Chhaayaageet #107 - "Agar aapne mera gaana nahin suna, to mein samundar mein kood ke apni jaan de doongi."
"If you don't listen to me sing, I will jump into the sea and end my life", she says desperately.
Poverty is a strange thing. It can take one a long ways away from home. Often times, when poverty is coupled with a dream, that long ways away from home happens to be Bombay.
Tragedy strikes at the early age of 2 years when she finds herself an orphan. She is too young to know what that even means. An older brother passes away in a couple of years. An uncle adopts her but it is just a roof over the head. He denies her education.
One day she discovers she can sing. But there is no avenue to grow this talent. She starts to harbor a dream. Even amidst the impoverished state, she feels rich. There is a treasure inside her.
Some day she will go to Bombay. Yes she will. And sing in the movies. Some day she will sing with the best of them. And they will applaud her. Some day. They will all see for who she really is. A fabulous singer. That day will come, it surely will.
Dreams are a strange thing. They test your mettle as a dreamer. Are you a serious dreamer or are you just wishful? The more years that pass by, they start feeling distant. Are you going to hold on to those dreams or will you give up on them?
As time goes by, she is besotted. It takes her 23 long years. Frustrated by circumstances, one day she absconds from home and boards the train to Bombay. Enough is enough. Time for life to pivot.
She learns that a famous music composer lives in a bungalow facing the Arabian Sea. She arrives at his doorstep unannounced and demands an audience.
"Darwaza kholiye...Mera gaana suniye...Mein bahot achha gaana gaati hoon", she shouts while banging on the door. Open the door...Listen to my singing...I can sing very well.
The door remains steadfastly shut. She continues banging on it, and repeating her demands. The music composer is unmoved. Who is this young girl and why is she creating a ruckus? He instructs the servants to ignore the banging on the door. She will get tired and go away.
She doesn't give up. "Agar aapne mera gaana nahin suna, to mein samundar mein kood ke apni jaan de doongi...Aur gunah meri maut ka aape ke sar par hoga", she shouts desperately. If you don't listen to me sing, I will jump into the sea and end my life....And you will be responsible for my death.
Hearing this existential threat, the composer sighs and asks the door to be opened. She is ushered in.
"Filmon mein gaana chahti ho?" He asks her. Do you want to sing in films?
"Haan...Mein gaa sakti hoon", she replies. Yes. I can sing.
Often times when poverty is coupled with a dream, it can bestow one with unbounded confidence. What is there to lose?
The music composer asks her to sing. He listens to her for 10 minutes. Where did she learn? With whom did she learn? These questions don't have good answers. In fact, there are no answers.
He asks her to meet a filmmaker, with whom he is working on a film. On the composer's recommendation, the filmmaker signs her to a binding contract to sing only for his production banner. She doesn't know what that means. She is only too happy to sign the document, too thrilled to contest the terms.
The music composer has her sing 3 solos and 1 duet in the film.
She sings with the best of them. And they applaud her. Some day is no longer in the future. It is here and now.
Uma Devi sang the popular song Afsana likh rahi hoon for the 1947 film Dard, directed by Abdul Rashid Kardar, music by Naushad, and lyrics by Shakeel Badayuni. Uma Devi sang alongside Suraiya and Shamshad Begum, two of the most popular singers of the time. Later she became famous as Hindi cinema's first female comedienne, Tun Tun.
Afsana likh rahi hoon became a very popular song and retained its popularity for many decades. Her singing in the film Dard was well noticed and appreciated as a fresh new voice.
Naushad considered Uma Devi to be a lucky mascot and kept two songs for her in subsequent films. In 1949, when music composer Khemchand Prakash approached her to sing Aayega aanewala, she had to turn it down because she was in a binding contract with Kardar Productions. Khemchand Prakash then went to Lata Mangeshkar, and the rest is history.
Aayega aanewala established Lata Mangeshkar firmly in the film firmament. This signaled the end of singers with limited tonal range as Uma Devi. As the singing offers started to fade away, she started going into depression, and put on weight. She turned once again to Naushad to help her become an actress. She wanted a role opposite the best, Dilip Kumar! Naushad found that amusing, but nevertheless, recommended her to his friend, Dilip Kumar, for a comic role in the film Babul.
In Babul, Uma Devi had the part of chasing Dilip Kumar around, which she did diligently, and often outran him. She kept bumping into him, and amidst the running around, he fell on her. It was Dilip Kumar who christened her Tun Tun. Thus began her second innings in films as an actress.
Rudyard Kipling said, "The female of the species is more deadly than the male". Uma Devi proved she could be funnier too. She held her own in front of male comedy actors of the era, such as Johnny Walker, Dhumal and Bhagwan, and never let them steal a scene from her.
Singer: Uma Devi (Tun Tun)
Music: Naushad
Lyrics: Shakeel Badayuni
*ing: Munawwar Sultana
Director: Abdul Rashid Kardar
Film: Dard (1947)