Assam pays tributes to Bhupen Hazarika

• Rich tributes were paid to the music maestro Dr Bhupen Hazarika on his seventh death anniversary.
• Hundreds of organisations across the State held functions in various places to pay tributes to the maestro.
• The Chief Minister said the houses of the Assamese cultural doyen at Kolkata and Kuthori at Kaziranga would be preserved by the State Government.
• Sonowal said 300 bighas of land have been acquired by the Government for the purpose of setting up Dr Bhupen Hazarika Samadhi Kshetra near the Dr. Bhupen Hazarika Setu connecting Dhola and Sadiya.

Bhupen Hazarika

• Bhupen Hazarika (8 September 1926 - 5 November 2011) was an Indian playback singer, lyricist, musician, singer, poet and film-maker from Assam, widely known as Sudhakantha.
• His songs, written and sung mainly in the Assamese language by himself, are marked by humanity and universal brotherhood and have been translated and sung in many languages, most notably in Bengali and Hindi.
• His songs, based on the themes of communal amity, universal justice and empathy, have become popular among the people of Assam, besides West Bengal and Bangladesh.
• He is also acknowledged to have introduced the culture and folk music of Assam and Northeast India to Hindi cinema at the national level. He received the National Film Award for Best Music Direction in 1975.
• Recipient of Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1987), Padmashri (1977), and Padmabhushan (2001), Hazarika was awarded with Dada Saheb Phalke Award (1992), India's highest award in cinema, by the Government of India and Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship (2008), the highest award of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's
• The National Academy forgu Music, Dance and Drama. He was posthumously awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award, in 2012. Hazarika also held the position of the Chairman of the Sangeet Natak Akademi from December 1998 to December 2003.

By: Ziyaur Rahman