THE RECORD NEWS - The Digital South Asia Library - University of ...

Soon the Gramophone Company of India invited her to record songs. ‘Kaala Tor
Tarey Kadamtolay Cheye Thaki’ and ‘Bandho Na Torikhani Amar E Nadikuley’
were her first two songs to be published as records. The record number was P
4721. Thereafter she became a regular with HMV cutting innumerable discs.
1923 was the year when her first film, a silent one ‘Indrasabha’ was released.
Her first talkie was Jamuna Puliney (1933) in which she played the role of
Brindey. Soon she made her presence felt in singing roles in films like Radha
Krishna (1933), Char Darvesh (1933), Naseeb Ka Chakkar (1936), Maa Ki
Mamta (1936), Abartan (1936), Indira (1937), Devjani (1939) and several other
films in many different Indian languages like Urdu, Tamil and Telugu. As a record
artiste also her popularity hit the sky and she was specially invited by The Nizam
of Hyderabad to sing in court. In one of the discs during this period, her photo
was printed on one side of a record with the photo of Hyderabad's Nizam on the
other. That was the extent she impressed the Nizam with her songs and earned
his respect. Her stage performances continued at the same time and her songs
were a source of major attraction for all those who queued up for tickets of the
plays. For the radio she started to sing from the very first day broadcasting was
started. Her first song over the radio was ‘Nithura Nagara Shyam’. Her
association with Najrul Islam broadened her field and she recorded several
songs of Nazrul gradually achieving the status of a major exponent of such
songs. She quit acting long back but never lost touch with music since that was
her first love. Apart from a Gold disc from HMV, she was given the prestigious
Sangeet Natak Academy Award from Delhi and honorary D.Litt from Kalyani
University. Angurbala was popularly known as Sangeet Samragyee or ‘Empress’
of the Music World along with contemporary artiste Miss Indubala, who was her
close personal friend. A documentary film, titled ‘Teen Kanya’ featuring her along
with two other artistes namely Indubala and Kamala Jharia was made in 1972.
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