Renowned singer Suman Kalyanpur passed away

New Delhi ( Raghwendra Pratap Singh) : Renowned singer Suman Kalyanpur passed away at her residence in Mumbai yesterday. She was 89. The veteran singer was known for her work in Hindi, Marathi and several other Indian languages during the golden era of film music from the 1950s to the 1970s.

Born on 28th January 1937 in Dhaka, Bangladesh, her voice closely resembled that of Lata Mangeshkar, leading many listeners to mistake her songs for Lata’s. There may be no better endorsement for a woman playback singer than being mistaken for Lata Mangeshkar. There possibly cannot be a longer shadow to live under either. For most of her career, playback singer Suman Kalyanpur lugged both.

Whether it was the playful ‘Na na karte pyar’ (Jab Jab Phool Khile, 1965), the longing in ‘Ajhun na aaye baalma‘ (Saanjh aur Savera, 1964), the soft romance of ‘Na tum humein jaano’ (Baat ek Raat ki, 1962) or the exuberance of the utterly delightful ‘Aaj kal tere mere pyar ke charche’ (Brahmachari, 1968), Kalyanpur came to be known as a singer without any excess and with a clear and clean tone. Kalyanpur sang two duets with Lata before her own songs became popular. Kabhi aaj kabhi kal in the Balraj Sahni-starrer Chand (1959) was a Hemant Kumar composition.

She made her Hindi film debut in the mid-1950s and went on to record hundreds of songs with legendary composers and singers, especially Mohammed Rafi. Some of her most famous songs include “Aajkal Tere Mere Pyaar Ke Charche”, “Na Na Karke Pyaar” and “Tumne Pukara Aur Hum Chale Aaye”. She also made a significant contribution to Marathi music.