Zohrabai Ambalewali (1918 – 21 February 1990) was an Indian classical singer and playback singer in
Hindi cinema in the 1930s and 1940s. She was considered one of the most popular female playback singers of early and mid 1940s.
She is best known for her
contralto
A contralto () is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type.
The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare; similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to that of a countertenor, typica ...
or low voice range singing in the film songs, "Ankhiyan Milake Jiyaa Bharmaake" and "Aai Diwali, Aai Diwali" in 1944 hit ''
Rattan
Rattan, also spelled ratan, is the name for roughly 600 species of Old World climbing palms belonging to subfamily Calamoideae. The greatest diversity of rattan palm species and genera are in the closed- canopy old-growth tropical fores ...
'' (1944), with music by
Naushad
Naushad Ali (25 December 1919 – 5 May 2006) was an Indian music director for Hindi films. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest and foremost music directors of the Hindi film industry. He is particularly known for popularising the ...
, and "Uran Khatole Pe Ud Jaoon", duet with
Shamshad Begum
Shamshad Begum (Hindi: शमशाद बेगम, IAST: ''Śamśād Bēgam''; 14 April 1919 – 23 April 2013) was an Indian singer who was one of the first playback singers in the Hindi film industry. Notable for her distinctive voice and r ...
in ''
Anmol Ghadi
Anmol Ghadi (English translation: Precious Watch
) is a 1946 Indian drama film directed by Mehboob Khan, starring Surendra, Suraiya and Noor Jehan.
The film was a musical hit and still remembered for its music by Naushad, with hits like "Aawaaz ...
'' (1946), also under Naushad's music direction. She, along with
Rajkumari,
Shamshad Begum
Shamshad Begum (Hindi: शमशाद बेगम, IAST: ''Śamśād Bēgam''; 14 April 1919 – 23 April 2013) was an Indian singer who was one of the first playback singers in the Hindi film industry. Notable for her distinctive voice and r ...
and
Amirbai Karnataki
Amirbai Karnataki (c. 1906 – 3 March 1965) was a famous actress/singer and playback singer of the early Hindi cinema and was famous as ''Kannada Kokila''. Mahatma Gandhi was an ardent fan of her song ''Vaishnav Jan To''.
Early life
Amirbai ...
, were amongst the leading first generation of playback singers in the
Hindi film industry. However, by the late 1940s, the arrival of new voices like
Geeta Dutt
Geeta Dutt (born Geeta Ghosh Roy Chowdhuri; 23 November 1930 – 20 July 1972) was an Indian playback singer and a famous Hindi and Bengali classical artist, born in Faridpur before the Partition of India. She found particular prominence as a ...
and
Lata Mangeshkar
Lata Mangeshkar () (born as Hema Mangeshkar; 28 September 1929 – 06 February 2022) was an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer. She is widely considered to have been the greatest and most influential singers in India. Her con ...
, meant Zohrabai Ambalewali's career faded away.
Early life and background
Born and brought up in
Ambala
Ambala () is a city and a municipal corporation in Ambala district in the state of Haryana, India, located on the border with the Indian state of Punjab and in proximity to both states capital Chandigarh. Politically, Ambala has two sub-are ...
in present-day
Haryana
Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land a ...
, to family of professional singers, which lend to her surname, 'Ambalewali', started her musical training under Ghulam Hussain Khan and Ustad Nasir Hussain Khan. Subsequently, she was trained in music by the
Agra gharana of
Hindustani music
Hindustani classical music is the classical music of northern regions of the Indian subcontinent. It may also be called North Indian classical music or, in Hindustani, ''shastriya sangeet'' (). It is played in instruments like the violin, sita ...
.
[
]
Career
Ambalewali started her career at age 13, as a singer with the All India Radio
All or ALL may refer to:
Language
* All, an indefinite pronoun in English
* All, one of the English determiners
* Allar language (ISO 639-3 code)
* Allative case (abbreviated ALL)
Music
* All (band), an American punk rock band
* ''All'' (All ...
