Legendary singer Bhupen Hazarika passes away

“It was a multi-organ failure. The end came around 4.30 pm,” Jayanta Narayan Saha,in-charge of media relations at the hospital said.

Hazarika’s health deteriorated on October 23 after he developed pneumonia. He had to undergo a minor surgery whereby doctors placed a food pipe into his system.

The Dada Saheb Phalke Award winner was undergoing treatment at the hospital since June 29 after he complained of breathlessness.

One of the foremost balladeer in the country who composed his own lyrics and music,Hazarika lent his voice to the film “Gandhi To Hitler”,where he sang Mahatma Gandhi’s favourite bhajan ‘Vaishnav jan’.

A poet,journalist,singer,lyricist,musician,filmmaker and writer,Hazarika had a genius for weaving a magical tapestry out of traditional Assamese music and lyrics and is regarded as one of the greatest living cultural communicators of South Asia.

The Padma Bhushan awardee had celebrated his birthday this year,sadly,in the ICU on September 8.