Mubarak Begum

Mubarak Begum (5 January 1936 - 18 July 2016) was an Indian vocalist who sang in the Hindi and Urdu languages. She was playback singer in Bollywood films during the 1950s and 1960s. She had also recorded and given public performances in a number of other genres, including Ghazal and Na`at.
Career.
Mubarak Begum started her career with light music recitals performed for All India Radio, the Indian Government radio. Her career as a playback singer began in 1949 with the Indian, Hindi-language film Aiye (1949). It was the Indo-Pakistani composer Nashad (not to be confused with Indian composer Naushad) who gave Mubarak Begum her first break. The first song she recorded for films was "Mohe Aane Lagi Angrayi, Aja Aja Balam" (film Aiye, 1949). She also sang a duet with the then upcoming Lata Mangeshkar in the same film. A well recognized song in her career was "Kabhi Tanhaiyon Mein Yun" for composer Snehal Bhatkar in Kidar Sharma's film "Hamari Yaad Aayegi".
Popular songs.
Mubarak Begum has sung a total of 178 songs for Hindi films during her career, and the total number of films where her songs have appeared is 115. For a complete list of her songs, see List of songs recorded by Mubarak Begum. The following is a short list of her most popular songs:
Personal life.
Mubarak Begum was born into a Muslim family at Sujangarh in Churu district of Rajasthan. She was married to Mr. Shaikh, a man of her own community, and was the mother of two children, a son and a daughter. Her husband and daughter are both dead and she lived with her son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter.
Although she was a well-known singer, Mubarak Begum was not able to capitalize on her talents. She did not have the savvy 'networking' skills which are so important in careers connected to the entertainment industry, and her career remained stilted as a result. A competent singer, she was not a savvy businessperson. She was more interested in the music and less in the money, and her day-to-day expenses and generosity did not allow her to save much money. In a 2016 interview before she died, when asked, she said that the Pakistani ghazal singer Ghulam Ali was her favorite singer.
Mubarak Begum's daughter, who had been suffering from Parkinson's disease, died in October 2015, after which Begum's own health took a serious downturn. In May 2016, the press reported that Mubarak Begum was in hospital and that her family were unable to pay her medical bills. She lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Behram Bagh, in the Mumbai suburb of Jogeshwari, with her family consisting of a son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. Her only income, it was reported, was a pension which she received from her late husband's employer. This pension was reported by NDTV news channel to be Rs.800 ($12) per month and by DNA (an Indian newspaper) to be Rs.3000/- ($45) per month, both of which figures are extremely paltry by Indian standards and utterly inadequate for a person's sustenance. Mubarak Begum was dependent on her son, Hussain Shaikh, who earns an uncertain income by freelancing as a chauffeur, and was cared for by her daughter-in-law.
Begum's daughter-in-law, Zarina Hussain Shaikh, has told the press that the actor Salman Khan is virtually the only person from the Hindi film industry who is helping the family financially on a sustained, long-term basis. He had been paying the full costs of all medicines required by the elderly lady. The singer Lata Mangeshkar consoled Mubarak Begum after the death of her daughter and consoled with her. In June 2016, Vinod Tawde, a BJP minister in the government of Maharashtra, stepped in to help the family. He found that there were no government schemes under which he could release money to the Begum, therefore he asked a charitable trust run by people close to him to help her, and they have provided her with some money.
Mubarak Begum died on 18 July 2016 at her residence in Jogeshwari after a prolonged illness.
Filmography.
Madhumati (1958)