Daily Times

Although Suman Kalyanpur’s song “Mere Mehboob Na Ja” was made popular after the film ‘Noor Mahal’ with lyrics by Saba Afghani and music by Jani Babu Qawwal, I got more clung to her songs from music composer Khayyam’s films ‘Shagun’ and ‘Muhabbat Is Ko Kehte Hain’.

One of her fans Aarti Mural said that Suman’s voice touched one’s heart and she had equally beautiful looks.

The lyricist for the film ‘Shagun’ was Sahir Ludhiyanvi in collaboration with music composer Khayyam. This Kanwaljit, Waheeda Rahman movie had songs in the voices of Muhammad Rafi and Jagjit Kaur also. Many fans took Suman to be Lata again in the duet “Parbaton Ke Pairon Par Sham Ka Basera Hai”. She created a memorable melancholy effect through the songs “Bujha Diye Hain Khud Apne Haathon” and “Zindagi Zulm Sahi”, beautifully filmed by Waheeda Rahman. The impact was enhanced by sarangi effects. These were the days when Lata did not see eye to eye with Khayyam and promoted other less deserving composers as she enjoyed a monopoly in Bollywood. It is ironic that whoever she opposed did well with other singers. Khayyam used Suman Kalyanpur at her best in two songs, a duet with Rafi “Theheriye Hosh Main Aa Loon Tau Chale Jaiya Ga” and a solo by Suman “Jo Hum Pe Guzarti Hai Tanha Kise Samjhaein” in the film ‘Muhabbat Isko Kehte Hain’. In my humble opinion, Lata missed singing these beautiful melodies. It was a Shashi Kapoor-Nanda film made in 1965 with lyrics by Majrooh Sultanpuri.

Suman Kalyanpur’s original name was Suman Hemmady. She was born on January 28, 1937 in Dhaka. Her father Shankar Rao Hemadi hailed from an elite Saraswat Brahmin family belonging to Mangalore, Karnataka. Hemmady is a village in Kundapur Taluk of Udupi District, Karnataka. As an employee of the State Bank, he was posted to Dhaka for a very long period. In 1943, her family moved to Mumbai, where she received her musical training. She loved to paint also. After completing schooling from Mumbai’s Columbia High School, she got admission in the prestigious Sir JJ School of Arts for further studies in Painting. Simultaneously, she started learning classical vocals from Pune’s Prabhat Films’ music director, ‘Pandit Keshav Rao Bhole’. She also started learning it professionally from Ustad Khan Abdul Rahman Khan and Guruji Master Navrang.

Despite her lesser repertoire, she has commanded respect among melody lovers. Wikipedia reports that she succeeded in achieving recognition on her own during the years of Lata Mangeshkar’s monopoly and sang under the baton of almost all the top composers of the period. Many people believe that she could not reach the stature and position which her talent really warranted, in spite of having all the mandatory characteristics required to make a mark in the field of playback singing. Suman’s career began in 1954 and was very popular singer in the 1960s and 1970s. She recorded songs for movies in several languages; Hindi, Marathi, Assamese, Gujarati, Kannada, Bhojpuri, Rajasthani, Bengali, Oriya and Punjabi. One of Suman’s popular songs is with Mukesh for composer Naushad Ali’s film ‘Saathi’ filmed on Vyjantimala. The song with Hement Kumar ‘Na Tum Hamain Jano’ from composer SD Burman’s film ‘Baat Ek Raat Ki’ filmed on Dev Anand and Waheeda was a hit song. Once Talat Mahmood heard her and promised to sing a duet with her. Her first film song therefore was a duet with him in ‘Darwaza’. Music composer Roshan gave Suman wonderful songs such as “Aise Tau Na Dekho Ke Behk Jaein Kahin Hum” with Muhammad Rafi filmed on Pardeep Kumar and Meena Kumari. During the days when Lata and Rafi’s relations were estranged, Rafi sang some hit songs with Suman like SK’s “Tum Ne Pukara Aur Hum Chale Aaei”, “Aaj Kal Tere Mere Charche Har Zuban Pe” and “Aj Hun Aaei Balma Sawen Beeta Jaei”. Suman provided playback singing for ‘Mian Bibi Razi’, ‘Dil Ek Mandir’, ‘Dil Hi Tou Hai’, ‘Jahan Ara’, ‘Sanjh Aur Savera’, ‘Noor Jahan’ and ‘Pakizah’. She also sang for composers Madan Mohan, Chitergupt, SN Tripathi, Kalyanji Anandji and Laxmikant-Pyarelal. She has sung over 740 filmy and non-filmy songs. She sang over 140 duets with Rafi in the 1960s.