Niche singers

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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An evening with Mubarak Begum

Kabhi tanhaiyon mein hamari yaad ayegi: Happy Birthday to you (January 5)

Mubarak BegumFrom various accounts on the internet I had taken Mubarak Begum to be lost for the civilization. Supposedly she was living in anonymity, in penury in some Bombay chawl with her son, who was said to be an autorickshaw driver. Therefore, I was astonished to get a message from Sudhir Kapurji (one of the mainstays of Atul’s site) a few months ago whether I would like to attend a concert to felicitate Mubarak Begum on October 7, 2012 at India Islamic Centre, New Delhi. There was a possibility that she might also sing.  भला नेकी और पूछ पूछ.  Putting everything aside I had planned for Sunday, the October 7, I headed for the venue.

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Some timeless songs of Jagjit Kaur

Singer Jagjit KaurI would have written on Jagjit Kaur at some uncertain time in future. That I am doing it now owes it to my friend Subodh Agrawal, a regular visitor to my blog. His glowing reference to Jagjit Kaur in my last blog on Subir Sen touched a chord in me – I am also a huge fan of her songs. I also realized this was the right time when I was on minor singers like Kamal Barot and Subir Sen.

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Best Hindi film songs of Subir Sen

clip_image001When I did a post on Kamal Barot it was natural that I should do one on Subir Sen as well. One connection between the two was that among the most famous Kamal Barot songs is a duet with Subir Sen Dil le ke jate ho kahan. Another similarity would be that he was also not among the top singers. But there was a vital difference between the two. While Kamal Barot had a distinct voice which you could recognise miles away, Subir Sen’s was indistinguishable from Hemant Kumar. Not much biographical detail is available about him except that he was also like Hemant Kumar a popular and prolific singer in Bengali. Many of his Hindi film songs are quite well known, but unless you know that he was the singer, you might attribute them to Hemant Kumar.

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Kamal Barot – A tangy flavour to music

Kamal Barot When I started this blog I had not thought I would be ever writing about Kamal Barot. She was not one of the biggies like Lata Mangeshkar or Asha Bhosle. She was not one of the smallies who gave at least a couple of immortal songs which you instantly recall – in this category I can think of Mubarak Begum’s Kabhi tanhaaiyon mein yun hamari yaad ayegi from Hamari Yaad Ayegi (1961) or Jagjit Kaur’s Tum apna ranj-o-gham apni pareshaani mujhe de do and Gori sasural chali  from Shagun (1964). She did figure though in a large number of hit songs as one of the voices in a duet or a treblet or a multiplet (purists will pardon my freewheeling coining of new words), but none that you could solely associate with Kamal Barot.

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