Rajkumari Dubey
Encyclopedia
Rajkumari Dubey better known by her first name, was an India
n playback singer
.
in 1934 and she started her career as a stage artiste. Vijay Bhatt
and Shankar Bhatt of Prakash Pictures spotted her during one of her shows. They liked her voice and persuaded her to discontinue acting on stage as it would spoil her voice (In those days, there were no mikes and you had to shout to be heard). So she quit theatre, and became an employee of Prakash Pictures as an actress and singer.
Rajkumari's first film with them was a Hindi
-Gujarati
bilingual called Sansar Leela Nayi Duniya. She got important roles in films like Aankh Ka Tara and Turki Sher (1933). She was the heroine Bhakt Ke Bhagwan and Insaaf Ki Topi (1934). In those days she often acted opposite Zakaria Khan (late actor Amjad Khan
's father, whose screen name was Jayant
). She also used to sing for popular music director Lallubhai. He gave music to films starring Rajkumari ji like Nai Duniya alias Sacred Scandal(1934) (Sansaar Leela in gujrati version), Laal Chitthi alias Red Letter(1935), Bombay Mail(1935), Bambai Ki Sethaani (1935)and Shamsheer-e-Arab(1935). She began getting fed up with having to watch on her figure and decided to stick to just singing as a career. After she quit Prakash Pictures, she began playback singing for actresses like Ratnamala
, Shobhana Samarth, etc. and soon she became the First Female Playback Singer of Indian Cinema.
She sang many Gujarati
and Punjabi
songs. Even though she was not trained to sing, she was very good at picking up what her composers taught her. They thought she was a trained singer! She was able to also establish herself as a classical singer and excelled in singing and voice production within the framework of classical forms of thumri and dadra. Among her peers were Shamshad Begum
, Zohrabai Ambalewali, Juthika Roy
, Zeenat Begum, etc. Both Shamshad and Zohrabai had resounding voices with a high range, while Rajkumari had a soft voice with a small range. She sang quite a few songs with Mukesh. She did not get much opportunity to sing with Mohammed Rafi
- mainly because Lata Mangeshkar
was a fast upcoming singer at the time. She sang with Noor Jehan
in Naukar (1943). She never sang with K. C. Dey
, but she did sing songs composed by him, as well a his nephew, Manna Dey
.
Rajkumari was married very late in life. Her husband was V.K. Dubey who was from Benares (Uttar Pradesh
) where he spent a lot of his time (because he owned a shop there), while she settled in Bombay. He later joined her in Bombay.
Later, she would go on to sing songs for Neel Kamal
, a Raj Kapoor and Madhubala starrer, and Hulchul
(1951); but her two most famous films would be Bawre Nain
(1950) (where she sang for Geeta Bali
) and Mahal
(1949), where she sang for the Indian actress Madhubala
(Rajkumari actually sang for Vijayalaxmi, Lata sang for Madhubala). By this time, however, Lata Mangeshkar
and Asha Bhosle
had shot to fame, relegating most other female singers in the industry to the sidelines.
She sang her only song for O. P. Nayyar
in the 1952 movie Aasmaan which was his debut movie, Jab Se Pee Piya Aan Base. The story goes that he was considering Lata Mangeshkar
for the song. (Rest of the songs of the movie are sung by Geeta Dutt
and C. H. Atma). When somebody told this to Lata, she said something about him which led to a misunderstanding. Angered O. P. Nayyar made Rajkumari sing this song and never repeated her. He never used Lata to sing for him as well.
Rajkumari endured a long dry spell until music director Naushad spotted her singing in the chorus for his background score for Pakeezah
(1972). Naushad was much taken aback by this, having greatly respected her in her heyday, and heartbroken to hear that she was reduced to singing in the chorus to make ends meet. As a result, he gave her an entire song to herself in Pakeezah
, Najariya ki Mari. Her last film song was recorded for R. D. Burman in the film Kitaab
, Har Din Jo Beeta. Rajkumari also appeared in a British TV programme called 'Mahfil' on Channel 4
, a Samandar Films prouduction, produced by Firdous Ali and Mahmood Jamal. In this programme she sang a set of her famous film songs and ghazals; the caption on one of the songs, 'Yeh raat phir na aayge', from the film Mahal
, cites that the song was pictured on Zohra (and not Madhubala
or Vijayalaxmi). The programme was aired on 24 March 1991. Rajkumari died in poverty in early 2000.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n playback singer
Playback singer
A playback singer is a singer whose singing is prerecorded for use in movies. Playback singers record songs for soundtracks, and actors or actresses lip-sync the songs for cameras, while the actual singer does not appear on screen.-South Asia:...
