition deteriorated from June 21. The end came Wednesday night.
Born in Rajpur in South 24-Parganas district adjoining Kolkata, Chakraborty was trained by well-known classical vocalist Tarapada Chakraborty. He had initial lessons in music from his mother.
Under the influence of eminent composer Salil Chowdhury who was his neighbour at Rajpur, Chakraborty joined Gananatya Sangha, the Communist Party's cultural wing, in the forties. Later, he was introduced to music circles in Kolkata by Dhananjoy Bhattacharya who himself was then ruling the airwaves and musical soirees with his songs.
With his first record ‘Jamuna Kinare Sajahaner' becoming an instant hit, Chakraborty went on to churn out melodies like ‘Tung Tang Tung Tang Churir Tale,' ‘Nodi Chole Jabei Jani' ‘Hariye Phelechhi Mon,' ‘Jodi Durey Chole Jai' and many others, all of which became very popular. He also did play-back singing for a number of films, notable being ‘Archana,' ‘Nirjon Saikate,' ‘Tonsil,' ‘Louhakapat,' ‘Bohurupee,' ‘Bon Jyotsnai,' ‘Siulibari,' and ‘Bidhilipi.'
For nearly three decades since the fifties, Chakraborty's songs featured regularly in the All India Radio's highly popular show ‘Anurodher Aasar.'
After a lull during the nineties, he made a comeback in the FM era with listeners frequently requesting for his songs. PTI
