Fade Out

TAKE me out to lunch and I will tell you my story,8217;8217; she says, giggling like a child. As an old woman, a satchel around her stoope...

TAKE me out to lunch and I will tell you my story,8217;8217; she says, giggling like a child.

As an old woman, a satchel around her stooped shoulders, enters a modest restaurant at Grant Road, Mumbai8217;s red-light district, no heads turn. To the larger world, Mubarak Begum, in her 70s now, is not worth a second glance. To connoisseurs of old Hindi film songs, she is the melody queen who sang the haunting Kabhi tanhayiyon mein yoon hamari yaad ayegi from the film Hamari Yaad Ayegi.

8216;8216;Mere saath nainsaafi hui hai Injustice has been done to me,8217;8217; she says over a biryani, and then adds: 8216;8216;They clipped my wings just as I started to fly.8217;8217;

Begum ruled hearts in the 8217;50s and 8217;60s, rendering several popular numbers such as Hale Dil Sunayenge Madhumati and Mujhko Apne Gale Laga Lo Hamrahi.

Begum8217;s diehard fans remember her music, but don8217;t know that she lives off her taxi driver son8217;s meagre income, in a ramshackle house at Grant Road. 8216;8216;No one calls or visits now,8217;8217; says the singer, on whose doorstep producers once lined up. As a child in the 8217;40s, she would accompany her uncle to theatres in Ahmedabad. Seeing her growing interest in films, her father brought her to Mumbai where singer Suraiya was her idol. 8216;8216;I would try to sing like her,8217;8217; she says.

Her first audition at All India Radio fetched her the princely amount of Rs 50. 8216;8216;I was enthused that I could live by singing,8217;8217; she reminisces. The euphoria was short-lived. Her first attempt at film recording for Mehboob Khan was a disaster as stage fright seized her. Unfazed, she recorded her first song Mohe Ane Lagi Angrayi in composer Shaukat Dehlvi8217;s film Aiyiye and went on to sing for maestros like SD Burman, Naushad and Kalyanji-Anandji. Undoubtedly, Kabhi tanhayiyon mein pitchforked Begum into the big league. 8216;8216;Director Kidar Sharma had handed me chaar anna 25 paise as a token of appreciation,8217;8217; she laughs. 8216;8216;It was how he blessed a budding artiste.8217;8217;

Then came the downslide, brought on by competition and 8216;8216;conspiracies8217;8217; music directors would drop her at the eleventh hour. The Lata Mangeshkar-rendered Pardesiyon Se Na Ankhiya Milana Jab Jab Phool Khile, composed by Kalyanji-Anandji, had originally gone to Begum. But, 8216;8216;Kalyanjibhai said he was helpless,8217;8217; she fumes.

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Music maestro Naushad, who worked with Begum in Dil Diya Dard Liya, echoes this: 8216;8216;Mubarak was very talented, but she didn8217;t get many opportunities.8217;8217;

By the late 8217;60s, Begum was entirely sidelined.

Her personal life was no better. One day, her producer husband she doesn8217;t want to name him, walked out on her, leaving their son and daughter in her custody. She had an option to migrate to Pakistan, like Noorjahan. 8216;8216;When I visited Pakistan years ago, a producer wanted me to settle there. But I preferred India.8217;8217;

She goes on to sum up her lot in a couplet: 8220;Haal tha mera jab badtar/Hui na tujhe khabar When I was in misery/You didn8217;t care to know.