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90TH BIRTH ANNIVERSARY: The legend of Surinder Kaur lives on
Punjabi folk singer, hailed as the Nightingale of Punjab, took the women’s songs out of the confines of home and spread them all around the world
The lilting melodies created by anonymous Punjabi women and sung to an all-women audience, to mark celebratory events, seasons and share the sorrows of the heart and soul, reached out to the world through the radio in the early 1940s. The singing sisters were Parkash Kaur and Surinder Kaur.
It was Surinder Kaur (1929-2006), younger of the two, who achieved greater fame as a singer with a sonorous voice and lively manner and conquered hearts home and abroad. She was the queen of Punjabi folk as well as the poetry of her times singing verses of Amrita Pritam, Mohan Singh and Shiv Kumar Batalvi. Think of her and songs that come visiting from memory are immortal numbers like ‘Maavan te dheean’, ‘Jutti Kasuri’, ‘Kala doriya’, ‘Lathe di chaddar’, and many more. Indeed, she was the voice of Punjab until the mid-eighties when the old melodies made way for the pop-Punjabi.
MUSICAL TRIBUTE
It is in remembrance of this great artiste that the Punjab Sangeet Natak Akademi is organising a gala musical tribute titled ‘Suran da Sagar’ at the Punjab Kala Bhawan on her 90th birth anniversary on Monday. The unique feature of this tribute will be that the songs made immortal by Surinder Kaur will be sung by women of three generations, her daughter, well-known singer Dolly Guleria, grand-daughter Sunaini Guleria and great grand-daughter Reah Sharma, who is a Class 12 student.
Dolly, in a reminiscent mood in her Panchkula home, says, “My mother and her sister broke the taboos in times when girls were not supposed to sing outside their homes. We were born to a home full of music. My father Joginder Singh Sodhi, a professor and man of letters, encouraged her at every step. By the time I was born, my mother was a star. I was given training in classical music and but started singing later as I was married young”.
This writer, having the privilege of several interviews with the legend, was told by the grand lady, “The time I was growing up, girls from orthodox Sikh homes could sing only at family functions. The only music allowed were the hymns of Guru Granth Sahib”. But as the Punjabi adage goes that a singer will sing no matter what. Surinder’s eldest brother seeing the talent his sisters convinced their mother to train them in Hindustani classical music.
Surinder’s first guru in Lahore was Ustad Inayat Hussain and she was to go on to record 2,000 songs, including duets and a larger number of live performances.
Although she sung duets with many well-known male singers, her regular partner on stage was the well-known singer Assa Singh Mastana.
Recalling him, grand-daughter Sunaini says, “Assa Uncle was soft-spoken with a melodic voice and very fond of eating fish. Nani was not just a great singer but a great cook too and goodies would keep coming from the kitchen for one and all”.
The years after her husband’s death were lonely for she had lost her anchor and great fan. She moved to Panchkula to be with Dolly and this is where she spent her last years.
Looking back Dolly says, “She was sad that recognition came to her late, including the Sangeet Natak Akademi award. The Padmashri came only two months before her passing away in 2006. The Nightingale Music Akademi we founded here with her as patron is still homeless. The royalties which she willed to her children never came from famous music companies. But what is heart-warming is that she still lives in the hearts of the people and we, her children, continue to sing her songs”.
