Koi pukaare dheere se
Posted on: January 28, 2012
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
January 28th is the 75th birthday of Suman Kalyanpur (nee Hemadi). She was born on January 28, 1937 in Dhaka in undivided Bengal where she spent her early childhood. In some places, her maiden surname is spelt as Hemadey probably having something to do with her Bengal connection. Her family hailed from Hemadi village in Udipi district of Karnataka and belonged to Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin community which has given actors/directors to Hindi cinema such as Guru Dutt, Girish Karnad, Shyam Benegal, Leena Chandavarkar, Deepika Padukone to name a few. Her family migrated from Dhaka to Mumbai (then Bombay) in 1943. Talat Mehmood noticed Suman Kalyanpur during one of her concerts and was very much impressed with her singing. He agreed to sing a duet with her for the film Darwaaza (1954). The song was “ek dil do hain talabgaar” which was her first song as a playback singer for Hindi films.
Suman Kalyanpur had to contend with remaining under the shadow of Lata Mangeshkar mainly because many in the Hindi film industry felt that her voice was too close to that of Lata Mangeshkar. Under the circumstances, Suman Kalyanpur used to be called upon to sing mostly when Lata Mangeshkar was not available for song recording. For instance, Suman Kalyanpur sang a number of duets with Mohammed Rafi when Lata Mangeshkar was not singing with him during the late 60s. She rendered many solo songs which are remembered even now. Some of these songs have already been discussed in this blog. Suman Kalyanpur was bestowed with Lata Mangeshkar Award for 2009 by the Government of Maharashtra.
January 28th also happens to be the death anniversary of maestro O P Nayyar. I was keen to discuss a song which has been sung by Suman Kalyanpur and set to music by O P Nayyar. Having known that she had not sung any song for O P Nayyar except a few lines in “mohabbat karlo ji barlo” in film AAR PAR (1954), it was a futile exercise for finding such a song. However, my search resulted in getting me one of her rare songs “koi pukaare dheere se tujhe” from film MANGU (1954). This film had two music directors – Mohammed Shafi and O P Nayyar and this song was set to music by Mohammed Shafi. When I heard this song for the first time , I liked it so much that I felt that this was an appropriate song to be discussed on the occasion of her 75th birthday.
The song is a lori written by Saba Afghani. The humming at the beginning and mixing with mukhda of the song, Suman Kalyanpur’s rendition in her soft voice, Mohammed Shafi ‘s tune and the orchestration create the atmosphere for a lori song. This was Suman Kalyanpur’s first solo song for a Hindi film and even at this stage, her voice resembled that of Lata Mangeshkar. Perhaps, this may be one ofthe reasons as to why she sang only one song with Lata Mangeshkar “kabhi aaj kabhi kaal kabhi parson”, in the film CHAAND (1959).
Comments on YT indicate that this song was originally slated to be recorded by Lata Mangeshkar but at the last moment, she suggested to Mohammed Shafi to take a new singer for this song. If it is true, it is somewhat intriguing as to why Lata Mangeshkar decided not to sing this song. It is also not clear whether this song was retained in the film when O P Nayyar took over as music director. We are lucky that at least the audio clip is available for all of us to enjoy this beautiful lori.
I have some difficulties in getting the correct words ofthe song in at 3-4 places and I hope that Atul will be able to decipher them.
Song-Koi pukaare dheere se (Mangu)(1954) Singer-Suman Kalyanpur, humming by a Male voice, Lyrics-Saba Afghaani, MD-Md Shafi
Suman Kalyanpur + Humming by a Male voice
Lyrics
hmm hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm hmm
koi pukaare
dheere se tujhe
aankhon ke taare
dil ke sahaare
koi pukaare
dheere se tujhe
aankhon ke taare
dil ke sahaare
koi pukaare
?? suhaani karke shingaar aayee
rang birange
sapnon ke haar laayee
sapnon ke haar laayee
aayee tere palkon ke dwaare
dil ke sahaare
koi pukaare
dheere se tujhe
aankhon ke taare
dil ke sahaare
koi pukaare
chhup gayaa chandaa
baadal ki odhni mein
kho gayee duniyaa
nindiyaa ki raagini mein
nindiyaa ki raagini mein
tu bhi so jaa
raaj dulaare
dil ke sahaare
koi pukaare
dheere se tujhe
aankhon ke taare
dil ke sahaare
koi pukaare
dheere se tujhe
aankhon ke taare
dil ke sahaare
koi pukaare
11 Responses to "Koi pukaare dheere se"
January 28, 2012 at 5:58 pm
Sadanandji
Thanks for beautiful song and nice article about Suman Kalyanpur.
