Mumbai: Singer Suman Kalyanpur was laid to rest with full state honours at Pawan Hans crematorium in Juhu Monday afternoon. The remains of the 89-year-old singer, who died at her residence in Lokhandwala Complex, Andheri, on Sunday, were enveloped in the national flag while police guards offered gun salute.A group of fans offered live musical tribute by singing ‘Ajahoon na aaye baalma’, ‘Omkar pradhan roop Ganeshache’ followed by the immortal number ‘Rahein na rahein hum, mehka karenge’ (’Mamta’), which also has a Rafi-Suman version apart from the well known solo by Lata Mangeshkar.Given her reclusiveness, the film industry was largely missing from the funeral, except for singers Suresh Wadkar and Mandar Apte. Online tributes were offered by President Droupadi Murmu, PM Narendra Modi, CM Devendra Fadnavis and Union minister Nitin Gadkari. Kalyanpur had been conferred the Padma Bhushan in 2023, and the Lata Mangeshkar Award in 2009.Kalyanpur infused her tracks with timelessness. A woman in white walking alone in a derelict mansion on a misty night was a favourite formulaic construct in mystery Hindi movies of the black and white era. ‘Mere mehboob na jaa,’ (lyrics: Saba Afghani, composer: Jani Babu) from the little-seen Noor Mahal (1965) is one such haunting melody. It stands tall among the best in the genre, alongside Lata Mangeshkar’s ‘Kahin deep jale kahin dil’ and ‘Naina barse rimjhim, rimjhim’.The irony of Kalyanpur’s career is that millions loved the songs she sang, but many didn’t know that she was the singer.When Suman started singing for films in the 1950s, Lata was the industry’s premium vocalist. But Kalyanpur made major inroads between 1962-67, when Lata and Mohd Rafi stopped singing duets after a fall-out over royalty payments. Music directors had to choose between the two. When they felt that Lata was irreplaceable, they would pair her with Mukesh, Hemant Kumar, Kishore Kumar or Mahendra Kapoor. When they felt they couldn’t do without Rafi, they would look for an alternative female voice.Rafi and Suman’s biggest chartbusters were the title track of ‘Dil Ek Mandir’ and ‘Aaj kal tere mere pyaar ke charche’ which ruled Binaca Geet Mala. Suman sang 141 duets and 14 group songs with Rafi, wrote Sujata Dev in her biography of the male singer.She recorded in Marathi, Assamese, Bangla, Kannada and other languages. Her ‘bhav geet’ and ‘bhakti geet’ had dedicated listeners. She also sang ‘Ab to lagal mora solwan saal’ in Ganga Maiya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo (1962) the first Bhojpuri film. One of her last songs was ‘Zindagi imtehan leti hai’ in Manmohan Desai’s Naseeb (1981).(Inputs by Bella Jaisinghani)
