New Delhi, April 14 (IANS) Her affect persists in Bollywood even after her identify has light from public reminiscence, althrough remixes of her rollicking hits from the Nineteen Fifties proceed to be in circulation.
One other, and never that well-known, legacy of Shamshad Begum, although, was initiating what later grew to become “merchandise numbers”, although her contributions had been extra perky than provocative, saucy than raunchy, and racy with out being ribald.
After which, they had been delivered in a sturdy voice, whose readability was in comparison with a temple bell by composer O.P. Nayyar, with a full-blown gusto and sense of abandon.
“Udan khatole pe udh jaaun” (“Anmol Ghadi”, 1946), “Mere piya gaye Rangoon” (“Patanga”, 1949), “Kabhi aar kabhi paar” (“Aar Paar”, 1954), “Bisvi sadi hai ye bisvii sadi” (“Chaalis Baabaa Ek Chor”, 1954), “Leke pehla pehla pyar”, “Kahin pe nigahen kahin pe nishana”, and “Boojh mera kya naam re” (“CID”, 1956) are prime examples.
After which, almost forty years earlier than Madhuri Dixit in “Tezaab” (1988), Shamshad Begum, who was born on at the present time (April 14) in 1919 and handed away days after her 94th birthday in 2013, had already made the nation depend “Ek do teen…”, in Raj Kapoor’s “Awara” (1951).
Nonetheless, she was not simply the singer for these foot-tapping however peripheral songs, but additionally the voice of many heroines, as songs like “Mohan ki muraliya baaje” (“Mela”, 1948), “Milte hello aankhen dil hua deewana kisi ka” (“Babul”, 1950), “Saiyan dil mein aana re” (“Bahar”, 1951), “Door koi gaye dhun ye sunaye” (“Baiju Bawra”, 1952), and lots of extra present.
Hindi movies’ first feminine playback celebrity, Shamshad Begum held her personal towards present singers just like the classically skilled Ameerbai Karnataki and Zohrabai Ambalewali and singing actresses like Noor Jehan and Suraiya. The truth is, Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle, who had been rising then, had been counselled to sing in her type.
Shamshad Begum’s musical skills had been recognised at college, the place her principal made the five-year-old lead prayers. She sang at non secular and household capabilities, although her conservative household was not very eager, given the prevailing norms, her daughter Usha Ratra had instructed IANS quickly after her mom’s demise.
Nonetheless, her father’s youthful brother, who was keen on music, paved her method, taking her, aged 11, to an audition with Lahore-based music composer Ghulam Haider, who was so impressed along with her that he signed her for a gramophone file. Extra importantly, her uncle additionally satisfied her father to let her go forward.
Nonetheless, her father imposed two circumstances – that she could be veiled whereas recording and by no means photographed and Shamshad Begum duly honoured them – for a lot of many years later, there wasn’t a single {photograph} of her.
She got here to public discover in 1937 when she was chosen to sing on All India Radio in Peshawar and Lahore. Legendary filmmaker Mehboob Khan was instrumental in starting her movie profession, convincing her household, particularly her father, to let her transfer to Bombay, providing to supply all amenities for her household.
She hit it large proper along with her first movie – homicide thriller “Khazanchi” (1941), after which “Taqdeer” (1943), the debut of Nargis. She was eagerly wanted and several other composers together with Naushad, Nayyar and S.D.Burman, owed their rise to her willingness to sing for them once they had been attempting to realize a foothold.
With no classical coaching, Shamshad Begum had no restrictions in singing full pressure however she by no means uncared for rhythm and diction – take the well-known “Kabhi aar kabhi paar”, the place she accelerates her tempo within the antaras and slows down a shade to emphatically ship the punch strains: “..Luta chain qarar”, “… Hothon par takrar” and eventually “…Ab to ho gaya pyar”.
Then there may be “Aana meri jaan Sunday ke Sunday” (“Shehnai”, 1947), the place she gives the homespun voice to the mock Anglicised variations of C. Ramchandra and Meena Kapoor.
Whereas she maintained her place amid the rise of Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, et al, the dying of her husband Ganpat Lal Batto – whom she married in 1934 regardless of household opposition to the inter-faith marriage – in an accident in 1955, led her to withdraw from singing.
Naushad and Nayyar did handle to coax her again for songs like “Holi aayi re kanhaai” (“Mom India”, 1956), “Reshmi salwar kurta” (“Naya Daur”, 1957) and “Teri mehfil mein qismat” (“Mughal-e-Azam”, 1960), however then, she stop for good – solely making a quick comeback to render “Kajra mohabbatwala” (“Kismat”, 1968), a duet the place she proved her voice had not misplaced any vigour.
She spent the remainder of her life along with her daughter, coming again into the limelight in 2004 when there have been studies that she had handed away.
Belated recognition adopted as she was conferred the Padma Bhushan in 2009, and a particular sequence of India Submit stamps of 10 fashionable singers in 2016 had her as one of many solely two girls – together with Geeta Datt.
(Vikas Datta might be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in)
–IANS
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