Once Upon a Cinema: The golden voice of Amirbai Karnataki

Mahatma Gandhi’s aversion to cinema is well-recorded in the pages of history. There is a succession of quotes where he espouses the evils of watching film. There are only two recorded instances of him watching movies: Michael Curtiz’s Mission to Moscow and Vijay Bhatt’s Ram Rajya (curiously, both are from 1943). His encounter with Charlie Chaplin was marked by Chaplin’s awe and his ignorance of who Chaplin was. Despite all this, the rendition of his favourite bhajan that he liked the most was by an actress and singer of the cinema. It is believed that Gandhi was enamoured by Amirbai Karnataki ’s rendition of Vaishnava Jana To. Amirbai’s soulful singing of the bhajan, which was immensely popular in the 40s and 50s, is very different from the tune we know and associate with the Mahatma today. Songs came to Hindi cinema with its very first talkie _Alam Ara (1931)_ , but from then to the onslaught of Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle who dominated the music scene for the next half-century, there was a whole generation of playback singers who commanded influence and stardom. Between the 30s and 40s, three names were prominent in the Hindi film music bandwagon: Rajkumari Dubey, Zohrabai Ambalewali and Amirbai Karnataki. Of these, Amirbai was popular not only for her Hindi film songs, but for Gujarati and Kannada songs as well. She was also the only successful actor-singer out of the three. Amirbai’s parents worked in theatre, which filled her childhood with plenty of music and acting. She was growing up in Bijapur, which was a thriving centre for the “sangeet natak”, the Marathi musical theatre tradition which brought together these two faculties seamlessly. She was growing up with five siblings, and almost all her relatives were deeply involved in music and theatre. A number of theatre companies used to camp at Bijapur, the legendary Marathi theatre doyen Balgandharva among them. From a young age, Amirbai and her elder sister Gauherbai were trained in classical music, which helped them land gigs with these theatre companies. They were both acting as well as singing in these troupes. There are different versions of around when she and her family migrated to Bombay. As per one version of events, she came when she was about fifteen, which would place her in Bombay in 1921. The other version of the story says she came to Bombay in 1931, when Alam Ara was released. Be that as it may, the first known film Amirbai featured in was Vishnu Bhakti (1934). Her elder sister helped her secure a role in the film, directed by G.R. Sethi. Amirbai’s initial films as an actor or as a singer failed to make a dent, though the songs Is paap ki duniya se ab aur kahin le chal from Zamana (1938), Pareshan hoon ki kyon meri pareshani nahi jaati from Parbat Pe Apna Dera (1944), Aaj kar le jee bhar ke singaar from Maa Baap (1944) became really popular. Her Gujarati song Mhare te gaamre ek baar awjo from the film Ranakdevi (1946) became a rage. Madhure veene madhure veene prema for Chiranjeevi (1936). She had parallel careers in Hindi and Kannada film industries, and quite successful in both. She came to be known as Kannada Kokila. But what undoubtedly made Amirbai a star in Hindi films was Bombay Talkies’ Kismet (1943). Out of eight songs in the film, she lent her voice to six. The music director was Anil Biswas and even in British India, they managed to slip in a song which demanded that the colonial usurpers leave the land. The Independence Movement was at its peak and patriotic fervour ran high. Door hato aye duniyawalon Hindustan hamara hai was a sensation. Dheere dheere aa re badal, a duet with Ashok Kumar, was also a roaring hit. Her song Hua kya qusoor jo humse door from Basant (1942) was also popular. Incidentally, this was the film which introduced a child artiste named Baby Mumtaz, who grew up to be known as Madhubala. Amirbai Karnataki was major acting-singing sensation in the 40s. This was the era when it was default to assume that any woman associated with showbusiness was up to no good. They were ostracised, outcast, and treated with disrespect. Amirbai was one of the first generation of women stars who fought this prejudice. Her biographer Rahmat Tarikere even posits that the perpetual battle Amirbai and her female colleagues had to fight, can be deemed almost as significant as the freedom struggle itself. They freed women of this stigma, and paved the way for all future female film artists to be treated with the respect that they deserve. Amirbai had a tumultuous first marriage, and had to endure brutal domestic abuse in the hands of her husband, the actor HImalay Vala. This was one of those rare instances where a person playing negative roles on screen was equally vile in his personal life. After a lot of struggle, she finally secured a divorce with the help of renowned Gujarati lawyer Chelshankar Vyas. Her second marriage with editor Badri Kaanchwala was happier and more peaceful. In the 60s, one of her Kannada songs from a non film album soared the popularity charts on the radio. It was Ninnane neneyuta ratriya kalede. From the 50s onwards, with the widespread popularity of Lata Mangeshkar, singers of Amirbai’s ilk were out of circulation. She passed away in 1965. Amborish is a National Film Award winning writer, biographer and film historian. Read all the  **_Latest News_** _,_  **_Trending News_** _,_  **_Cricket News_** _,_  **_Bollywood News_** _,_  **_India News_**  and  **_Entertainment News_**  here. 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