The niche singer of the Golden Era

Who can forget Tum mujhe bhool bhi jaao to ye haq hai tumko, which was also composed by her. This was a duet with Mukesh,

Sudha Malhotra was born on November 30, 1936 in New Delhi. She spent her childhood in Lahore, Bhopal and Firozpur. She has been singing on the radio from the age of five. She was discovered by Ghulam Haider at a programme at Firozpur in the aid of Red Cross. She completed her graduation in music from Agra University. Her family moved to Bombay in 1948 where she was trained in classical music by Ustad Abdul Rehman Khan and Pandit Laxman Prasad Jaipurwale. Her first break in playback singing was in 1949 in the film The Last Message in which she sang Chal raha swaraj ka jhagda with Vinod and others.

She was discovered as a child artist by Ghulam Haider (a prominent music director of the 1940s). She debuted in the movie Arzoo. She retired from film industry in 1960, following her marriage with businessman Giridhar Motwani (whose family owned the Chicago Radio Mike Company). She recorded for a few albums in the following years, including for Jagjit Singh's In a Mood of Love. She also sang for Raj Kapoor's Prem Rog in 1982.

I present some of her songs, including some that are not so well known, as my felicitation on her 80^th birth anniversary today.

Mila gaye nain from Arzoo (1950), lyrics Majrooh Sultanpuri, music Anil Biswas