, singing mainly classical and semi-classical numbers. This led to recording a few albums of thumri
Thumri () is a vocal genre or style of Indian music. The term "thumri" is derived from the Hindi verb ''thumuknaa'', which means "to walk with a dancing gait in such a way that the ankle-bells tinkle." The form is, thus, connected with dance, dr ...
s with HMV
Sunrise Records and Entertainment, trading as HMV (for His Master's Voice), is a British music and entertainment retailer, currently operating exclusively in the United Kingdom.
The first HMV-branded store was opened by the Gramophone Company ...
music label. Eventually she made her Hindi film debut as a playback singer with film ''Daku Ki Ladki'' (1933) with music by Pransukh Nayak.[ After initial years in ]Lahore
Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...
-based film industry, she shifted to Bombay
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...
(now Mumbai). Her musical success came with film ''Rattan
Rattan, also spelled ratan, is the name for roughly 600 species of Old World climbing palms belonging to subfamily Calamoideae. The greatest diversity of rattan palm species and genera are in the closed- canopy old-growth tropical fores ...
'' (1944) under music director Naushad Ali
Naushad Ali (25 December 1919 – 5 May 2006) was an Indian music director for Hindi films. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest and foremost music directors of the Hindi film industry. He is particularly known for popularising the ...
, and such hit songs as "Aai Diwali Aai Diwali" and "Akhiyan Mila Ke, Jiya Bharma Ke". She sang for music director Naushad, again in hit films like ''Anmol Ghadi
Anmol Ghadi (English translation: Precious Watch
) is a 1946 Indian drama film directed by Mehboob Khan, starring Surendra, Suraiya and Noor Jehan.
The film was a musical hit and still remembered for its music by Naushad, with hits like "Aawaaz ...
'' (1946), '' Mela'' (1948), and ''Jadoo'' (1951).[ Profile of Zohrabai Ambalewali on cineplot.com website] She also sang a qawwali
Qawwali (Punjabi language, Punjabi: (Shahmukhi), (Gurmukhi); Urdu: (Nastaʿlīq, Nasta'liq); Hindi: क़व्वाली (Devanagari); Bengali language, Bengali: কাওয়ালি (Bengali alphabet, Bengali)) is a form of Sufi Isl ...
with Noor Jehan
Noor Jehan ( Punjabi: ) (born () Allah Rakhi Wasai ; 23 September 1926 – 23 December 2000; sometimes spelled Noorjehan),Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Paul Willemen, ''Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema,'' British Film Institute, Oxford University Pres ...
and Kalyani "Aahen Na Bhareen Shikway Na Kiye" in '' Zeenat'' (1945), which was the first ever Qawwali recorded in female voices in South Asian films and became very popular among the public.
This was the era when heavy thumri
Thumri () is a vocal genre or style of Indian music. The term "thumri" is derived from the Hindi verb ''thumuknaa'', which means "to walk with a dancing gait in such a way that the ankle-bells tinkle." The form is, thus, connected with dance, dr ...
-style and the leading playback singers with nasal voices were singing in the Hindi cinema, with singers like Shamshad Begum
Shamshad Begum (Hindi: शमशाद बेगम, IAST: ''Śamśād Bēgam''; 14 April 1919 – 23 April 2013) was an Indian singer who was one of the first playback singers in the Hindi film industry. Notable for her distinctive voice and r ...
, Khurshid
Khorshīd or Khorshēd ( , meaning ''the Sun'' or the "Radiant Sun"), also spelled as ''Khurshed'' and ''Khurshid'', is a Persian given name. In the modern day as well as historical Iran, Turkey, and Azerbaijan, but also in Iraqi Kurdistan, Egypt, ...
, Amirbai Karnataki
Amirbai Karnataki (c. 1906 – 3 March 1965) was a famous actress/singer and playback singer of the early Hindi cinema and was famous as ''Kannada Kokila''. Mahatma Gandhi was an ardent fan of her song ''Vaishnav Jan To''.
Early life
Amirbai ...
