2 min readJun 3, 2026 06:15 AM IST First published on: Jun 3, 2026 at 06:15 AM ISTThe story of Hindi playback music is almost always that of its most recognised voices. Excellence at the craft didn’t always mean popular recognition. Suman Kalyanpur, who passed away in Mumbai on May 31, exemplified this contradiction. Despite a silken voice, remarkable artistry and some very popular songs to her credit, Kalyanpur almost always remained outside the pantheon of the great women playback voices of her time .Kalyanpur’s entry in the industry coincided with the firming of hierarchies in Hindi playback music. On Radio Ceylon, singer names were often not announced before and after a song. Kalyanpur was compared to Lata Mangeshkar to the extent that she was rarely heard as an artiste in her own right. But her songs —the wistful ‘Na tum humein jaano’ (Baat Ek Raat Ki), the haunting ‘Mere mehboob na ja’ (Noormahal), the flirtatious ‘Na na karte pyar’ (Jab Jab Phool Khile), the classically sound ‘Ajahun na aaye baalma’ (Saanjh aur Savera) and the delightful duet, ‘Aaj kal tere mere pyar ke charche’ (Brahmachari) with Mohammad Rafi, and many others — speak of Kalyanpur’s range, which deserved more recognition than she actually received.AdvertisementGet the “other Lata”, composers would say if Mangeshkar was not available. But a keen ear to those recordings, in more than 100 films, can set the record straight. Suman Kalyanpur’s rightful place is among the more accomplished voices of the golden era of Hindi film songs.