Suman Kalyanpur (born as Suman Hemmadi; 28 January 1937) is an Indian playback singer, one of the best-known and most respected playback singers in India.
Her voice was often mistaken to be that of Lata Mangeshkar. Suman Kalyanpur's career started in 1954 and was very popular singer in the 1960s and 1970s. She recorded songs for movies in several languages besides Hindi, Marathi, Assamese, Gujarati, Kannada, Maithili, Bhojpuri, Rajasthani, Bengali, Odia and Punjabi. She is considered among the popular singers of her prime time.
Personal life
Early life
Suman Kalyanpur was born as Suman Hemmadi on 28 January 1937 in Dhaka (now in Bangladesh). Suman Kalyanpur's father Shankar Rao Hemmadi hailed from a Saraswat Brahmin family belonging to Mangalore. Hemmadi is a village in Kundapur Taluk of Udupi District, Karnataka. He served on a top post in the Central Bank of India and was posted to Dhaka for a very long period. Apart from father and mother Seeta Hemmadi, there were 5 daughters and one son in the family with Suman being the eldest among her siblings. In 1943, her family moved to Mumbai, where she received her musical training.
Suman had always been interested in painting and music. After completing schooling from Mumbai’s famed St. Columba High School, she got admission in the prestigious Sir J. J. School of Arts for further studies in painting. Simultaneously, she started learning classical vocal from Pune's Prabhat Films' music director and a close family friend, Pandit Keshav Rao Bhole. According to Suman, initially singing was just hobby to her but gradually her interest in music increased and she started learning it professionally from Ustad Khan, Abdul Rehman Khan and Guruji Master Navrang. Suman's younger sister Shyama Hemmady was also a singer.
Married life
Suman Hemmady married a Mumbai-based businessman Ramanand Kalyanpur in 1958 and thus, became Suman Kalyanpur from Suman Hemmady. He accompanied her for every recording session after their marriage. She has a daughter named Charul Agni who is settled in the United States after marriage. Her grand daughter Aaishanni Agny returned to India and opened an NGO in Mumbai in her grand mother's name.
Career
According to Suman, "Everybody at home had an inclination towards arts and music but public performances were strictly prohibited. Still, I could not say 'no' to an offer to sing for the All India Radio in 1952. This was my first public performance after which I got a chance to sing for the Marathi film Shukrachi Chandni released in the year 1953. At that time, Sheikh Mukhtar was making the film Mangu whose composer was Mohammed Shafi. Sheikh Mukhtar was so impressed with my ‘'Shukrachi Chandni'’ songs, that he got me to sing 3 songs for the film ‘Mangu’. However, due to some unknown reasons, later O. P. Nayyar replaced Mohammed Shafi and only one of my three songs, a lullaby "Koi Pukare Dheere Se Tujhe" was retained in the film. Thus, I entered Hindi cinema with the 1954 release "Mangu".
Immediately, after the film "‘Mangu’", Suman sang 5 songs under the baton of composer Naushad for the film Darwaza (1954), which was produced by Ismat Chugtai and directed by Shahid Lateef. Since ‘'Darwaza’' released first, it is generally believed to be Suman Kalyanpur's first Hindi film. In the same year (1954), Suman sang the film version of O.P.Nayyar’s hit ensemble song "Mohabbat Kar Lo Ji Bhar Lo Aji Kisne Roka Hai" with Mohammed Rafi and Geeta Dutt for the film Aar Paar. According to Suman, she had a couple of solo lines to sing and her services were used, more, as a chorus singer in this song. This proved to be the only song she ever sang for O. P. Nayyar.
Suman Kalyanpur's first film song was a duet with Talat Mahmood in Darwaza (1954). Talat Mahmood heard Kalyanpur singing in a musical concert and was highly impressed by her singing. A rank newcomer, her career hit the big league when Talat agreed to sing the duet with her, making the film industry sit up and take notice of her.
She sang for the movie, Mangu (1954), Koi Pukare Dheere Se Tujhe. Kalyanpur provided playback singing for Miyan Bibi Razi (1960), Baat Ek Raat Ki (1962), Dil Ek Mandir (1963), Dil Hi To Hai (1963), Shagoon (1964), Jahan Ara (1964), Sanjh Aur Savera (1964), Noor Jehan (1967), Saathi (1968) and Pakeezah (1971). She sang for composers Shankar Jaikishan, Roshan, Madan Mohan, S. D. Burman, N Datta, Hemant Kumar, Chitragupta, Naushad, S. N. Tripathi, Ghulam Mohammed, Kalyanji Anandji and Laxmikant–Pyarelal singing the most songs for the first two in the list. She has sung over 740 movie and non-movie songs. She sang over 140 duets with Rafi in the 1960s.