. This was right before the arrival of Lata Mangeshkar
Lata Mangeshkar () (born as Hema Mangeshkar; 28 September 1929 – 06 February 2022) was an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer. She is widely considered to have been the greatest and most influential singers in India. Her con ...
in 1948, which along with Geeta Dutt
Geeta Dutt (born Geeta Ghosh Roy Chowdhuri; 23 November 1930 – 20 July 1972) was an Indian playback singer and a famous Hindi and Bengali classical artist, born in Faridpur before the Partition of India. She found particular prominence as a ...
and Asha Bhosle
Asha Bhosle (; Mangeshkar; born 8 September 1933) is an Indian playback singer, entrepreneur
and occasional actress and television personality who predominantly works in Indian Cinema. Known for her versatility, she has been described in th ...
shifted the popular taste towards finer voices, effectively bringing their careers to a gradual end. Another major film playback singer of that era Noor Jehan
Noor Jehan ( Punjabi: ) (born () Allah Rakhi Wasai ; 23 September 1926 – 23 December 2000; sometimes spelled Noorjehan),Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Paul Willemen, ''Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema,'' British Film Institute, Oxford University Pres ...
decided to migrate to Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
and had a highly successful singing career in Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
until she died in 2000.
Zohrabai Ambalewali retired in the 1950s from the film industry, though she continued to sing at the performances of her daughter Roshan Kumari
Roshan Kumari Fakir Mohammad is an Indian classical dancer, actor and choreographer, considered by many as one of the foremost exponents of the Indian classical dance form of Kathak. She follows the Jaipur Gharana and is the founder of ''Nritya ...
, a noted Kathak
Kathak ( hi, कथक; ur, کتھک) is one of the eight major forms of Indian classical dance. It is the classical dance from of Uttar Pradesh. The origin of Kathak is traditionally attributed to the traveling bards in ancient northern Ind ...
dancer, who also performed in Satyajit Ray's film ''Jalsaghar
''Jalsaghar'' ( bn, জলসাঘর ''Jalsāghar'', "The Music Room") is a 1958 Indian Bengali drama film written and directed by Satyajit Ray, based on a popular short story by Bengali writer Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay, and starring Chhabi ...
'' (1958).[ Profile of Zohrabai Ambalewali on womenonrecord.com website]
Filmography
* ''Daku Ki Ladki'' (1933)
* ''Gramophone Singer'' (1938)
*''Geet Geet may refer to:
Media
* geet (song), a traditional Hindi or Urdu song
* ''Geet'' (1944 film)
* ''Geet'' (1970 film), a Bollywood film directed by Ramanand Sagar
* ''Geet'' (1992 film), a Bollywood film directed by Parto Ghosh
* ''Geet'' (TV ...
'' (1944)
* ''Pehle Aap'' (1944)
* ''Rattan
Rattan, also spelled ratan, is the name for roughly 600 species of Old World climbing palms belonging to subfamily Calamoideae. The greatest diversity of rattan palm species and genera are in the closed- canopy old-growth tropical fores ...
'' (1944)
* '' Zeenat'' (1945)
* ''Sohni Mahiwal
Sohni Mahiwal or Suhni Mehar ( pa, , ਸੋਹਣੀ ਮਹੀਂਵਾਲ is one of the four popular tragic romances of Punjab including Sindh. In Sindh Sohni's shrine is in Shahdadpur Town of Sangar District. The others are Sassi Punnun, Mirz ...
'' (1946)
* ''Anmol Ghadi
Anmol Ghadi (English translation: Precious Watch
) is a 1946 Indian drama film directed by Mehboob Khan, starring Surendra, Suraiya and Noor Jehan.
The film was a musical hit and still remembered for its music by Naushad, with hits like "Aawaaz ...
'' (1946)
* ''Devar
''Devar'' is a 1966 Hindi film directed by Mohan Sehgal. It stars Dharmendra, Sharmila Tagore, Deven Verma and Shashikala. The music is by Roshan and the lyrics by Anand Bakshi; this is their only film together that met with success.
The f ...
'' (1946)
* '' Elaan'' (1947)
* '' Mela'' (1948)
* ''Chunariya'' (1948)
* '' Mahal'' (1949)
* ''Dil Ki Basti'' (1949)
* ''Preet Ka Geet'' (1950)
* ''Jadoo'' (1951)
* ''Kashmir'' (1951)
* ''Usha Kiran'' (1952)
References
External links
*
* Filmography of Zohrabai Ambalewali
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ambalewali, Zohrabai
1918 births
1990 deaths
20th-century Indian women classical singers
People from Ambala
Hindustani singers
Indian women playback singers
Bollywood playback singers
Singers from Haryana
Women Hindustani musicians
Women musicians from Haryana