in singing and voice production within the framework of classical forms of thumri and dadra. Among her peers were Shamshad Begum, Zohrabai Ambalewali, Juthika Roy, Zeenat Begum, etc. Both Shamshad and Zohrabai had resounding voices with a high range, while Rajkumari had a soft and very sweet voice with a small range. She sang quite a few songs with Mukesh. She did not get much opportunity to sing with Mohammed Rafi – mainly because Lata Mangeshkar was a fast upcoming singer at the time. She sang with Noor Jehan in Naukar (1943). She never sang with K. C. Dey, but she did sing songs composed by him, as well as his nephew, Manna Dey. She also sang many popular Punjabi-language film songs for the veteran Punjabi music directors Hansraj Behl and Sardul Kwatra in the 1950s. Later life Rajkumari was married very late in life. Her husband was V.K. Dubey who was from Benares, (Uttar Pradesh) where he spent a lot of his time (because he owned a shop there), while she settled in Bombay. He later joined her in Bombay. Rajkumari Dubey died in 2000. During her career, she would go on to sing songs for Neel Kamal, a Raj Kapoor and Madhubala starrer, and Hulchul (1951); but her two most famous films would be Bawre Nain (1950), where she sang for Geeta Bali "Sun Bairi Baalam Sach Bol Re" and Mahal (1949), where she sang "Ghabrekar Ke Jo Hum Sir Ko Takraayan" picturised on Vijayalakshmi and "Chun Chun Gunguruva Baje Jhumba", a duet with Zohrabai Ambalawali. By this time, however, Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle had shot to fame, relegating most other female singers in the industry to the sidelines. She sang her only song for O. P. Nayyar in the 1952 movie Aasmaan, which was his debut movie; "Jab Se Pee Piya Aan Base". The story goes that he was considering Lata Mangeshkar for the song. (Rest of the songs of the movie are sung by Geeta Dutt and C. H. Atma). When somebody told this to Lata, she said something about him which led to a misunderstanding. Angered, O. P. Nayyar made Rajkumari sing this song and never repeated her. He never used Lata to sing for him as well. Rajkumari endured a long dry spell until music director Naushad spotted her singing in the chorus for his background score for Pakeezah (1972). Naushad was much