Kanan Devi, the evergreen melody and movie queen of the 1930s and 40s, was a remarkable personality. She was among the early singing stars of Indian cinema and is credited popularly as the first star of Bengali cinema. Her singing style, usually in rapid tempo, was used instrumentally in some of the biggest hits of New Theatres, Kolkata.

It was her superb performance in Radha Film Company’s Bengali production “Manmayee Girls School” that made Kanan famous. She was acclaimed by the media as the prettiest and most attractive singing star of the day. She was a woman of many dimensions: a fashionista, a producer who made many successful films in the fifties and sixties, a philanthropist for women in theatre and film-centred welfare projects.

She was awarded the Padma Shri Award in 1968. She was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1976. A postage stamp, bearing Kanan's likeness, was released to honour her by India's Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology in February 2011.

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