Nazrul exponent, musician Sudhin Das dies

Musician and Nazrul researcher Sudhin Das, who wrote down original notations of Nazrul Sangeet, has died.

The Ekushey Padak-winning singer was 87.

He passed away at the Apollo Hospitals in Dhaka at 8:20pm on Tuesday, his relatives said. 

Singer Sujit Mostafa told bdnews24.com Das had been suffering from old-age complications for a long time.

Doctors put him on life support when he was brought to the hospital after his condition deteriorated on Tuesday morning, Sujit Mustafa said.

Sudhin Das also had heart problems and diabetes, he added.

Sudhin's daughter Mitu Das and son-in-law Hasan Mahmud Swapan said the singer caught fever on Monday night, but the temperature did not fell after medication. He stopped speaking at one stage, they said.  

"We took father to a hospital at Kalyanpur first and then to National Heart Foundation, where doctors said no bed was available at the ICU," said Swapan.

"So we admitted him to Apollo Hospitals later and the organs started to become dysfunctional one after another. The doctors declared him dead at 8:20pm," he added.

He also said the body would be kept at the hospital's mortuary and taken to Nazrul Institute in Dhanmondi, where he had worked for long on the Nazrul Sangeet notations, on Thursday morning.

Sammilito Sangskritik Jote President Golam Quddus said the mortal remains of Das would be taken to the Central Shaheed Minar from Nazrul Institute for the people to pay their last respects.

He would be cremated at Postogola Crematorium then, his relatives said.

Born in Comilla town's Talpukur in 1930, Sudhin immersed himself into music during his graduation.

He enrolled as a regular Nazrul Sangeet performer at Pakistan Betar in 1948.

After the death of National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam, he started setting down the original notations of Nazrul's songs from gramophone records with the help of his wife Neelima Das, who is also a prominent Nazrul Sangeet artiste.

The Nazrul Academy published the first book with the original notations of 25 Nazrul Sangeet in 1985. Later, Nazrul Institute published 33 more books.

His only son famed guitarist Niloy Das died of cardiac failure in 2006.