Indubala (1898 – 30 November 1984), sometimes credited as Miss Indubala, Indubālā Debī, or Indubala Devi, was a Bengali singer and actress. She received the

Sangeet Natak Akademi Award Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (IPA: Saṅgīta Nāṭaka Akādamī Puraskāra), also known as the Akademi Puraskar, is an award given by the Sangeet Natak Akademi Sangeet Natak Akademi (The National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama in Englis ...

in 1975.

Early life

Indubala was born in

Amritsar Amritsar (), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as ''Ambarsar'', is the second largest city in the Indian state of Punjab, after Ludhiana. It is a major cultural, transportation and economic centre, located in the Majha r ...

, the daughter of Motilal Bose and Rajabala. Her parents were with the Great Bengal Circus, and separated soon after her birth. She lived with her mother in Calcutta. She trained as a singer in Calcutta with several teachers, including

Gauhar Jaan Gauhar Jaan (born Angelina Yeoward; 26 June 1873 – 17 January 1930) was an Indian singer and dancer from Kolkata. She was one of the first performers to record music on 78 rpm records in India, which was later released by the Gramophone Compa ...

Kamal Dasgupta Kamal Dasgupta (28 July 1912 – 20 July 1974), also known as ''Kamal Uddin Ahamed'' was a Bangla music director, composer and folk artist. Rāga and Thumri were the main elements of his music. Early life and career Dasgupta was born on 28 July 1 ...

, and

Kazi Nazrul Islam Kazi Nazrul Islam ( bn, কাজী নজরুল ইসলাম, ; 24 May 1899 – 29 August 1976) was a Bengali poet, Bengali literature, writer, Bangladeshi music, musician, and is the national poet of Bangladesh. Nazrul is regarded as one ...

Career

Indubala is considered one of the great Bengali women singers. She made her first of hundreds of recordings for

Gramaphone Records Gramaphone Records is a DJ-based vinyl record store in Chicago, Illinois. History The store opened in 1969 and originally sold folk, jazz, and blues music. By the 1980s, the store was selling house music records. The store was the first of its ...

in 1915 or 1916. She performed on stage with her mother's company, the Rambagan Female Kali Theatre, and at the

Star Theatre A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth make ...

. She sang on All India Radio beginning in 1927, on the broadcaster's second day on the air, and regularly through the 1930s. In 1936 she was appointed court musician to the

Maharaja of Mysore The maharaja of Mysore was the king and principal ruler of the southern Indian Kingdom of Mysore and briefly of Mysore State in the Indian Dominion roughly between the mid- to late-1300s and 1950. In title, the role has been known by differe ...

. Beginning in the 1930s she provided playback vocals for sound films, and she acted on-screen in more than two dozen films, including ''

Rajrani Meera ''Rajrani Meera'' (Rajrani Mira) is a 1933 Hindi devotional film. It was directed by Debaki Bose for New Theatres Ltd. Calcutta. The cinematographer was Nitin Bose with music composed by R. C. Boral. The film was a bilingual, made in Bengali a ...

'' (1933), ''

Sati Sulochana ''Sati Sulochana'' is a 1934 Indian Kannada-language film directed by Y. V. Rao. The film was released on 3 March 1934 and is the first talkie film in Kannada language.

'' (1934), and ''

Naveena Sarangadhara ''Naveena Sarangadhara (நவீன சாரங்கதாரா)'' is a 1936 Tamil film directed by K. Subramanyam, K. Subramaniam under Murugan Talkies. Naveena in Tamil means modern. The film was titled thus in order to distinguish itself ...

'' (1936). She retired from the stage in 1950. She received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1975. Indubala lived most of her life in the Rambagan neighborhood of Calcutta, and was concerned for the welfare of the actresses and sex workers concentrated in that district. "I am Rambagan's Indu," she declared. "Here I have learnt music, established myself, and got respect."

Personal life

After several years of declining health, Indubala died in 1984, in Calcutta, in her mid-eighties. She is one of the title characters of Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's short story "Einstein and Indubala" (2016). In 2020 a compilation album of Indubala's recordings was released on vinyl, by Tara Disc.

References

External links

*
Miss Indubala Raga Bhairavi Coln: Rantideb Maitra
a recording by Indubala, on YouTube {{DEFAULTSORT:Indubala 1898 births 1984 deaths People from Amritsar Indian women singers Musicians from Kolkata Bengali singers Singers from Kolkata