Zafar Samdani:
She had the courage to assert her giant presence. She did it with her incomparable talent. More important, when she was pitched against odds, she made her class and strength known with street bravado.
The queen is dead! In this case the adage has to be left incomplete because there is no heir, successor, peer, no fake claimant to the throne, not even a pretender. It could not have been otherwise: she was unique. As a soprano. As a human being. As a member of society and citizen of Pakistan.
At times you wonder if she was a greater artist or a greater citizen. But we are petty, and grudge people their gifts, their talents, their distinctions, the contributions they make towards collective strength. We make a show of religion but are unwilling to acknowledge that God Himself blessed her by taking her away during the Holy Month. It is a world of pygmies that Nur Jehan lived in. She had the courage to assert her giant presence. She did it with her incomparable talent but when she was pitched against odds, she made her class and strength known with street bravado.
There is the incident of a strongman of Lahore pressurizing her not to record background songs for a feature. She did not cow down, went to the studio on the appointed day, had the instrumentalists picked up from their homes - they were afraid of the hoodlum who had threatened that Nur Jehan could be assisted only at one’s own peril. She wasn’t overawed by toughies brandishing guns in the studio because she knew that she was Nur Jehan, the Melody Queen and she could not be gunned down like other mortals. She recorded her song. After that, she exhibited her pragmatic side and telephoned the strongman who was reputed to be close to Governor Kalabagh and made her peace with him. She recorded songs for the composer he was supporting. But at her terms. This his how she fought out all the battles in her life and this is how she distinguished herself as a vital weapon in Pakistan’s armoury in the 1965 war.
Her role in that war is not history: it is still a fresh experience with many of us. Her songs still reverberate in the atmosphere. She was a great source of inspiration for the soldiers on front lines; in the streets, people went around humming them, her voice strengthening the resolve of all the citizens. Her dedication while rendering war songs was a page from the greatest books of patriotism. She spent hours at the Lahore radio station rehearsing and recording and would not think of calling it a day till she was satisfied. A perfectionist to the core, she wasn’t easily satisfied. Reputed to be money hungry, she produced her immortal album virtually for a song. No one had to persuade her to participate in the war effort. She stepped forward voluntarily.
While writers and artists have always featured in wars as morale builders, the tradition of epic music and poetry has been sustained from Homer and Umrao ul Qais to Umme Kulsoom and Nur Jehan. The state took over the task of mobilizing masses and bolstering the morale of soldiers in contemporary times and the individual’s role and contribution became a component of governmental war machineries. But two artists rose above the new system, Umme Kulsoom in Egypt and Nur Jehan in Pakistan.
The supreme soprano of Egypt was a goddess in her country and venerated in the entire Arabic-speaking world. One cannot think of Jamal Abdul Nasir not standing up to greet Umme Kulsoom; Egypt officially mourned her demise. Nur Jehan had her moments of glory but they were all of her own; the state did not give the artist her due at any stage. Dust and controversy clouded the view the only time she was accorded recognition from the highest level.
Had a political government been in place, many of the ‘corrupt’ representatives of the people would have forced the authorities to take more concrete and authentic notice of Nur Jehan’s death than issuing a perfunctory, clumsily and crudely worded condolence message on a stereotype format from the President and Chief Executive. The message suggested a paucity of imagination and a lamentable lack of cultural depth at the highest level in the country. One expected a more convincing and institutional response from an administration presided over by the armed forces. They owe her a debt of gratitude, not that other citizens of Pakistan can ever forget the courage of Nur Jehan’s convictions and the melodious articulation of national aspirations by her.
There were times when Nur Jehan may have felt fulfilled. A state reception for the then Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, by Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto during her first term was such an occasion. Spotting her on a near by table, Rajiv went up to Nur Jehan to pay his respects, she obliged by rendering a few couplets. At another time, she was a guest, as mother of a graduating daughter at a Convocation ceremony of National College of Arts. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif saw her from the rostrum and came down to join her for a few minutes. She was seated in the second row, the front being reserved for government officials. She took all, the rough and the not so rough, in her stride which remained firm at every turn in her life, regardless of pressures and circumstances.
It is unfair to try to evaluate her level and class of an artist in a newspaper obituary; it is something not easily to be accomplished in volumes. At the same time, a few words can suffice; the rest would be elaborations. Kajjan Bai trained her in classical disciplines from an early age. At seven she became a familiar voice in the subcontinent when she rendered a background number for a Calcutta-based movie. That turned her into a child prodigy. One cannot say if the development was a milestone in her career or a milestone because all the eyes were focused on her from then on. The start was instrumental in confirming her to film singing. Who knows what height she would have conquered had she remained unfettered by the limitations of medium. It is a measure of the excellence of Nur Jehan’s art that she came to be acknowledged as great and incomparable even as a singer wholly restricted to a field of narrow scope.
She demonstrated a vast range: traversing from high trajectories to low ones came to her with natural facility; she could smoothly take sharp turns, move between pauses, silences, sobs, laughters, hiccups, indeed all conceivable moods. That is one reason why she did not want a crowd around when she was recoding a song, particularly if it was a composition of sadness; she could break in to tears while rendering it. This sums up her talent but is obviously not enough to describe the range and accomplishment of an artist like Nur Jehan.
If music was taught at some Pakistani university, the task would be easy. A Nur Jehan Chair could be established and researchers could be commissioned to analyze, evaluate and make an inventory of the various aspects and facts of her singing. That, also, is not to be. But there are possibilities. The film industry of Pakistan is unfortunately in a disorganized state. It can’t be asked to set up a library of Nur Jehan’s films. There is precious little that the National Film Development Corporation is required to do. Considering everything, it is the only organization which can organize a library of her movies: the government can belatedly fulfil its responsibilities through NAFDEC.
We owe her a lot more but this much should suffice for a beginning. It is generally ignored that Nur Jehan was a leading star of Indian cinema before she and husband Shaukat Hussain Rizvi decided to migrate to Pakistan. In the country of their choice she continued to occupy the top slot till she opted to work only as playback singer. Hers was a voluntary withdrawal from the screen at a time when she was at the peak of popularity as an actress. While her talent as actress was in no way comparable to her class as singer, Nur Jehan’s impact on the screen was considerable and cannot be ignored. NAFDEC should organize a library as also back research on her acting. Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) is a shadow if its original self today. Yet it remains a professional organization with experience and expertise to gather and preserve her songs which run in to thousands. Her work is cultural heritage we should be proud of. Unfortunately some of it has already been destroyed; the rest should not be permitted to perish. Only PBC can save it. One hopes it has the will to display and assert its professional authority and resourcefulness.
