Noor Jehan
Noor Jehan (September 21, 1926 - December 23, 2000) was a famous singer and actress. She is revered in Pakistan by her title Mallika-e-Tarranum (Queen of Melody) and is considered by some to be one of the greatest singers to have come from the Indian Subcontinent. Noor Jehan has appropriately sung around 10,000 songs in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and Sindhi films in both India and Pakistan.
Birth and Family
On the dark night of Tuesday, September 21, 1926, in a small house of poor musicians, at Kot Murad Khan in the sleepy town of Kasur, in rural, undivided Punjab, a newborn baby girl was crying. When the child was born, her father's sister on hearing her wail, said to her brother "This one even wails in accordance with the scale". She was named Allah Wasai. This girl's voice was destined to be heard beyond the four walls of the humble dwelling in years to come. Her parents were professional musicians and genealogists working for local landowning families, performing at life cycle events. The family also performed at the local theatre and at seasonal fairs. Her father was Madad Ali and her mother was Fateh Bibi and she was the youngest child of her parents in a family of thirteen. Noor Jehan had six brothers - Mian Nawab Din, Gul Muhammad ("Gulloo"), Muhammad Hussain, Muhammad Shafi, Siddique, and Inayat Hussain. Noor Jehan had six sisters - Eidan Bai, Haider Baandi, Gulzar Begum (or Bibi Gulzar), Ameena Begum, Baharo, and Undam Begum ("Umda" or "Machine"). Sadly, three of her brothers ended up in mental institutions.
Childhood and stage career
From an early age, she displayed signs of having a melodious voice, which became more apparent by the time she was four or five years old. She could pick up just about anything - be it a folk song or a popular number from a theatrical drama - she could imitate it to perfection. Realizing her immense talent, her mother started her training in singing and dancing. She received early music lessons under Kajjanbai (a singer between 1920 and 1930) who made her do "riyaz" up to 12 hours a day. After her morning "riyaz", a teacher would come to help her learn to read and write. She received early training in classical singing under Ustad Ghulam Mohammed who instructed her in classical music and voice production within the framework of classical forms of thumri, dhrupad, and khayal. The family moved to Lahore from Kasur where her elder sisters Eidan Bai and Haider Baandi, began their stage career. In around 1930, she won a part in a silent film called Hind ke Tare (1930) made by Indian Pictures, Calcutta. Thereafter, the family moved to Bombay (now Mumbai) where she made 11 silent films in 1931, launching herself as a top child star during the 1930s in both silent and soon sound films. Her first talkie film was Sassi Punnu, released in 1932. She joined Kohinoor United Artists and appeared in some of their films. Later, she was employed by Seven United Artists and played the lead in some of their films opposite Khalil. She took up singing at six years of age and started making stage appearances with her elder sisters for rural theatre companies called the Taka Theatre. Later, she joined Sharda Film Co. and has played important roles in several of their films. She did not sing original songs but the famous hits of the day. She went to Lahore with her sisters and took part in zinda nach gana (live song and dance) which usually preceded the actual film show. She was only nine years old when the great Punjabi musician, G. A. Chisti introduced her to the stage in Lahore. He composed some ghazals, naats and some folksongs for her and she got 7 1/2 Annas for each song. She also got some classical music lessons under Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. Dewan Sardari Lal, a theatre financier, took the sisters to Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1935. During their stay in Calcutta, Mukhtar Begum, the sisters' ideal and a famous singing star in the 1930s, encouraged the three sisters and recommended them various producers. She also recommended them to her husband, Urdu drama writer, Agha Hashar Kashmiri (1879-1935)'s Maidan Theatre, where she got the name Baby Noor Jehan. In later life, Noor Jehan adopted Mukhtar Begum's style of performing and wearing of a sari. The sisters got permanent jobs with one of the Seth Sukh Karnani Companies, Indira Movietone. Their popularity grew as they became known as Punjab Mail.
Career as a singer/childstar in Pre-Partition India
At this time, director K.D. Mehra, was in the process of making a Punjabi film, and persuaded his producer to cast the three in Pind Di Kudhi (1935). At this time, Baby Noor Jehan was beginning to be known as a singer/actress of some merit. In this film, Baby
Noor Jehan sang and recorded her first film song which was Lang Aaja Pattan, Channa Da Yaar. And so began the film career of Baby Noor Jehan. She next acted in a film called Missar Ka Sitara (1936) by the same company and sang in it for music composer Damodar Sharma. Baby Noor Jehan also played the child role of Heer in the film Heer Sayyal (1937). The role of Heer in this film was played by Balo, mother of famous Pakistani actress Sabiha Khanum. After three years in Calcutta, back in Lahore in 1938, it was Master Ghulam Haider who spotted her immense talent as a singer and composed songs that made her famous overnight. Baby Noor Jehan hit the nationwide with Gul Bakavli (1939) for renowned Bombay producer Dalsukh M. Pancholi where she recorded her first hit film song, Shala Jawaniyan Mane. Baby Noor Jehan's appeal changed from a child struggling to play bit roles into a young woman with immense potential ready to take off and launch her singing and acting career. When it was decided to cast her as a heroine the basic problem with the producer and director was how to erase the impression of her being a child in public perception. They feared that she would not be accepted as a heroine by the audience that had billed her a few years of being a child star. The first step was to remove the "Baby" prefix from her name, and though she was young, she was burly and appeared older than her age. Her image on screen posed no problems to the director, and so was born Noor Jehan, set to enter the adult world, barely in her mid-teens. Noor Jehan's first box office hit was the Punjabi film Yamla Jat (1940). M. Ismail played the title role and it was one of his best roles. M. Ajmal got his first significant role in this musical film. Chaudhry (1941), though not as successful as Yamla Jat, followed. Revolutionary musician Master Ghulam Haider introduced Baby Noor Jehan as a playback singer in Pancholi Art Productions' film Khazanchi (1941). It was the first film which was without actress Noor Jehan on screen and her songs were picturised on other actresses.
