Legendary Odia Music Director Shantanu Mohapatra Passes Away

Legendary Odia Music Director Shantanu Mohapatra Passes Away

Odia music lovers mourn as legendary Odia music director Shantanu Mohapatra passed away at a private hospital in Bhubaneswar late last night. He was 84. Mohapatra was suffering from acute pneumonia and kidney related ailments and was undergoing treatment at a private hospital.

His popular song list includes songs like ‘Kuanra Punei Janha Lo’, ‘Rasarkeli’, ‘Paani Maarigala Jhain’, ‘Mun Jibi Mun Jibi’, ‘Aasa Aasa Mora Pakhala Kansa’, ‘Sabari Chale Lo Dhire Dhire’, ‘Jhiliki Jhipa’, ‘Kuha He Kalia Thakura’, ‘Nai Re Nai Tu Kahibu Nai’, ‘Mun Je Uchula Naira Dheu’, etc. As a “Top Grade” composer of AIR & Doordarshan for over 30 years, Mohapatra has composed hundreds of Odia modern songs. 

Besides composing songs and scoring music for about 10 Jatra’s (Folk Theatre). He has scored the music of many Odia, Bengali and Hindi feature films which won both regional and National Awards. Those films include ‘Chilika Teerey’, ‘Priyatamaa’, ‘Agni Parikshya’, ‘Meghamukti’, ‘Sita Raati’ , ‘Jibana Sangram’ in Odia language, ‘Mahaaprithibi’ in Bengali and ‘Sodh’ in Hindi, which has won the ‘Golden Lotus Award’ in 1979.

A born singer, Mr. Mohapatra learnt vocal music from Sangeet Narayan Banchhanidhi Panda from the age of five years and was ready for public performances at the tender age of nine years. Shantanu Mohapatra is a multi-faceted personality who has shown his talent both as a singer and music director.                                                                        

He has also been credited as the first Odia music director to work in films in five different languages: Odia, Hindi, Bengali, Assamese and Telugu. Besides Odia playback singers, Shantanu Mohapatra was the first Odia music director to direct Lata Mangeshkar and Md. Rafi to sing for an Odia movie. Other legendary singers from Mumbai including Suresh Wadekar, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Anuradha Powdwal and Kabita Krishnamurti have also sung in his composition. His awards include ‘Lalit Kala Academy’, ‘Odisha Film Critic Award’, ‘Chhayaa Chitra’ , ‘Sura Sudarshan’, ‘Srikshetra Kala Prakashika’, ‘Chalachitra Jagat’, ‘Chitrapuriand many more.

Born in November 1936 at Baripada in Mayurbhanj district, Shantanu Mohapatra has done B.Sc in Applied Geology and Geophysics in 1957 from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He joined the State Directorate of Mining and Geology Government of Odisha in June, 1957 as a Geologist from which he later retired as the Director (Mining & Geology) in 1994.