Music composer and santoor player Pandit Shivkumar Sharma passed away in Mumbai on Tuesday. He was 84. As per media reports, Shivkumar had been suffering from kidney-related issues for the past few months and was on dialysis. He died due to cardiac arrest.

Born in Jammu on January 13, 1938, Shivkumar composed the background music for one of the scenes in Shantaram's film Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje in 1956. He recorded his first solo album in 1960.

In 1967, he teamed up with flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia, and they came to be known as the Shiv-Hari music duo. Together, they composed music for many Hindi films starting with Amitabh Bachchan starrer Silsila in 1981. They also composed music for films such as Faasle (1985), Chandni (1989), Lamhe (1991), and Darr (1993).