Remember the child prodigy who sang the hit ‘Hai Na Bolo Bolo’ when she was just nine. Poornima is the oldest singer in terms of experience in the industry (who among today’s singers can boast of having worked with Naushad, Madan Mohan, C. Ramchandra, Anil Biswas, S. D. Burman and Shankar Jaikishan ).

Her career was planned to be launched at a function organised by the Punjab Association organised by Raj Kapoor, Pran and others. Slated to perform on the 12th of April 1971, tragedy struck on the 11th of April when her father suffered a cardiac arrest and died. The undaunted teenager encouraged by family and friends gave a performance, which impressed many and which also enabled her to get a scholarship of Rs. 250 to study music.

Marriage put a temporary halt to her singing career with regard to films as she stopped doing stage shows, which promptly dried up the offers for playback. Her last song as Sushma Shreshtha was in N. Chandra’s Ankur ‘Itni Shakti Humein Dena Mata’. Jingles took her attention where the professionalism made her settle to a steady work schedule.

Songs

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