Sudha Malhotra

Dattaram Part 2: Breaking out of the Banyan Tree with ‘Other’ Singers

Second and final part of tribute to Dattaram (1929 – 8 June 2007)

DattaramWe saw in Dattaram Part 1 dealing with his songs for Mukesh and Manna Dey, how his association with the Big Banyan tree, Shankar-Jaikishan, made it difficult to get out of the comfort zone of SJ. The readers Mahesh and Hans Jakhar opined that Dattaram was himself part of the Banyan Tree. We need not presume that it was a millstone around his neck. The association gave him steady work and a sense of importance. Not everyone is entrepreneurial, he was contented with his station in life.

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Sudha Malhotra: The last of the niche singers of the Golden Era

Wishing her a very happy 77th birth anniversary

Sudha MalhotraA female playback singer in the 1950s and 60s, if she did not bear the name Lata Mangeshkar or Asha Bhosle, was in a very unenviable position. She knew she had to remain consigned to the outer orbit. The world of male playback singers was a complete contrast. Here also someone sang a few hundred songs and another person ten times more, but everyone had his passionate following; the respect a singer enjoyed was not exactly correlated to the number of songs he did; and you don’t hear stories of someone doing the rehearsal and discovering that final recording was done in another voice.

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