Bhubaneswar: Legendary Odia music director Shantanu Mohapatra died right here, household sources mentioned on Wednesday. He was 84.
Mohapatra was suffering from old age associated ailments and ultimately succumbed to pneumonia and cardiac failure on Tuesday evening. A substantial quantity of people today paid their final respect to the music maestro at his Palaspalli residence.
Odisha Governor Ganeshi Lal, Andhra Pradesh Governor B B Harichandan, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and quite a few dignitaries condoled the demise of Mohapatra.
In a condolence message, Lal mentioned Santanu Mohapatra was aspect of Odisha music for virtually six decades and he will be remembered by all for lengthy.
Patnaik described Mohapatra as an ‘Unfading Talent’.
“As a lyricist and music director, he has left the shining signature of his talent. The music directed by him will keep him immortal forever,” the chief minister mentioned.
Noting that Odisha has lost a talent, Patnaik announced state honour for the departed music director.
Apart from Odia, Mohapatra also worked in distinctive languages. He composed the 1st contemporary Odia ballad “Konark Gatha” with lyrics by lyricist Gurukrushna Goswami and sung by Akshay Mohanty. He also wrote ‘Kalijae’ which was sung by Sikandar Alam.
Mohapatra also was the lone Odia music director to work with Hindi film greats like Lata Mangeshkar (Surjyamukhi), Mohd Rafi (Arundhati), Manna Dey (Surjyamukhi), Usha Mangeskar (Arundhati) and other artists like Suresh Wadekar, Anuradha Paudwal, Usha Uthup, Kavita Krishnamurthy.
Born at Baripada in Mayurbhanj district in 1936, Mohapatra has quite a few firsts to his credits in the field of Odia music as a music composer like the 1st contemporary lullaby in AIR (‘Soi pada re dhana’ sung by Santilata Rout), 1st qawali (ae ranga rahiba nahi from Surjyamukhi), 1st bhangra tune, and 1st fusion and jumping note (Ago Chandrika by Raghunath Panigrahi).
A pass out from IIT, Kharagpur, Mohapatra was a geophysicist and had worked with Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC).
He has the distinction of getting about 1,900 plus compositions, which includes 53 films (function and tele), 10 Jatras and 60 dramas by AIR (Cuttack) and 10 dance dramas to his credit. He has also won the highest quantity of awards and accolades as a music director in Odisha, totalling more than 80.
Mohapatra’s work in Odia films incorporated ‘Sei chuna chuna’ (surjyamukhi), ‘Mayuri go’ (Arundhati), ‘Jaa jare bhasi ja’ (Chilika teeray), ‘Mun khoji bule’ (Agni Parikhya), ‘Sei jhilmil’ (Megha Mukti), ‘Mun ta thili ekutia’ (Dora), ‘Subhadra kande na’ (Jaga Balia), ‘Mun jibi’ (Golamgiri), ‘Kete je sukha’ (Mukti Tirtha) and quite a few other people.
In honour of his lifetime contribution to Odia culture, the Utkal University of Culture had conferred honorary D.Litt on him in 2011.