Tolly singer, composer and producer Ashima Mukherjee passes away at 86
Times of India | 21 February 2024
Kolkata: In an era when women aspired to be singers but not music directors in Tollywood, singer-producer Ashima Mukherjee sang a different tune. She was one of the earliest female music directors of Tollywood who composed for Manna De, Hemanta Kumar and convinced Uttam Kumar to chant for AIR’s ‘Mahisasura Mardini’ programme. Mukherjee (86), known for her famous ‘Boro eka lage’ composition for ‘Chowringhee’, passed away in her sleep at her Kolkata residence on Tuesday morning. She is survived by her daughter, Pompy Bhattacharya.
Apart from Mukherjee, Banshari Lahiri and Neeta Sen are the only two others to have broken the glass ceiling in Tollywood to become women music directors of repute. Born on Oct 7, 1937, in Bangladesh’s Kumilya, Mukherjee began her career in her early 20s. All her life, she was known for her versatile voice texture as a singer. She could easily move between genres and was as effortless in composing classical-based songs as out-and-out fun romantic numbers in some 10-odd films she composed for. “My grandmother was always ahead of her time. That’s why she got the courage to go against the so-called norms of society. She was always a career woman who maintained a balance between home and work. She joined All India Radio just after her marriage to my grandfather, Dilip Kumar Bhattacharya,” said Niharika Bhattacharya, who has followed in her grandmother’s footsteps.
Bhattacharya, a businessman, established a production house called Pompy Films. Pompy Films’ second production was Pinaki Mukhopadhyay’s ‘Chowringhee’ where Mukherjee made her debut as music director and playback singer. Mukherjee’s demise coincided with the shradhh ceremony of ‘Chowringhee’ actress Anjana Bhowmik on Tuesday. Her first marriage broke in the 70s and in 1977, she married actor Partha Mukhopadhyay of ‘Atithi’ fame.
Her soulful voice in “Bodhu emono badalo” in ‘Memshaheb’ (1972) picturised on Aparna Sen was a poignant expression of longing. She did it again for ‘Emon sondhay aakashe’ picturised on Aparna Sen and Uttam Kumar on a beach. For the same movie, she also had a duet ‘Aaj bujhi pakhira’ with Manna Dey. Many also remember her rendition in Birendrakrishna Bhadra’s ‘Mahisasura Mardini’ programme.
Two controversies mired her career. One was with Uttam Kumar’s chant for the ‘Mahisasura Mardini’ programme. The other was her usurped credit controversy regarding ‘Baghbondi Khela’.
CM Mamata Banerjee took to X (formerly Twitter) to say that her death was “an irreparable loss to the music world”. The state had conferred the Sangeet Mahasamman on her in 2020.
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