Surinder Kaur

Surinder Kaur recorded so many (could not get the accurate number, but estimated approx 2000 based on what i have heard and read) songs in her life and not only she just sang, but also introduced culture of concerts in punjab. She had many golden hits including “Lathe di chadar�, “Suhe ve cheere valeya� and “Kaala Doriya� . She also gave many duet performances with various singers.

In August 1943, when she was 13, Kaur gave her first live performance on Lahore Radio, and the following year made her first record, along with her sister, for HMV. The duo soon became household names across the sectarian divide, and no Punjabi wedding was complete without their songs - played on hand-wound machines with mother and daughter as protagonists. In Punjabi culture, the departure of the newly wed daughter is always a heart-breaking scene, which from her family’s side can only be seen as death before reincarnation.

After the partition of India split the Punjab in 1947, Kaur moved to Delhi with her parents, and then to Bombay, the centre of the Hindustani film industry, working as a film playback singer until 1952. She then returned to Delhi and married Joginder Singh Sodhi, a lecturer in Punjabi literature at Delhi University: “He was the one who made me a star,� she recalled. “He chose all the lyrics I sang and we both collaborated on compositions.� They both travelled to farflung villages in East Punjab for Ipta, the Indian People’s Theatre Association, run by the Indian Communist party and spreading the message of worldwide peace.

Apart from folksongs, Surinder Kaur sang Muslim Sufi Punjabi kafis and lyrics by contemporaries such as Nand Lal Noorpuri, Amrita Pritam , Mohan Singh and Shiv Kumar. She used to reminisce about the golden days of Punjabi music, when discerning listeners respected artists like her; she very much resented the present-day tendency towards fusion. Her best duet partners were female: her sister, her daughter Dolly Guleria and granddaughter Sunaina - and in recognition of the success of this collaboration, in 1995 the album Surinder Kaur: the Three Generations was released.