Bhubaneswar: The last rites of legendary music director Shantanu Mohapatra was performed at Satya Nagar crematorium here Wednesday. As per the direction of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, the music director was cremated with state honours by police personnel. Before he was cremated, Mohapatra’s body was taken to the Bhubaneswar Kala Kendra so that people could pay their last respects. A large number of people including those from the Odia film fraternity visited the places to have a last glimpse of the legendary music director.
Fans of the music director were also present in large numbers at the Kala Kendra. Chants of ‘Shantanu Amar Rahe’ were heard at regular intervals. There were many who also talked about their association with the departed soul.
Around 1.50pm, Mohapatra’s body was brought to the cremation ground in Satya Nagar. Friends, relatives and state Minister of Culture Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi were present at the cremation ground to pay their last respects.
The music director died at the age of 84. Mohapatra was suffering from acute pneumonia and other old-age related ailments, informed family sources.
Apart from Odia, Mohapatra also worked in different languages. He composed the first modern Odia ballad ‘Konark Gatha’ the lyrics of which were written by lyricist Gurukrushna Goswami and sung by Akshay Mohanty. Mohaptara also penned the popular song ‘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). He also worked with the likes of Suresh Wadekar, Anuradha Paudwal, Usha Uthup, Kavita Krishnamurthy.
Born at Baripada in Mayurbhanj district in 1936, Mohapatra has many firsts to his credits in the field of Odia music as a music composer like the first modern lullaby in AIR (‘Soi pada re dhana’ sung by Santilata Rout), first qawali (ae ranga rahiba nahi from Surjyamukhi), first bhangra tune, and first 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).
Mohapatra has the distinction of having around 1,900 plus compositions, including 53 films (feature and television), 10 jatras and 60 dramas by AIR (Cuttack) and 10 dance dramas to his credit. He has also won the highest number of awards and accolades as a music director in Odisha, totalling over 80.
Mohapatra’s work in Odia films included ‘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 many more.
In honour of his lifetime contribution to Odia culture, Utkal University of Culture had conferred honorary D.Litt on him in 2011.
PNN