Sher Choudhury. File picture

Guwahati, Nov. 6: His contribution to Assamese music is immense, not just as a reknowned mandolin player but one whose music direction straddled both the Western and northeastern genres, a blend that will go down as unforgettable. Sher Choudhury, 69, accomplished instrumentalist and music director par excellence, died in Guwahati at 4.30am today.

“Choudhury passed away at around 4.30am today at our institute. He had been under treatment for more than a week here,” said Amal Chandra Kataki, director of B. Borooah Cancer Institute. Earlier, Choudhury was undergoing treatment in Bangalore. He is survived by his brother and nephews.

The soft-spoken music director was born to Serafuddin Choudhury and Begum Bahar on August 1, 1942 in Shillong and graduated from St Anthony’s College there. His father was originally from Sivasagar district in Assam but started living in Shillong. Sher Choudhury settled in Assam from the nineties. He was a permanent resident of Mathura Nagar (behind Down Town Hospital) in Guwahati.

Choudhury debuted as a music director in Assamese cinema with the Rajat Kamal-winning film, Pratham Ragini, directed by Dhiru Bhuyan. In Shillong, he had earned a name as a music director in Bengali and English theatre. Along with his friend Labu Senapati, a bonsai expert, Choudhury participated at various addas in Guwahati where he met Dhiru Bhuyan and it gave a new direction to his life.

Gautam Bora was associate director in Pratham Ragini. When Bora made the Karbi film, Woshobipo, (released in 1990) he took Choudhury on board as music director. For this film Choudhury bagged the National Award in music direction and became the second person from Assam to receive the honour. In 1992, Choudhury directed a documentary, Sound of the Dying Colour, on the rich tradition of textiles of the Dimasa community which was selected as the best promotional documentary in the 40th National Film Awards.

The other films where Choudhury worked as music director were Mimangsa directed by Sanjib Hazarika, I Killed Him Sir by Pradip Gogoi, Raag Birag, Nikhidho Nodi and Duwar by Bidyut Chakroborty, Adajya by Santwana Bordoloi, Chakrabehu by Pranjal Saikia and Ahir Bhairav by Siva Prasad Thakur.

Besides, Choudhury was music director for a number of documentaries and commissioned programme for Doordarshan. He also directed and produced a serial, The Horizon of Rongmilir Hahi, on the life of former president of Asam Sahitya Sabha Rong Bong Terang. “He was enviably thorough in the technical aspects of filmmaking,” said Chandan Sarma, who wrote the script of Protyabortan, where Choudhury scored the music.

Director Gautam Bora described Choudhury as a “person with inherent quality, very rare music director” and “very passionate for music”. “His death has created a vacuum. Had he been well I would have taken him as music director for my upcoming film,” Bora added.

Chief minister Tarun Gogoi and Asam Sahitya Sabha condoled Choudhury’s death.