Kolkata, 3 June (HS): Noted singer and one of the founder members of ‘Calcutta Youth Choir’, the well-known group for folk and country songs, Ruma Guha Thakurata died at her South Kolkata residence today after a protracted illness.

She was 84 and is survived by her two sons and a daughter and several grandchildren. 

The former wife of renowned singer Kishore Kumar between 1951 and 1958, Thakurata’s fame became synonym with that of Calcutta Youth Choir following the release of its first album called ‘Aaj Jato Yodhhobaj’ which had a number of immortal songs like ‘O Ganga Boicho Kano’, composed by Bhupen Hazarika and Salil Chowdhury and sung by her. 

She was a household name in almost every Bengali family.

Thakurata earned her name as a famous Bengali singer on foreign soil when as the leader of a 20 member Calcutta Youth Choir Group she mesmerized the huge global audiences at Copenhagen in Denmark during the 1974 International Youth Festival.

Later during her long four-decade career in both Bengali and Hindi film industries, she performed in a number of movies in leading roles and sang a number of hit songs.

Among her successful movies were ‘Asi Teo Asio Na’, Ganashatru, and Avijan where she worked under world-renowned Directors like Satyajit Ray, Tapan Sinha, and Tarun Mazumdar.

Among her Hindi movies were Afsar and  Mashal where she played the dominant roles and earned fame among the film buffs. 

She was the play back singer of a number of movies including those of Baghini, Amrita Kumbher Sandhane and Palatak among many others to be known as one the leading play back singers between 1960 and 1970.

Her last movie called Name sake, directed by Meera Nair was released in 2006.

Her followers went to her residence to pay their last respect and offered bouquets.  Soumitra Chattopadhyay and Madhavi Mukhopadhyay also deeply condoled the passing away of Thakurata and said with her death the Bengali film and cultural industries have lost one of its greatest exponents and this void was very difficult to fulfill.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has expressed her deep sorrow at the passing away of Ruma Guha Thakurata and in a Twitter message she wrote ‘Saddened at the passing away of Ruma Guha Thakurta. Her contribution to the field of cinema and music will always be remembered. My condolences to her family and her admirers’.