New Delhi: Indian cinema’s popular playback singer Mubarak Begum died of prolonged illness in Mumbai on Monday. She was 80.

She will be best remembered for her songs in the 50s and 60s, including those she sang for Bimal Roy’s movies Devdas and Madhumati.

Press Trust of India said Begum died at her residence in suburban Jogeshwari in Mumbai. “Mubarak Begum is no more with us. She passed away at 9:30pm at her residence in Jogeshwari. She was unwell from quite sometime,” a family member told PTI.

Begum gave scores of Hindi film songs and ghazals, mainly between the 1950s and 70s after making her singing debut with 1949 film Aiye in which she had a solo track, ‘Mohe Aane Lagi Angdai Aaja Aaja’ and ‘Aao Chale Sakhi Wahan’ with Lata Mangeshkar. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Begum worked with the best music directors in the film industry — S D Burman, Shankar Jaikishan and Khayyam — on movies that starred screen legends like Sunil Dutt, Nargis and Rajendra Kumar.

She sang ‘Woh Na Aayenge Palat Kar’ in Devdas with music by SD. Roy used her voice once again in Madhumati (1958), where she sang ‘Hum Haal-e-Dil Sunaenge’ for music composer Salil Choudhury. ‘Kabhi Tanhaiyon Mein Hamari Yaad Aayegi, the title song of Tanuja-starrer Hamari Yaad Aayegi, remains one of Begum’s most remembered tracks.

In 2011, the Maharashtra government had sanctioned financial aid of Indian Rs 100,000 for treatment of the singer.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2016