Sanjeeb Choudhury was a Bangladeshi singer, lyricist, and journalist. He is one of the two main members of famous Bengali Band Dalchhut with Bappa Mazumder. Sanjeeb was the composer in Dalchhut's four albums and wrote and tuned many songs with his popular voice and has one solo album named Swapnobaji. He was also a noted journalist and worked for the newspaper Ajker Kagoj, Bhorer Kagoj, and Jaijaidin. He was an activist during the mass upsurge against the autocratic regime of Hossain Mohammad Ershad.
Sanjeeb was born at Baniachang Upazila in Habiganj in 1964. He graduated from the journalism department of Dhaka University and organised various cultural programmes and taught his classmates how to sing during his time at the university. During the mass movement against Ershad his poems gained popularity as he was known to his Dhaka University colleagues as Sanjeebda. He initially sang at a band group named Shongkhochil. During the mid 90''s he and Bappa Mazumder formed their band Dalchhut which within a short time gained immense popularity. In 1996, Dalchhut released their first album Ahh. The duet song in the album 'Shada Moila Rongila Pale' become an instant hit. Dalchhut's second album was Hridoypur, which happened to be their most popular album. In the album Bappa and Sanjeeb sang the song Gari Chole Na of Shah Abdul Karim which was shown on famous magazine Ittadi. Sanjeeb's solo "Ami Tomakei Bole Debo" was another popular song of that album. In Dalchhut's third album Aakaashchuri, folk tuned song Bioscope was again shown on Ittadi and became famous. Sanjeeb's solo album Swapnobaji was released in 2005. In 2007, Dalchhut's final album Jochhnabihar was released after a long break. Sanjeeb wrote the title song Jochhnabihar and tuned and sang some others.
After his graduation from the journalism department of Dhaka University, Sanjeeb worked in a number of dailies. He started off at Ajker Kagoj and later joined Bhorer Kagoj and established himself as a feature writer. He was the departmental editor of Mela which was a popular supplement of the paper. Subsequently he became the editor of Istikutum and Pathok Forum which brought the readers of the newspaper to a place where they had the chance to express their views. He taught and trained many young journalists and run many workshops. He also worked in Jaijaidin for a while. He died in 2007.
Today marks the 9th death anniversary of Sanjeeb Choudhury.
The writer is a freelance contributor