Further, you made my day by mentioning UDUPI, which is my birth place and also where I live. Thanks again for that.
May LORD KRISHNA(Udupi is famous for Lord Krishna`s temple, I think you know that)bless you.
One small confusion, Whether the Surname KALYANPUR is from Sumanji`s Husband side????
And whether that Kalyanpur is the same Kalyanpur village, which is near to our UDUPI town or it is KALYANPUR of some other state, may be of Mahrashtra???.
Pleasse clear my confusion If you know the details.
regards
prakashchandra
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January 29, 2012 at 9:22 am
Arun has already cleared your doubt about Kalyanpur.
I note the correct spelling of UDUPI 🙂
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January 28, 2012 at 7:51 pm
Kamath ji,
Thanks for an interesting write up on Suman Kalyanpur.
1) According to the HFGK,the above ‘Lori’ is the FIRST hindi film song of Suman Kalyanpur.
2) In film Darwaza,there is no mention of the 5 songs of Suman Kalyanpur (1 solo,1 Duet and 3 with 2 more singers),being the First songs of Suman ji.
3) This may be because although both films were made in 1954,Darwaza might have had a delayed release,coming only after Mangu.
4) As far as Lata being slated to sing this song earlier,it is very much true.The reasons are different.In one of my earlier comments,I have discussed about it in details.Without going into too much details,I would mention that,in 1954,OPNayyar was in deep financial trouble-as Gurudutt had not paid him-to the extent that he had no money to buy milk for his son(this is as per OP’s own version),and hence he was snatching films from orher composers like Shafi and Roshan,by quoting lesser price.Lata was so annoyed that she took up this matter in the MDs’ assn.and OP was almost banned.In that case Lata could not have sung balance songs of Mangu under OPN and hence Suman got the chance.
5) As far as the surname of Kalyanpur is concerned,it is a name from her Husband’s side and it is the same village near Udipi,which Prakash ji wants to know.
-AD
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January 28, 2012 at 10:48 pm
Thank you Arunji
Tho mera shaque sahi niklaa, sumanji ka gaanv HEMMADY bhi aur unke pati ka gaanv KALYAANPUR bhi, hamaare UDUPI(UDIPI bhi likhthe hain) district ke bheethar hi aathe hain.
Bachpan se mujhe ye confusion tha, par main samajhtha tha dono gaanv PUNE city mein hi honge.
Akhiraakar mera ek aur confusion ko Sadanandji aur Arunji ne clear kiyaa.Dhanyawaad donon ke liye ek aur baar
prakash
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January 29, 2012 at 7:00 am
Thanks Sadanand Ji, for write up on my favourite Suman kalyanpur.Unlike some others, i did not have any confusion about ‘Hemmadi’ or ‘Kalyanpur’ !! But it was a revelation about her link to and early years in Dhaka. She deserves better recognition .
K S Shenoy
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January 29, 2014 at 3:56 am
Sadanand ji,
As I reseached for today’s write up on Suman ji, I came across the trivia information that the humming voices in this song are that of Hemant Kumar an his wife Bela Mukherjee.
Rgds
Sudhir
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January 29, 2014 at 8:23 am
Thanks for the beautiful write up containing so much information about the song and the singer.
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January 29, 2014 at 11:32 am
Thanks Sadanand ji for nice write-up. Sudhirji’s comment forced me to read this article once more. Really a very rare gem of HFM and a great melody by Sumanji.
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
January 28, 2012 at 1:17 pm
Sadanand ji,
What a beautiful melody, and what a lovely rendition by Suman ji. Thanks for posting this song. Really a gem.
Rgds
Sudhir
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