Rajkumari Dubey
Rajkumari Dubey (1924 – 2000), better known by her first name, Rajkumari, was an Indian playback singer who worked in Hindi cinema of 1930s and 1940s. Best known for her songs, "Sun Bairi Baalam Sach Bol Re" in Bawre Nain (1950), "Ghabaraa Ke Jo Hum Sar Ko Takraayan" in Mahal (1949) and "Najariya Ki Maari" in Pakeezah (1972). Biography She had much softer and sweeter voice with a narrow range than the leading singers of the time, Zohrabai Ambalewali, Amirbai Karnataki and Shamshad Begum. In the next two decades, she sang for 100 films, till the early 1950s, when Lata Mangeshkar changed the playback-singing scene in India. Career She was 10 years old when she recorded her first song for HMV in 1934 and she started her career as a stage artiste. Vijay Bhatt and Shankar Bhatt of Prakash Pictures spotted her during one of her shows. They liked her voice and persuaded her to discontinue acting on stage as it would spoil her voice (In those days, there were no microphones and you had to shout to be heard). So she quit theatre, and became an employee of Prakash Pictures as an actress and singer. Rajkumari's first film with them was a Hindi-Gujarati bilingual called Sansar Leela Nayi Duniya. She got important roles in films like Aankh Ka Tara and Turki Sher (1933). She was the heroine in Bhakt Ke Bhagwan and Insaaf Ki Topi (1934). In those days she often acted opposite Zakaria Khan (late actor Amjad Khan's father, whose screen name was Jayant). She also used to sing for popular music director Lallubhai. He gave music to films starring Rajkumari ji like Nai Duniya, alias Sacred Scandal (1934) (Sansaar Leela in Gujarati version), Laal Chitthi, alias Red Letter (1935), Bombay Mail (1935), Bambai Ki Sethaani (1935) and Shamsheer-e-Arab (1935). She began getting fed up with having to watch on her figure and decided to stick to just singing as a career. After she quit Prakash Pictures, she began playback singing for actresses like Ratnamala, Shobhana Samarth, etc. and soon she became the first female playback singer of Indian cinema. She sang many Gujarati and Punjabi songs. Even though she was not formally trained to sing, she was very good at picking up what her composers taught her. They thought she was a trained singer! She was able to also establish herself as a classical singer and excelled in singing and voice production within the framework of classical forms of thumri and dadra. Among her peers were Shamshad Begum, Zohrabai Ambalewali, Juthika Roy, Zeenat Begum, etc. Both Shamshad and Zohrabai had resounding voices with a high range, while Rajkumari had a soft and very sweet voice with a small range. She sang quite a few songs with Mukesh. She did not get much opportunity to sing with Mohammed Rafi – mainly because Lata Mangeshkar was a fast upcoming singer at the time. She sang with Noor Jehan in Naukar (1943). She never sang with K. C. Dey, but