You must have heard many songs of Lata Mangeshkar, however not all of them are by Lata Mangeshkar. Some of the songs were actually of Suman Kalyanpur aka The Other Lata Mangeshkar
For example, “na tum humein jaano”, “mera pyaar bhi tu hai, ye bahar bhi tu hai”, “tumne pukara aur hum chale aaye”, “aaj kal tere mere pyaar ke charche”, etc. these are the songs of Suman Kalyanpur, not of Lata Mangeshkar.
Since there is too much similarity between her voice and Lata Mangeshkar’s voice, she was getting tagged as duplicate voice, however, she was having the same quality of singing as that of Lata Mangeshkar.
Suman Kalyanpur & Lata Mangeshkar
Suman Hemmadi (Kalyanpur)
Birth name: Suman Hemmadi
source: Wikipedia
Birth date: Born 28 January 1937 (age 85)
Currently living in: Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Genres: Indian classical music, playback singing
Occupation: Singer
Years active: 1954–1988
It is obvious that her similarity of voice with Lata’s voice will keep her unsung. Her contribution towards music was very less compared to Lata Mangeshkar, however she had a “fair” chance when Lata Mangeshkar refused to work with M. Rafi over royalty issues, in that period Music Directors used Suman’s voice for songs with M. Rafi and many other great singers of that time.
Suman hailed from an orthodox family and orthodox environment, hence she was not that open to the genres like cabarets or mujras, unlike Lata Mangeshkar, who could sing all kinds of genres.
In an interview she said that she was influenced by Lata Mangeshkar in her college days. However, having similar voice and mistakes by records who labeled wrong names on records kept her deprived of fame.
These are some of her great songs, and people still get confused her with Lata.
# Hindi Songs 🎶
🎼 Na tum humein jaano
🎼 Ye sama
🎼 Thehriye host mein aa loon, to chale jaiyegega
- Song: Thehriye host mein aa loon
- Singer: Rafi, Suman Kalyanpur
- Music Director: Khayyam
- Lyricist: Majrooh Sultanpuri
🎼 Rafi and Suman Kalyanpur Duets
# Marathi Songs 🎶
🎼 Nimbonichya jhada mage
Some great information here.