.
Biography
Rajkumari was born in 1924. She never really had the opportunity to learn to sing, but was always supported by her family. She was just 10 years old when she recorded her first song for HMVHMV
His Master's Voice is a trademark in the music business, and for many years was the name of a large record label. The name was coined in 1899 as the title of a painting of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone...
in 1934 and she started her career as a stage artiste. Vijay Bhatt
Vijay
Vijay is a common given name for males in India. The word Vijay is derived from Vijaya, meaning "Victory". It is another name for Arjuna, the hero of the great Hindu epic, the Mahabharata. The word Vijay is similar in meaning to Jai, although there is a small difference...
and Shankar Bhatt of Prakash Pictures spotted her during one of her shows. They liked her voice and persuaded her to discontinue acting on stage as it would spoil her voice (In those days, there were no mikes and you had to shout to be heard). So she quit theatre, and became an employee of Prakash Pictures as an actress and singer.
Rajkumari's first film with them was a Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
-Gujarati
Gujarati language
Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language, and part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is derived from a language called Old Gujarati which is the ancestor language of the modern Gujarati and Rajasthani languages...
bilingual called Sansar Leela Nayi Duniya. She got important roles in films like Aankh Ka Tara and Turki Sher (1933). She was the heroine Bhakt Ke Bhagwan and Insaaf Ki Topi (1934). In those days she often acted opposite Zakaria Khan (late actor Amjad Khan
Amjad Khan
Amjad Khan was an acclaimed Indian actor and director. He worked in over 130 films in his film career spanning nearly twenty years. He enjoyed popularity for his villainous roles in Hindi films the most famous being the unforgettable Gabbar Singh in 1975 classic Sholay...
's father, whose screen name was Jayant
Jayant
-Personal life:Jayant was married and her children were Amjad Khan, Inayat Khan and Imtiaz Khan. He was the grandfather of Shadaab Khan, Ahlam Khan, Seemaab Khan and Ayesha Khan and father-in-law of Shaila Khan and Krutika Desai Khan.-Death:...
). She also used to sing for popular music director Lallubhai. He gave music to films starring Rajkumari ji like Nai Duniya alias Sacred Scandal(1934) (Sansaar Leela in gujrati version), Laal Chitthi alias Red Letter(1935), Bombay Mail(1935), Bambai Ki Sethaani (1935)and Shamsheer-e-Arab(1935). She began getting fed up with having to watch on her figure and decided to stick to just singing as a career. After she quit Prakash Pictures, she began playback singing for actresses like Ratnamala
Ratnamala
Ratnamala or Ratna Mala is a 1947 Telugu film produced and directed by P. S. Ramakrishna Rao. It is the debut film of Bharani Pictures. The title role of Ratnamala is played by his wife and co-producer Bhanumathi Ramakrishna.-Cast:...
, Shobhana Samarth, etc. and soon she became the First Female Playback Singer of Indian Cinema.
She sang many Gujarati
Gujarati language
Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language, and part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is derived from a language called Old Gujarati which is the ancestor language of the modern Gujarati and Rajasthani languages...
and Punjabi
Punjabi language
Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region . For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies take place. In Pakistan, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language...
songs. Even though she was not trained to sing, she was very good at picking up what her composers taught her. They thought she was a trained singer! She was able to also establish herself as a classical singer and excelled in singing and voice production within the framework of classical forms of thumri and dadra. Among her peers were Shamshad Begum
Shamshad Begum
Shamshad Begum is an Indian singer who was one of the first playback singers in the Hindi film industry.Begum was born in Amritsar, Punjab. She was a big fan of K.L. Saigal and watched Devdas 14 times...
