Cinemaazi remembers Surinder Kaur on her death anniversary
14 Jun 2006
Remembering Surinder Kaur, known as the Nightingale of Punjab, who passed away on 15 June, 2006. Born in 1929 in Lahore, she is renowned for popularising the Punjabi folk song genre, besides rendering playback for Hindi films in the period from 1948 to 1952. Debuting as a singer with Mehendi (1947), followed by Shaheed (1948) for which she sang three songs, she rendered approximately 58 songs in the 22 films she provided playback for. It was on stage that her talent truly came alive, as she revived Punjabi folk songs via her performances. She recorded approximately 2,000 songs, including popular duets with Asa Singh Mastana, Karnail Gill, Harcharan Grewel, Rangila Jatt, and Didar Sandhu. She also sang songs for Punjabi films like Madari, Mutiyar (both 1950), Balo (1951) and Satluj De Kandhe (1964). Regarded not only as the queen of Punjabi folk, her singing of the poetic verses of Amrita Pritam, Mohan Singh and Shiv Kumar Batalvi remain memorable. Honoured with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Punjabi Folk Music, and the Padma Shri award, her legend lives on.
