Indubala

Indubala was born in Amritsar, the daughter of Motilal Bose and Rajabala. Her parents were with the Great Bengal Circus,^[1] and separated soon after her birth.Her father was a circus owner, her mother performed acrobatics in the circus. Her mother also had other siblings, including Matibala who worked in performance and Tinkary a circus performer. She lived with her mother in Calcutta. Her mother later began her singing career in Kolkata.^[2] She trained as a singer in Calcutta with several teachers, including Gauhar Jaan,^{[3][citation not found]} Kamal Dasgupta, and Kazi Nazrul Islam.^[4] Gauhar Jaan was indubala's most helpful teacher, not only teaching her to sing but also instructing her in etiquette. Indubala began her singing career as a courtesan (tawaif) in her teens.^{[5][citation not found][6]} Indubala's mother wanted her to become a nurse, she had even been accepted as an intern at a hospital in Pataldanga, Kolkata. However, Indubala didn't like nursing and ultimately chose to follow in her mother's footsteps as a singer, despite her mother's disappointment at her decision to give up nursing.^[7]

Indubala is considered one of the great Bengali women singers.^[8][9] She made her first of hundreds of recordings for Gramaphone Records in 1915 or 1916.^[10][11] She performed on stage with her mother's company, the Rambagan Female Kali Theatre,^[12] and at the Star Theatre. She sang on All India Radio beginning in 1927, on the broadcaster's second day on the air, and regularly through the 1930s.^[13] In 1936 she was appointed court musician to the Maharaja of Mysore.^[14] Beginning in the 1930s she provided playback vocals for sound films, and she acted on-screen in more than two dozen films, including Rajrani Meera (1933), Sati Sulochana (1934), and Naveena Sarangadhara (1936).^[15] She retired from the stage in 1950. She received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1975.^[1]

Indubala lived most of her life in the Rambagan neighborhood of Calcutta,^[16] and was concerned for the welfare of the actresses and sex workers concentrated in that district. "I am Rambagan's Indu," she declared. "Here I have learnt music, established myself, and got respect."^[12]

After several years of declining health, Indubala died in 1984, in Calcutta, in her mid-eighties.^[4] She is one of the title characters of Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's short story "Einstein and Indubala" (2016).^[17] In 2020 a compilation album of Indubala's recordings was released on vinyl, by Tara Disc.^[18]