, Zohrabai Ambalewali, Juthika Roy
Juthika Roy
Juthika Roy is a famous bhajan singer.She started singing at an early age. She has sung many songs for music directors including her first mentor Kazi Nazrul Islam and the great bengali music director Kamal Dasgupta. It is said that Kamal Das Gupta and Kumari Juthika Roy recorded a naat in the...
, Zeenat Begum, etc. Both Shamshad and Zohrabai had resounding voices with a high range, while Rajkumari had a soft voice with a small range. She sang quite a few songs with Mukesh. She did not get much opportunity to sing with Mohammed Rafi
Mohammed Rafi
Mohammad Rafi , was an Indian playback singer whose career spanned four decades. He was awarded National Award and 6 Filmfare Awards. In 1967, he was honoured with the Padma Shri awarded by the Government of India....
- mainly because Lata Mangeshkar
Lata Mangeshkar
Lata Mangeshkar is a singer from India. She is one of the best-known and most respected playback singers in India. Mangeshkar's career started in 1942 and has spanned over six and a half decades. She has recorded songs for over a thousand Hindi films and has sung songs in over thirty-six regional...
was a fast upcoming singer at the time. She sang with Noor Jehan
Noor Jehan
Noorjehan or Noorjehan was the adopted stage name for Allah Wasai who was a legendary singer and actress in British India and Pakistan. Her career spanned seven decades...
in Naukar (1943). She never sang with K. C. Dey
K. C. Dey
Krishna Chandra De better known as K.C. Dey, was a Bengali actor, singer and music composer and teacher born in Calcutta . He was S.D. Burman's first musical teacher and mentor. He worked for New Theatres in Kolkata until 1940. He is best remembered for his Kirtan songs.Dey sang and composed...
, but she did sing songs composed by him, as well a his nephew, Manna Dey
Manna Dey
Prabodh Chandra Dey , better known by his nickname Manna Dey , is a playback singer in Bengali Assamese and Hindi films. Along with Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, he was a part of Indian film playback music from the 1950s to the 1970s. He has recorded more than 3500 songs over the course of...
.
Rajkumari was married very late in life. Her husband was V.K. Dubey who was from Benares (Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
) where he spent a lot of his time (because he owned a shop there), while she settled in Bombay. He later joined her in Bombay.
Later, she would go on to sing songs for Neel Kamal
Neel Kamal (1947 film)
Neel Kamal is a 1947 black and white Bollywood film directed by Kidar Sharma. Although a commercial failure, this romantic melodrama is significant because it features the debuts of two of Bollywood's most important figures, Raj Kapoor and Madhubala...
, a Raj Kapoor and Madhubala starrer, and Hulchul
Hulchul
Hulchul is a 2004 Hindi film which is an adaptation of the 1991 Malayalam film Godfather. The film has a huge star cast including Akshaye Khanna, Kareena Kapoor, Arshad Warsi, Sunil Shetty, Amrish Puri, Paresh Rawal, Jackie Shroff, Arbaaz Khan, Shakti Kapoor, Farha Naaz, and Laxmi...
(1951); but her two most famous films would be Bawre Nain
Bawre Nain
Bawre Nain is 1950 Bollywood romance film directed by Kidar Nath Sharma.-Plot:Chand lives in a small rural town in India. He is unable to pay the rent, and his landlord evicts him. He re-locates to another town and meets with a young woman named Tara. Both are attracted to each other. Chand is...
(1950) (where she sang for Geeta Bali
Geeta Bali
Geeta Bali was a popular film actress from Bollywood.-Early life:Bali was born in a Mohyal family in pre-partition Punjab as Harkirtan Kaur, a Sikh. Her family moved to Bombay and were living in near poverty when she started to get breaks in films.-Career:Bali became a star in the 1950s...
) and Mahal
Mahal
-Geography:* Mahal, India, a small town in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, India* Malé, the capital of Maldives* Mahalle, Turkish language country subdivision or neighbourhood term* Mahalla, an Arabic language country subdivision or neighbourhood term...
