Legendary Santoor maestro Pandit Shivkumar Sharma passes away at 84

Legendary music maestro Pandit Shivkumar Sharma passed away at the age of 84 due to cardiac arrest on May 10. The iconic santoor player was suffering from kidney-related ailments for all most six months and was going through dialysis too. 

Pandit Shivkumar Sharma has not been very active for 2 years due to the pandemic and has only been witnessed on very rare occasions. 

The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, shared his condolences on the legendary musician's demise. The tweet reads, "Our cultural world is poorer with the demise of Pandit Shivkumar Sharma Ji. He popularised the Santoor at a global level. His music will continue to enthral the coming generations. I fondly remember my interactions with him. Condolences to his family and admirers. Om Shanti. (sic)."

Born on January 13, 1938, the iconic musician discovered his interest in Santoor at the age of thirteen and started learning it. Sharma was witnessed performing his art to the public at an event in Mumbai in 1955.

The famous Santoor player and been an inspiration for a lot of young musicians. In 1955, for the first time, he composed background music for a prominent sequence of a movie called Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje. The musical-drama movie is starred and directed by V. Shantaram. In 1956, he made his first solo album.

During the late 1960s, the ace musician collaborated with flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia and guitarist Brij Bhushan Kabra and produced a hit album named Call of the Valley 

Later, Pandit Shivkumar Sharma collaborated a few more times with the flautist-guitarist duo to compose for some of the famous Indian films such as the Amitabh Bachchan-Rekha starrer Silsila, Chandni, which features Sridevi and Rishi Kapoor. Meanwhile, the Shah Rukh Khan-Kajol starrer Darr is also among the list of the films, the Santoor player worked on.