Interpreter Of Melodies

DEVESH SHARMA PROFILES SUMAN KALYANPUR, ONE OF THE MOST PROLIFIC SINGERS OF HINDI CINEMA’S GOLDEN ERA

- Devesh Sharma

Suman Kalyanpur is often referred to as the poor man’s Lata Mangeshkar. But calling her that is doing grave injustice to her talent. The singer was born with a voice that matched Lata’s so closely that it was hard to distinguish between the two. The similarity doesn’t end there. Like Lata, she had the intrinsic ability to grasp the underlying emotion, the bhaav of the song and project it through her voice. And, like Lata, she sang not only Hindi songs but was proficient in Bengali, Oriya, Bhojpuri, Punjabi, Gujarati and Marathi and her native Kannada as well. She excelled not only in film songs but also in devotional songs, ghazals and thumris. In fact, purists swear by her masterful renderings of Marathi bhavgeet, as also her Bengali songs.

Much has been written about her rivalry with Lata. And about how she couldn’t battle the alleged monopoly of the Mangeshkar sisters. But evidence suggests otherwise. She may have sung lesser number of songs than Asha (who according to record books has sung the most) and Lata but the popularity of her songs can’t be denied. Her hit ratio was tremendous; some even value it at 70 per cent. And as any cricket enthusiast will tell you, a batting average of 70 is right off the charts.