Mumbai: Urdu Markaz, a Mumbai-based organisation promoting the language, will honour singers Asha Bhosale, Sudha Malhotra, and Suman Kalyanpur, with the 'Mohsin E Urdu' award for 2025'.
The awards will be presented during the 5th Bhendi Bazar Urdu Festival which is scheduled to be held in February 2025. Urdu Markaz said that the group is honouring the singers for their contribution to the popularisation of Urdu/Hindustani.
Malhotra and Kalyanpur, who were critically-acclaimed playback singers in the fifties and sixties, have stepped out of the limelight since many years and have been rarely seen or heard in public lately. Advocate Zubair Azmi, Director, Urdu Markaz, and Chairman Awards Screening Committee, said that he spoke to Malhotra on Monday to talk to her about the awards.
"She told me that she does not travel much, but I told her that her fans will be happy to see and hear her again," said Azmi who added that he has been unsuccessful in contacting Kalyanpur.
Azmi said that the group is honouring the singers for their contribution in the spreading of Urdu/Hindustani among the masses through their nagmas or songs in the lingua franca of India.
"Two of these singers Asha and Suman are Marathis and their Urdu diction such as cheez, justaju, qarar, barq, qabool, hasrat, Mashallah, Allah meri tauba, sadqe jaun, are chiseled in fine Urdu," said Azmi
Sudha Malhotra's 'Salam e hasrat qabool karlo' and 'Tum mujhe bhool bhi jao' are among Urdu/Hindustani classics, as are Asha Bhosle's 'Dil cheez kya aap meri jaan lijiye' and 'Shookh nazar ki bijliyan'. Kalyanpur's voice, it is said, resembled Lata Mangeshkar's, but connoisseurs of Hindi film playback singing, will dispute this remark, said Azmi. "She was overshadowed by the Mangeshkar sisters (Lata and Asha), but her work is substantial and her voice was distinct," Azmi added.
Earlier recipients of 'Mohsin E Urdu' awards are Lata Mangeshkar, music maestro Khayyam, and actor Sachin Pilgaonkar who writes in Urdu under a penname.
