IANS

Kolkata, Jan 5: With moist eyes and flowers in hand, thousands of music lovers bade adieu to Rabindra Sangeet legend Suchitra Mitra before her body was consigned to flames at the Keoratola crematorium here Tuesday.

Mitra, 86, died Monday bringing the curtains down on the golden era of Rabindra Sangeet - songs composed by Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore - that also saw the genius of Hemanta Mukhopadhyay (Hemant Kumar), Debabrata Biswas and Kanika Bandopadhyay. Mitra was the last survivor of that age.

Mitra's body was brought out from the mortuary Peace Haven Tuesday morning and first taken to Rabindra Bharati University, where she was professor and head of the music department for many years.

With Mitra's popular Rabindra Sangeet numbers on their lips, students, teachers and her admirers filed past the singer's body and placed flowers. They had pictures of Mitra pinned to their chests.

The next stop was Rabindra Sadan, where the body was kept for over two hours, as a countless numbers of eminent Rabindra Sangeet singers, including Mitra's contemporary Dwijen Mukhopadhyay, paid tributes.

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhhadeb Bhattacharjee, leading Bengali actress Rituparna Sengupta, union minister Mukul Roy, city Mayor Sovan Chatterjee, Left Front chairman Biman Bose, and several state ministers were among those who paid their last respects to Mitra.

The courtyard of Rabindra Sadan virtually became the melting pot of artists, writers and other cultural personalities, some of whom wept inconsolably at the "irreparable loss" on Tagore's 150th birth anniversary.

There was a near stampede at the next halt Rabitirtha, the music academy founded by Mitra in 1946 in south Kolkata, as her tearful students and colleagues desperately tried to come near the body and offer homage. Danseuse Mamata Shankar, and singer Lopamudra Mitra were present alongside commoners mourning the death of Mitra.

Then began the last journey to Keoratola crematorium, escorted by a large number of cultural personalities and the common people.

Born in 1924 in a moving train, Suchitra Mitra was known for her elegant and mellifluous rendition of Tagore songs, delivered with a refined diction and a voice - rich in clarity and powerful. Her records and CDs top the popularity ratings even today.

Equally adept in performing the bard's songs of ecstasy as well as sadness or soulful, Mitra could bring out the innermost feelings of Tagore compositions - known for their depth.