Kanan Devi: A Queen of Melody and Glamorous Actress of Indian Cinema
I remembered that I used to hear one programme which has been called as Bhoole Bisre Geet on Vividh Bharati Service of All India Radio in 1980s. The main intention of this programme was to give the enjoyment of Hindi film songs of yesteryear to the listeners. This programme used to start in the morning at 7 am. I always used to enjoy this programme. One fine morning this program played one song Dole Hridayki Naiya from Hindi film Vidhyapati which was made in 1938. This was a female song. At the time of hearing this song, I found that the voice of the singer was not thin. And it did not sound shrill even after the singer reached in higher pitch-ranges. Just to remember this because very recently, I have read the biography of such an actor and singer who was the first super lady of Indian Cinema and this book has been written by Mekhala Sengupta. The name of this super lady was Kanan Devi. This book said that she was the first superstar of Hindi cinema but for me she was the unlikeliest superstar. I agreed that she was the first lady to do the glamorous roles in Indian Cinema. I have read her autobiography named as I Pay My Respect to Everyone which was translated from Bengoli language Sabara Ami Nami.
From: Yogesh Gogwekar
Kanan Devi was born on 22nd April 1914 in Kolkata. In her autobiography, she has mentioned that she considered Ratan Chandra Das and Rajobala as her parents as Ratan Chandra Das was her adoptive father and also said that Ratan Chandra Das had encouraged her to increase her reading habits and also to listen to music. She further said that,” I was always a little different. I loved books and pored over them. It was inconsequential whether I comprehended the content. I would sit with any book to examine the letters, the characters, and see vivid images before me. After I learned to read fluently, I was lost in space and time”. She went to St. Agnes’ Convent School but sudden death of her adoptive father; she has to leave the school to do some work to get bread and butter for her family. There was no financial help from anyone else. As she mentioned in her book that Tulsi Banerji (To whom she used to call him as Kaka babu) came to her rescue and introduced her to Madan Theatres and Jyoti studio when she was ten years old. In the beginning, her mother and sister were against her doing the work in the films but there was no other way to do it. She did her first film Jaydeo in 1926 for Madan theatres and she just earned Rs.5/- for her role. It was a silent film. Later on she did another silent film Shankaracharya in 1927 for India Cinema Art production and Rishi Prem in 1931. Thus, she joined to Indian Cinema as a child actor and became popular as Kanan Bala.
Kanan Devi did another three films with Madan Theatres and played male roles in Vishnu Maya and Bhakt Prahlad of 1932. She successfully turned herself from child artist of silent films to main roles of talkie films under the direction of Jyotish Banerjee in the film Jorebarat in 1931 and Manomoyee Girls School (Comedy film of 1933) and also the direction of Prafulla Ghosh in the film Sree Gauranga of 1933 and Maa in 1934. All these films were in Bengali films. She started getting the Hindi films after joining New Theatres. The New Theatres helped her to establish her image as a well known actor across India and also helped her to establish her as a well known singer. All credit goes to Biren Sircar who was owner of New Theatres. P C Barua wanted her to play the lead role in the film Devdas of 1935 but due to her busy schedule, she could not do it. For that, she repented throughout her life. In New theatres, she did fantastic films like Mukti, Saathi, Vidhyapati, Street singer, Sapera, Parajay, Lagan and Jawani Ki Reet. By doing these films, Kanan Devi has become very famous as an actor but became more famous as a singer. All her films started running in packed audiences and any place in India, her fan started following her. Therefore, constant protection became necessary.
Kanan Devi did a lot of hard work to establish herself as a singer. She started learning the music from Rai Chand Boral. He helped her to improve her Hindi accent and also taught her Western and Indian classical music. She learnt the Indian Classical Music under Allah Rakha and Bhishmadev Chatterjee. She also learnt Ravindra Sangeet from Anadi Dastidar. As a singer, she had a quality of changing the position of voice. Whenever required, she used to dramatically drop her voice in speech tone. For this, better listen to songs like Humari Laz from film Lagan of 1943 and Zara Nainose Naina from film Hospital in 1943. If you are a good listener of Hindustani Classical Music, at the time of singing Tarana, you are aware the use of meaningless syllables (part of a word which contains one vowel sound) become a special character for its identification. Like that the use of meaningless syllables in playful loving duet , singers have to utter such words in proper tonal colours to bring the liveliness of songs and Kanan Devi had done well in Dara Dara in Ambava Ki Dali for film Vidhyapati of 1938. According to Sangeetacharya Ashok Ranade in his article Shanta Apte and Kanan Devi, he said that Kanan Devi acquired a naturalness of a woman's song rendered under zero performing pressure. When needed her intonation and singing could create an effect of pleasant exuberance of which the best example is Duniya Yeh Duniya Toofan Mail from film Jawab (1942).
Kanan Devi has played a wonderful role in Vidhyapati, Anuradha, Mukti and many more. She dominated these films. Her duet song, “Moree Angana Mein Aaye Aali” with K C Dey made her the leading singing star. Kanan Devi started ruling in the hearts of her fans with her charming performances. She worked with biggest names in Indian Cinemaes like K L Saigal, Pankaj Mullick, Pramathesh Barua, Pahari Sanyal, Chabi Biswas and Ashok Kumar.
Kanan Devi married Ashok Mitra who was well educated in 1940 and was son of staunch Brahmo Samaj educationist Hermana Chandra Mitra. This marriage did not go long as Kanan Devi was not ready to leave her film career. In 1945, they separated from each other. Later on she married Haridas Bhattacharjee who was in the Navy, later became film director. They had been blessed with one son. She formed an organisation to help senior female artists and also some other charitable institutions to promote Bengali and Hindi films. Kanan Devi stopped singing after 1947. Shri Krishna Menon invited her to do her performance at Indian House, London on 15th August 1947. It was her last performance. In her autobiography, she described it as the greatest moment of her life. She also mentioned that she had been inspired by next generation singers especially Lata Mangeshkar. In 1956, she did her last film Asha and last theatre work in Bengali Indranath Srikanta O Annadadidi in 1959.
At the evening of her life, she became the devotee of Lord Krishna and started spending her life reading Bhagvad Geeta for her self-realisation and inner space. She has been honoured by giving Padma Shree in 1968 and Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1976. She has been awarded as a best actor for Parichay in 1942 and in 1943 for Sheh Uttar. Such a versatile actress died on 17th July 1992 in Kolkata at the age of 78. She was great actress in 30s and 40s. She achieved this on her own. She began her career as a child artist at the age of ten and became one of the biggest star of her time. Started from Rs. 5/- , she started taking Rs. 100000/- for a song and Rs. 500000/- per film. Even though she had done on her own, she gave credits to many individuals who helped her to become a great star. In her words,” For a nine- or 10-year-old girl, the terms ‘artiste’ or ‘art’ can be nothing but big words. One can say, instead, that the need to earn a living led an orphaned, helpless girl to cling to the one path she found, as a drowning man would to a straw, and tried to stand on her own feet. If later I developed any artistic skill it was due to many kind individuals. I can claim little credit for myself.”
Today’s generation might not know her name but in her time she was not only a melody queen and also glamorous actress of Indian Cinema. Without her name, it was impossible to write the history of Bollywood.
Mumbai
18/10/2020
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