Veteran Indian playback singer Sandhya Mukherjee, who sang the iconic song ‘Bangabandhu Tumi Phirey Ele’ when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was freed from prison, has been hospitalised in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata.
The 90-year-old was rushed to Kolkata’s premier state-run SSKM hospital on Thursday after she complained of breathlessness.
Hospital doctors told the local media that she was suffering from a lung infection that triggered her breathlessness. “A medical board has been constituted at SSKM Hospital to treat Mukherjee,” a doctor said.
A recipient of Banga Bibhushan, the highest civilian honour of the eastern state of West Bengal, Mukherjee began her music career as a classical vocalist. Apart from several Bengali songs, she sang, as a playback singer, in 17 Bollywood films.
During the Bangladesh Liberation War, she raised money for the millions of Bengali refugees who came to Bengal to escape the fighting.
Mukherjee subsequently became one of the first foreign artists to perform at an open-air concert in Paltan Maidan in Dhaka to celebrate the first Ekushey February after Bangladesh became independent in 1971.
Source: United News of Bangladesh