Odia music director Shantanu passes away

Legendary Odia music director Shantanu Mohapatra passed away at the age of 84 on December 30. He was suffering from old age related ailments and finally succumbed to pneumonia and cardiac failure.

Apart from Odia, Mohapatra had worked in different languages. He composed the first modern 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'), Mohammad Rafi ('Arundhati'), Manna Dey ('Surjyamukhi'), Usha Mangeskar ('Arundhati') and other artists like Suresh Wadekar, Anuradha Paudwal, Usha Uthup and Kavita Krishnamurthy.

As a music composer, his credits in the field of Odia music includes 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.

Mohapatra's work in Odia films included 'Sei chuna chuna' ('Surjyamukhi'), 'Mayuri go' ('Arundhati'), 'Jaa jare bhasi ja' ('Chilika teeray') and many others.