The fair bright-faced boy with
curly black hair, the sweet smile that never ceases to linger on his face and
his eyes, his carefree ways and a great sense of humour, his brutal honesty and
equally brutally outspoken, and yet the simplicity of his magnetic personality is
overwhelming. These are the images that come to my mind whenever I think of him
or his songs; even more now when his sudden untimely tragic accidental demise
has shattered millions and millions across Assam, across India and across the
world. These images are of the late 90s and early 2000s (unfortunately, I don’t
have personal photographs as personal cameras or mobiles were conspicuously
absent those days.). He is Zubeen Garg. He has been a living legend of Assam, second only to
Bhupen Hazarika, till destiny took him away just when the people of Assam have
started celebrating the birth centenary of Sudhakantha
Bhupen Hazarika. Zubeen, possibly the greatest singer-artiste ever produced in
Assam, in terms of his mind-blowing following—covering/influencing/entertaining
almost all of Gen X, Gen Y or the Millennials, Gen Z and even the Gen Alpha. And
this is not just for his singing, but more for his sterling qualities that make
him a dear friend of all the classes of Assam.
The crowds paying their
last tributes all over Assam have been unprecedented with millions of them
refusing to leave the streets or the grounds where his mortal remains are kept
or awaited earlier for public
darshan.
Chief Minister of Assam,
Himanta Biswa Sarma, initially announced a three-day
state mourning from 20-22
nd September, 2025, but had to extend it to
23
rd bowing to the incredible surge of admirers. The state funeral
thus is going to be held tomorrow, the 23
rd September, in the
outskirts of the city of
Guwahati—a decision made on the request of Zubeen’s
devastated wife
Garima Saikia Garg and his family while there have been demands
for being given the same honour from other cities.
His millions of devout admirers are also very
angry because of some element of suspicion over his accidental death in
Singapore on 19
th September, 2025, and amid mourning their hearts
are crying out for the truth and the action that has to follow.
After the huge successes
of his first few albums of Assamese songs, folk mixed with modern music for the
first time, he landed in Mumbai around 1995 trying to find a place in
Bollywood. We too came to know him that time. There was a relative’s son who
was an inseparable childhood friend from the Jorhat years of Zubeen, Gautam
Chakravarty, and who came to Mumbai for a course in sound recording, and
through him we came to acquaint ourselves personally with Zubeen. He brought
Zubeen once to our home in Mumbai for lunch and then onward we continued to
meet him in the studios and in the functions organized by the Assam Association, Mumbai during various festivals where he sang invariably. The boy
with the golden voice soon found a footing in Bollywood music and started
playback singing in various movies.
His song
Ya Ali for the movie
Gangster (2006) made him very famous
earning him a nomination in the
Filmfare Awards-2007. Thanks to his commitment
to his home state and his own people, he couldn’t fully concentrate on
Bollywood, and therefore, apart from the occasional Hindi and Bangla film songs
he worked mostly for Assam—composing-writing-singing for albums and Assamese films,
as music director for many of these films and also acting in a few of them, not
to speak of his immensely popular performances on the
Bihu stages all over the
state. Very soon Zubeen had set up his own recording studios in Mumbai and
Guwahati. As is natural for a legendary singer, awards and nominations kept
coming his way. He won his first National Award in 2005,
Rajat Kamal for Best
Music Director from Assam for the movie
Dinabandhu,
and in 2007 he received another National Award for Best Music from the then
President of India,
Pratibha Patil, for the non-fiction film
Echoes of Silence.
I rue the fact that for
the last decade or so we haven’t had any personal contact with him; however, we
always got the news about him, heard from his friends known to us and from the
grapevine. Like most of superstars and legends, controversies surrounded him
all the years—usually for his unconventional straightforward ways and words,
and his outbursts in public places and on the music stages. Perhaps a family
tragedy affected him beyond repair. His younger sister,
Jonkey Borthakur, who
had been emerging as a singer as well as a movie actor died in a road accident
in Assam in 2002, at the tender age of 18.
The trauma of losing a sibling is
always unbearable—the trauma often leaving an inerasable impact on the other siblings,
particularly the elder ones. Zubeen tried his best to relieve his trauma
through music—releasing an album in her name, but perhaps the pain never left
him, making him unpredictable, given to intoxication and created health issues in
the recent years.
Zubeen Garg was totally
apolitical—raising his voice against anything he found wrong with any political
party or ruling parties. He wholeheartedly participated in the anti-CAA
movement in Assam during 2021-22, apart from other protests where he took to
the streets with his music. He is also known for his charity, never disappointing
anybody in need. It’s said by his fans that nobody ever left his house in Assam
empty handed. He also participated in setting up a supermarket where products
were directly procured from the farmers and villagers.
Zubeen Garg was born and
named after the legend Zubin Mehta to parents Mohini Mohan Borthakur and Ily
Borthakur—his father a poet and lyricist apart from his civil service career
and his mother also a singer who was Zubeen’s first guru. He changed his
family surname ‘Borthakur’ to his gotra
‘Garg', perhaps to assume an Indian identity. His father, around 85 years of age now, survives
him along with Zubeen's youngest sister and wife Garima Garg. Today, we join the
prayers of his family, friends and the millions of his admirers. May God bless
his noble soul and rest him in eternal bliss. And his music is going to flow on
unabated…more than 38 thousand songs in more than 40 languages and dialects keeping
us tuned for ages to come. Salute the great artiste!
