Dhaka-born singer Suman Kalyanpur, whose voice captivated audiences across South Asia for decades, died on Sunday night at her residence in Lokhandwala, Mumbai, after a prolonged period of age-related illness. She was 89.
Known for timeless songs including ‘Aajkal Tere Mere Pyaar Ke Charche’, ‘Na Na Karte Pyaar Tumhi Se’, ‘Tumne Pukara Aur Hum Chale Aaye’ and the Bengali favourite ‘Mone Koro Ami Nei’, ‘Boshonto Eshe Gechhe’, Kalyanpur remained one of the most admired playback singers of her generation.
According to Indian media reports, the veteran artist had been suffering from several age-related health complications. Her close friend and writer Mangala Khadikar said Kalyanpur passed away peacefully at around 8pm on Sunday. In her later years, she reportedly spent much of her time listening to her own recordings.
Kalyanpur was born on January 28, 1937 in Dhaka, then part of undivided Bengal. Her family moved to Bombay in 1943 due to her father Shankar Rao Hemadi’s banking career. Although she initially had little interest in becoming a singer and preferred painting, sewing and gardening, her passion for music grew after hearing songs by legendary singer Noor Jehan.
Her musical talent was recognised early by noted Marathi composer Keshavrao Bhole, who encouraged her parents to support her training and personally guided her development. She made her radio debut on All India Radio in 1952 before beginning her playback career in Marathi cinema in 1953. A year later, she entered Hindi cinema with the film ‘Mangu’.
Over the following decades, Kalyanpur became one of the most familiar voices in Indian cinema. She sang in films such as ‘Baat Ek Raat Ki’, ‘Dil Ek Mandir’, ‘Dil Hi To Hai’, ‘Jahan Ara’ and ‘Pakeezah’, and worked with some of the greatest composers of the era, including Shankar-Jaikishan, Madan Mohan, Sachin Dev Burman, Naushad, Roshan, OP Nayyar and Hemanta Mukhopadhyay.
Her partnership with legendary singer Mohammed Rafi produced nearly 140 duets, including several songs that remain popular decades after their release.
Beyond Hindi cinema, Kalyanpur also enjoyed a devoted following among Bengali music lovers. Songs such as ‘Mone Koro Ami Nei’, ‘Boshonto Eshe Gechhe’ and ‘Amar Swapno Dekhar Duti Noyon’ earned her a lasting place in Bengali musical culture.
For many years, music enthusiasts discussed the remarkable similarity between Kalyanpur’s voice and that of Lata Mangeshkar. Listeners and even some composers occasionally mistook one singer’s recordings for the other’s.
Kalyanpur, however, consistently maintained that she had never attempted to imitate Mangeshkar and that any resemblance was entirely natural.
In 1958, she married Mumbai businessman Ramanand Kalyanpur and adopted his surname. The couple had one daughter, Charula, who now lives in the US.
Kalyanpur also earned recognition for her work in classical music and received the Sur Singar Samsad honour three times. The Maharashtra government awarded her the Lata Mangeshkar Award in 2009, while she received India’s third-highest civilian honour, the Padma Bhushan, in 2023.
Tributes have poured in following her death. Veteran politician Sharad Pawar wrote on social media that her “sweet, melodious and heart-touching voice enriched Indian music”.