(1949), where she sang for the Indian actress Madhubala
Madhubala
Mumtaz Jahan Begum Dehlavi, known by her stage name Madhubala was a Hindi movie actress. She starred in several successful movies in the 1950s and early 1960s, many of which have attained a classic status...
(Rajkumari actually sang for Vijayalaxmi, Lata sang for Madhubala). By this time, however, Lata Mangeshkar
Lata Mangeshkar
Lata Mangeshkar is a singer from India. She is one of the best-known and most respected playback singers in India. Mangeshkar's career started in 1942 and has spanned over six and a half decades. She has recorded songs for over a thousand Hindi films and has sung songs in over thirty-six regional...
and Asha Bhosle
Asha Bhosle
Asha Bhosle is an Indian singer. She is one of the best-known and most highly-regarded Hindi playback singers in India, although she has a wider repertoire. Bhosle's career started in 1943 and has spanned over six decades. She has done playback singing for over a thousand Bollywood movies...
had shot to fame, relegating most other female singers in the industry to the sidelines.
She sang her only song for O. P. Nayyar
O. P. Nayyar
Omkar Prasad Nayyar was an Indian film music director and composer born in Lahore, India, now in modern day Pakistan. He was particularly acclaimed for his peppy numbers.-Career:...
in the 1952 movie Aasmaan which was his debut movie, Jab Se Pee Piya Aan Base. The story goes that he was considering Lata Mangeshkar
Lata Mangeshkar
Lata Mangeshkar is a singer from India. She is one of the best-known and most respected playback singers in India. Mangeshkar's career started in 1942 and has spanned over six and a half decades. She has recorded songs for over a thousand Hindi films and has sung songs in over thirty-six regional...
for the song. (Rest of the songs of the movie are sung by Geeta Dutt
Geeta Dutt
Geetā Dutt was a prominent singer in India. She found particular prominence as a playback singer in Hindi cinema...
and C. H. Atma). When somebody told this to Lata, she said something about him which led to a misunderstanding. Angered O. P. Nayyar made Rajkumari sing this song and never repeated her. He never used Lata to sing for him as well.
Rajkumari endured a long dry spell until music director Naushad spotted her singing in the chorus for his background score for Pakeezah
Pakeezah
Pakeezah is a 1972 Indian film. It was directed by Kamal Amrohi who was known for his perfectionism. The music is by Ghulam Mohammed and Naushad...
(1972). Naushad was much taken aback by this, having greatly respected her in her heyday, and heartbroken to hear that she was reduced to singing in the chorus to make ends meet. As a result, he gave her an entire song to herself in Pakeezah
Pakeezah
Pakeezah is a 1972 Indian film. It was directed by Kamal Amrohi who was known for his perfectionism. The music is by Ghulam Mohammed and Naushad...
, Najariya ki Mari. Her last film song was recorded for R. D. Burman in the film Kitaab
Kitaab
Kitaab is a 1977 Hindi movie. Produced by Pranlal Mehta and Gulzar the film is directed by Gulzar. The film stars Uttam Kumar, Vidya Sinha, Shreeram Lagoo, Keshto Mukherjee and Asit Sen. Musical score is by R. D. Burman.-Plot:...
, Har Din Jo Beeta. Rajkumari also appeared in a British TV programme called 'Mahfil' on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
, a Samandar Films prouduction, produced by Firdous Ali and Mahmood Jamal. In this programme she sang a set of her famous film songs and ghazals; the caption on one of the songs, 'Yeh raat phir na aayge', from the film Mahal
Mahal
-Geography:* Mahal, India, a small town in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, India* Malé, the capital of Maldives* Mahalle, Turkish language country subdivision or neighbourhood term* Mahalla, an Arabic language country subdivision or neighbourhood term...
, cites that the song was pictured on Zohra (and not Madhubala
Madhubala
Mumtaz Jahan Begum Dehlavi, known by her stage name Madhubala was a Hindi movie actress. She starred in several successful movies in the 1950s and early 1960s, many of which have attained a classic status...
or Vijayalaxmi). The programme was aired on 24 March 1991. Rajkumari died in poverty in early 2000.