Uma Devi: Music, comedy and courage

In these days of political correctness, a stout woman as a figure of humour might not be acceptable but Uma Devi as Tuntun entertained countless film goers in a simpler age. 

In that brilliantly choreographed song from ‘Haathkadi’ (1982), ‘Chhodo chhodo meri bahein’ there is a moment when a dancer in mask is unmasked and she turns out to be Tuntun with her inimitable grin. Long after the song is over, one does not remember the heroine Reena Roy, one remembers Tuntun with her grin.

Tuntun is remembered as a comedienne of the era when a parallel comedy track was part of the navarasas of a film, the era when comedians like Agha, Yaqoob, Gope, Muqri, Johnny Walker, Mahmood, Asit Sen, Keshto Mukherji were comedy stars. In this company Uma Devi held her own as Tuntun.

Feminists have rediscovered her as an icon who battled adversity to carve herself a niche in a male dominated industry.

Indeed, her life story is one of amazing courage. Her parents were murdered in a family land dispute when she was two. Her nine-year-old brother lovingly took care of her but he too was murdered. Relatives who took in the orphan child treated her as a maid servant. There was no question of going to school. 

She listened to the songs on the radio and copied them, away from her relatives who frowned on singing. That was all the musical training she received. Her talent was god given.

With the help of a friend, she escaped from that life of drudgery and came to Bombay. While listening to songs on the radio she dreamed of one day singing in films and people listening to her voice over the radio.  

She came to Bombay with an introduction to director Nitin Bose’s assistant. She heard that A R Kardar, a big film maker, was going to make a film. She walked into his studio, went to his office, saw a man standing there and asked him where Kardar was; she wanted to sing for his film. So innocent she was of filmi protocol. The person she accosted was Kardar himself. He must have been amused by her audacity but he was impressed enough to call his music director Naushad and tell him to give the girl a chance. 

Kardar was making ‘Dard’ (1947) with Suraiya and Munawar Sultana as the heroines, and Naushad as the composer. Her voice was tested, was found suitable and her first song was recorded. The song was ‘Afsana likh rahi hoon’. This is an evergreen song and it deservedly became a hit. Three more songs were recorded by her for ‘Dard’, ‘Aaj machi hai dhoom’, ‘Yeh kaun chala’ and ‘Betab hai dil’. The last one was a duet with Suraiya. 

Suraiya in an interview with Raju Bharatan had mentioned that Uma Devi — later famous as Tuntun — had three nattily trendy sounding Naushad songs to put over in ‘Dard’. (Her) solo renditions (were) almost to envy in the film. As Naushad’s orchestration reached a new high, “I tell you, only Naushad could have made Uma Devi to sing to such catchy effect,” she had noted.

In the duet with the sweet voiced Suraiya, Uma Devi held her own. All her songs were hits. That was no mean achievement when there were singers like Noor Jehan, Suraiya, Zohrabai Ambalewali, Shamshad Begam, Geeta Roy, Ameerbai Karnataki and others in the field.

Her success brought her to S S Vasan’s Gemini studios in Madras, a mark of having truly arrived. She playbacked for T R
Rajakumari in Chandralekha, the first pan-Indian blockbuster from the South. But the distinction of becoming a Gemini singer came at a cost. 

Kardar was upset that she had broken her contract with him, which stipulated that she would not sing for outside production houses. She returned from Madras and found that Kardar studio was closed for her. 

The musical association with Naushad came to an end; he had become a partner of Kardar. Was this a token of Bombay Madras cine rivalry? Who knows. The great P B Srinivas was certainly a victim of that, as he once told me.

Meanwhile she had got married to an old friend and had four children. As a result, she had put on weight. Family responsibilities had increased. Income had dwindled. She needed work, she went back to Naushad. He told her that the playback scene had changed. Singers like Lata Mangeshkar had entered the field. She would find it difficult to compete with them. He advised her to take up acting. 

Uma Devi being Uma Devi said that she would act only with Dilip Kumar. Naushad was then scoring music for Dilip Kumar starrer ‘Babul’ (1950). He got her a role in the film. 

Dilip Kumar gave her the name Tuntun. A new career began for Uma Devi. As Tuntun she acted in nearly 200 films. She played memorable roles in films of some fine filmmakers like Guru Dutt. Good directors extracted good performances from her.

Sadly, her last days were spent in utter poverty. Journalists who interviewed her then found that her cheerfulness was intact. She was as lively and humorous in life as she was on screen. Shailendra’s line from a song in ‘Anaadi’ (1959) comes to mind, “...dil ki chot chhupa kar humne aapka dil behlaya” (Hiding my heart’s pain, I entertained you).

Her songs would endure. They are part of the golden age of film music. In all she recorded 85 songs for different composers.