The cultural activists in Bangladesh mourn at the death of a leading people’s song singer of the sub-continent Ajit Pandey, who died on Thursday at
the age of 74 at his residence in Kolkata, India.
In expressing his grief, cultural personality Kamal Lohani observed that Ajit Pandey was in one hand an artiste and on the other a great politician. ‘I believe that he was a politician inspired by his talents as a peoples’ song singer,’ Lohani stated. He also added that Panday’s death is a great loss for the musical arena of the subcontinent.
Noted peoples’ song artiste Fakir Alamgir termed Ajit Roy as a pole star in the musical arena in the subcontinnt. ‘The relation between I and Ajit Pandey developed when he was invited in Bangladesh in the 80s,’ said Alamgir.
‘He was like a friend and a brother to me, and we spent some very pleasant time together,’ further said Alamgir.
Another people’s song singer Mahmud Selim informed that Ajit Pandey popularised this genre of music through his unique style of performance. ‘He used to sing without any support of other instruments and he also used to maintain rhythm by finger snapping,’ informed Selim. ‘His simple presentation actually took peoples’ songs closer to the heart of the mass,’ also observed Selim, who also expressed that it is a great misery to lose him so early.
Born in 1939 in Murshidabad, Pandey was introduced to classical music at an early age, since his family was very culture-oriented. Actively involved in politics, he was elected a member in the West Bengal Parliament, and it was through his initiative that Calcutta was renamed as Kolkata. The artiste started his performance with the song Janoni go kando, a song written and composed by the artiste himself.
-With New Age input
