Veteran sound engineer and recordist A.N. Tagore (seen with Asha Bhosle in picture above) breathed his last on 11th May at his residence at Kandivli in Bombay. He was 76. He is survived by his wife and a son. Tagore-da, as he was respectfully called, had been diagnosed with lung cancer but he neither went in for biopsy nor chemotherapy under medical advice. He passed away peacefully in his sleep yesterday. He used to be a chain smoker and loved his 555 cigarettes.
Tagore-da was an extraordinary sound recordist who worked for 31 years with Mehboob Recording Theatre. Before he joined Mehboob, he worked for around five years — from 1967 to 1971 — with Recording Center. In a career spanning almost 36 years, he had recorded countless songs. He was so outstanding in his work that back then, Gulshan Kumar, owner of Super Cassettes, offered him a job as recordist in his company, with keys to a new flat, a car, two television sets and a VCR. However, the loyalist that Tagore-da was, he politely refused the offer, saying that he could not ditch his current employers.
Tagore-da used to have a fixed taxi bring him from home to Mehboob and then take him back home after his fill of whisky every night following a hard day’s work at Mehboob. He wore his trademark white safari suit and his warm smile every single day. It is said that Yash Johar would gift him a Scotch whisky bottle after every song he recorded for films produced by him.
Tagore-da was honoured with the lifetime achievement award twice, by two sound recording organisations.
His funeral on 11th was not attended by many from the film industry as hardly anybody was even aware that his end had come.
