This article is written by Bharat Upadhyay, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
Mubarak Begam enthralled music lovers with her fresh and original voice in 1950s and 1960s, but she was soon edged out of contention by the bigger and established names in the industry and she faded away. Little was known about the whereabout of Mubarak Begam for the next four decades or so when an interview of Mubarak Begam appeared in 2010.
The interview made sad reading that brings tears to the eyes. People kept feeling sorry about her for the next two years. Then two years later, regulars of this blog, viz. Sudhir ji and AK met Mubarak Begam. They were somewhat relieved to know that Mubarak Begam’s condition was not as bad as was made out to be in the previous interview. She was leading a middle class existence in Mumbai. The details of this interview are available here in AK’s blog. Here are some excerpts from this interview:-
” Mubarak Begum’s only lament was the state of her health, which required a constant companion to be with her. There was a sadness, but devoid of rancour, that the industry was not fair to her. She narrated stories (which sounded quite familiar) how, at times, a song was rehearsed with her, but when she reached the recording studio, she was told it had already been recorded in another voice. This was the fate of many female singers, who might have had intrinsic merit, but for whom getting mainstream songs and banners was an uphill task because of the overwhelming domination of Lata Mangeshkar in the Golden Era.
Born on January 5, 1936 in Jhunjhunu (Rajasthan), she spent her early childhood in Gujarat. She was formally trained in classical music. She went over to Bombay, Mecca of the show-biz. She debuted as a playback singer at the age of 13 in the film Aiye (1949), music by Shaukat Hyderi, in which she sang a solo and a duet with Lata Mangeshkar. She struggled for a few years till she got a big break as the lead singer in Kamal Amrohi’s Daera (1953). But this film bombed at the box office, even though her songs were outstanding. After struggling for a while, she got big success with a mujra song in Devdas (1955), Wo na ayenge palat kar, composed by SD Burman. This unfortunately typecast her as a mujra singer. But she also got some very good songs as a lead singer. The title songs of the film Hamrahi, composed by Shankar Jaikishan, and the film Hamari Yaad Ayegi, composed by Snehal Bhatkar, are not only major landmarks in her career, but also among the best scores of the Golden Era. She was a prolific singer of private ghazals and naats. And a trivia – she also had a small acting role in the film Sabse Bada Rupaiya (1955) “
I am posting this eighth song in the series ‘Songs from album Varsha Ritu’. Mubarak Begum has poured pathos in this song that depicts the pangs of a ‘birahan’.
saawan maase piya pardesa
paapi jiya ghabraaye ho o o
saawan maase piya pardesa
doore basen na bhejen sandesa
mohe rahe bisraaye ho o
saawan maase piya pardesa
hari hari tulsi,
hamre anganwaa
saawan mein murjhaaye ho o
bhor se saanj ailo,
saanjh se bhor ailo o
saawan maase piya pardesa
raat dina main baat nihaaroon
raat dina main baat nihaaroon
aase kamal kumhlaaye ho
mori atariya pe kaaga bolat hai
man ka dheeraj chhoouta jaaye ho o
saawan maase piya pardesa
paapi jiya ghabraaye ho
saawan maase piya pardesa
‘Is jahan ka malik agar mil sake to poochhen,
Meri kaun si khata par wo hymen is kadar sataayen’ …. Mubarak Begum could’t achieve the professional success i despite her talent and unique voice. Destiny plays its own role in our life.
Thanks Bharatbhai for the treat. MB must have sang about 70 songs. However she is far better of than other singers who had to wind up their career after few songs
This blog discusses Bollywood songs of yesteryears. Every song has a brief description, followed by a video link, and complete lyrics of the song.
This is a labour of love, where “new” songs are added every day, and that has been the case for over FIFTEEN years. This blog has over 18300 song posts by now.
This blog is active and online for over 5000 days since its beginning on 19 july 2008.
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
December 16, 2013 at 11:23 am
‘Is jahan ka malik agar mil sake to poochhen,
Meri kaun si khata par wo hymen is kadar sataayen’ …. Mubarak Begum could’t achieve the professional success i despite her talent and unique voice. Destiny plays its own role in our life.
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