Career as a singer/actress in Pre-Partition India
Noor Jehan was first cast as a heroine in the Urdu film Khandaan (1942) opposite Pran (who later became one of India's most hated villains) as the hero. The film was also a debut for director Syed Shaukat Hussain Rizvi. Pancholi had recently involved Rizvi in the editing of Gul Bakavli (1939), Yamla Jat (1940), and Chaudhry (1941). The songs of Khandaan (1942), composed by Ghulam Haider became instant hits and established her as one of the four leading singers of films in India (the other three being Kanan Devi, Shanta Apte and Khursheed)
Khandaan's success saw her migrating to Bombay, where she shared melodies with the singing star Shanta Apte in Duhai (1943). After that, there was hit after hit with songs from Naukar (1943), Nadan (1943), Dost (1944) and Lal Haveli (1944). By now her popularity outsripped all others. She was the darling of masses, recognized and adored both for her singing and acting. After taking the leading role in Nadan (1943), she was presented with second lead in Naukar (1943), while Shobhana Samarth took the lead opposite Chandramohan. Dost (1944), directed by Rizvi, had the extremely gifted Motilal as the leading man opposite Noor Jehan with Rizvi playing her brother. It was in this film that Noor Jehan lent her voice for the second time, to another actress named Husn Bano. It was in Lal Haveli (1944) that Noor Jehan starred opposite singing star Surendra (they later made Anmol Ghadi (1946) together). Lal Haveli was also noted for the fact that Meena Kumari then a child star, played Noor Jehan's role as a child.
The year 1945 was a turning point for Noor Jehan. In Master Vinayak's Badi Maa (1945), she played lead with "Baby Lata Mangeshkar" and "Baby Asha Mangeshkar" in supporting roles. During breaks in shooting, she would ask the then unknown Lata to join in, in impromptu singing sessions. Once at leisure, after having Lata sing a song she had immortalised, Mere Liya Jahan Me from Khandaan (1942), Noor Jehan said to Master Vinayak, the director of the film, Meri baat note kar leejiye. Iss ki yeh alag tarike ki aawaz ek din poori duniya se apna loha manvaayegi. Noor Jehan's influence on the early songs of Lata are still discernible. Lata has always respected Noor Jehan and considers her one of her favourite singers. In fact, Lata (Noor Jehan's dearest "Latto")'s early singing was inspired by Noor Jehan, though the latter's weighty vocals were far car from Lata's sweeter and lighter voice. The year 1945 also brought Noor Jehan her first superhit in Bombay, Zeenat (1945). It was her inimitable rendition of the music that gained her the title Mallika-e-Tarranum or Queen of Melody. She dethroned reigning singing star Khursheed and rendered the obsolete nautch girl style of Zohrabai Ambalewali and Amirbai Karnataki. She also achieved another milestone, when she sung a Qawwali with Zohrabai Ambalewali and Amirbai Karnataki which was "Aahen Na Bhareen Shikave Na Kiye" - the first ever Qawwali recorded in female voices in subcontinent films.
In 1946, Noor Jehan acted in the enduring classic Anmol Ghadi (1946). The title was a fitting description of the magical moments in this film with superhit songs composed by Naushad making her the undisputed queen of films if there was any doubt left about her being a diva. Composers and lyricists vied to have their creations rendered by Noor Jehan. In the film Anmol Ghadi (1946), she played a poetess named Lata (going by the name Renu) caught in a love triangle, featuring the other two singing stars of the era, Surendra and Suraiya. So popular was the film that Noor Jehan's other three films released that year, Dil (1946), Humjoli (1946), and Sofia (1946) were pale in comparison. In Jugnu (1947), she starred with the then rising star Dilip Kumar. The music of the film catapulted the then struggling Mohammed Rafi. Noor Jehan had very few duets as her voice did not require the support and enhancement of others. Her effortless emotive capabilities and fluid grasp over the substance and essence of the lyrics is amazing, even to this day. Noor Jehan's last film in India was Mirza Sahibaan (1947) which starred Prithviraj Kapoor's brother Trilok Kapoor opposite Noor Jehan and the film brought some of her last musical hits.
Noor Jehan sang 127 songs in Indian films and and the number of talking films she made from 1932 to 1947 was 69. The number of silents was 12. Fifty-five of her films were made in Bombay, eight in Calcutta, five in Lahore and one in Rangoon, Burma.
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