kolkata when the news of the demise of singer subir sen broke out on tuesday morning many echoed that it was the end of an era an era where an indian musician mastered an international tonal quality and impressed not just with his singing and compositional skill but also his largehearted nature sen was 82 when he succumbed to cancer on tuesday at a private nursing home in the city he is survived by his daughter known for his work in chhoti bahen and katputli in bollywood sen is popular for his songs like dheere chalao zara with lata mangeshkar and humein un rahon par besides his hits in bengali like oi ujjawalo dwip and eto sur aar eto gaan chief minister mamata banerjee condoled his deathin her tweet she wrote saddened at the passing away of legendary singer subir sen he is our banga bibhushan he will always be in our hearts music director abhijit banerjee who had composed monalisa tumi ki bolona for sen described the singer as a king with a big heart and a wide perspective while the initial stage of his career saw him singing hemant kumars songs sen had soon graduated to carve a niche for himself from jim reeves he picked up the tonal quality from nat king cole it was the drama that appealed to himhe punched the two style to create an international tonehe even learnt ghazal during his stint in mumbai banerjee said going back in time he recalled how sen had made him listen to jim reeves i hear the sound of distant drums and snow flakesthe first song inspired me to compose saradin tomae bhebe the first line of snow flakes song inspired me to compose e jeno shei chokh nat king coles mona lisa helped us to create our own monalisa in a different form he recalled few know that sen was a good composer too sen had composed for an international film called midnight that had geeta dutta mohammad rafi and himself singing in the soundtrack it was an endearing relationship that nirmala mishra shared with himone day i was speaking to him in a certain tone and he told me you are talking like a pishima thats how i got my name pishima in return i said that i should have the liberty of calling him pishemoshai mishra said sabita chowdhury wife of music director salil chowdhury said subirda was very close to our family my husband used to like his style of singing he specially composed dhoronir pothe pothe and pagol hawa for him on being asked the similarity between sen and hemant kumar chowdhury said his voice has a softness to it and a texture that was different from that of hemantada singer banasree sengupta was impressed with sens acting skills too i remember going to watch him film momer putul where he had acted opposite sabitri chatterjee she pointed out adding composer sudhin dasgupta and he were