gujarati world

Legendary bhajan singer Juthika Roy, 88, is an artist much heard and least seen. ‘Chupake Chupake Bol Maina’ is an opportunity at last for her fans to have closer glimpse of their favourite singer.

‘Chupake Chupake…’ is a 25 minute journey into life of an alltime great singer, produced by Fizaben & Navneetlal Shah of Hiralakshmi Foundation (Mumbai) under able leadership & guidance of Rajanikumar Pandya, directed by Vipul Acharya. It features clippings of Juthika Roy singing live, rare pics & some rarest audio tracks including a piece from a qawwali sung by Juthikaji, her songs in 2 films and the song she sung on 15th Aug, 1947 among other gems.

As a towering figure of Indian music scenario in 20th century, Juthikaji’s fan-list include Gandhi, Nehru, Sarojini Naidu, Moraraji Desai, Lata Mangeshkar among many others. Unmoved by her fame and fan-list, Juthikaji has shunned glamour and led a simple & single life according to principles of Ramkrishna Mission.

We were fortunate to have her at Ahmedabad in a public felicitation program in May, 2008 under the banner of 5 member ‘Juthika Roy Sanman Samiti’. Rajanikumar Pandya, noted writer-journalist & music lover took the lead and arranged for the funds of graceful felicitation program and large scale publication of Juthikaji’s autobiography in Gujarati (‘Chupake Chupake Bol Maina’) along with other committee members namely Dhiru Parikh (poet, editor ‘Kumar’, Ahmedabad), Neela Shah (close associate of Juthikaji since decades, Mumbai), Lalit Dalal (music lover, brother of Neelaben, Ahmedabad) & Urvish Kothari. The autobiography was translated from Bengali by Ms.Sugna Shah & edited by Biren Kothari. Juthikaji was presented a cheque of Rs. 1.88 lakhs as token of appreciation. She was also felicitated at Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan campus, Andheri, Mumbai after Ahmedabad function. (Photo: Rajnikumar Pandya, Juthika Roy, Neelaben Shah)

Interested music lovers may contact