Renowned singer who ruled over hearts of Marathi Lawni lovers for over six decades, Sulochana Chavan, passed away at her residence in Fanaswadi in Kalbadevi in South Mumbai, on Saturday. She breathed her last at the age of 92 years.
For the last few days she was not keeping good health. Some surgeries were also performed upon her. However, he health conditions started deteriorating, mainly due to old age. She was honoured with Padma Shri this year for her contribution in the field of art.
Sulochana spent her childhood in a small chawl in Mumbai. She started singing at the age of five in local small community programmes. Noted Marathi actress Sandhya also acted with her as a child artist. She also acted in Hindi, Urdu and Gujarati dramas in her early age. She never had any formal training in music, but learnt listening to gramophone records.
She rendered her voice for the first time for a song in Hindi Film ‘Krishna Sudama’ at the age of nine. She sang several songs for Master Bhagwan’s films with Mohammad Rafi, Manna Dey, Shamshad Begum, Geeta Dutt, Shyamsunder and others.
At the age of 16 years she recited Ramayan in Bhojpuri with Manna Dey. Besides Marathi, she handled several music types like bhajan and gazals in Bhojpuri, Hindi, Tamil, Punjabi and Gujarati.
The first Lawni was presented for Acharya Atre’s film ‘Hich Mazi Laxmi’, which gave a different turn to Sulochana as Lawni singer. She came to be known as ‘Lawni Samradni’ .
