**Remembering Noorjehan
**
**If a Hebrew prophet spoke from his cradle, she crooned at birth. When Allah Wasai was born on September 21, 1926 to an impoverished musician Madad Ali in Kasur, her aunt rushed out to greet her father thus: ‘Congratulations brother! This girl will change your fortune for she cries in tune.’**
The prophesy began coming true in less than ten years when as a singing and dancing child star, Baby Noorjehan joined her elder sisters Haider Bandi and Eidan Bai at the moving, Taka Theatre which worked out of Lahore. Later the sisters joined a theatre group in Calcutta. In 1938, just seven years after Indian cinema got its first talkies, Alam Ara, Noorjehan recorded her first playback number Shala jawaniyan maane, aakha na morreen pi laye for the Punjabi flick Gul Bakauli, which was released the following year. Since that debut, Madam was on the roll till her last, if ominous song, Ki dam da bharosa yaar, dam aawe na aawe, incidentally also a Punjabi number which was recorded in 1996. She breathed her last in Karachi on December 23, 2000.
In the six vast decades that passed between her first and the last recording, Noorjehan reigned as the subcontinent’s Melody Queen, a title that was awarded to her for the classic, haunting number, Bulbulu mat ro yahan aansoo bahana hai manaa for the flick Zeenat released in 1945 from Bombay. During independence, she moved to Pakistan, and was amongst the pioneers who revived the Lahore film industry which was in disarray after its non-Muslim studio owners, directors and producers relocated to Bombay.
Her vast repertoire includes evergreen hits composed and sung to perfection from across the genres. Icons like Master Gulam Haider, Master Abdullah, Feroz Nizami, Naushad, Ustad Nazar Hussain, Rasheed Attre, Khwaja Khursheed Anwar, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Baba Chishti and Nisar Bazmi, have all composed riveting hits for Madam, using incomparable scale and the range of her voice.
She was also gifted with the company of some of the best known literati with whom she rubbed shoulders and whose works she sang to immortalisation. Her admirers included luminaries like Sufi Ghulam Mustafa Tabassum, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Nasir Kazmi and Ahmed Faraz. Song writers writing for films who gave her some of her best lyrics were Tanvir Naqvi, Qateel Shifai, Ahmad Rahi and Hazeen Qadri.
She also gave Pakistan a new genre, which later developed into a category we all know today as national anthems or milli naghme. The new beginning was made during the 1965 war, when Madam sang live on radio and TV some of the most gripping songs ever composed. Two numbers that stood out had anti-war sentiments woven into their lyrics. These were Rang laaye ga shaheedon ka lahu by Tanvir Naqvi and Ai putar hattaan te naeen vikde by Sufi Tabassum.
Noorjahan was arguably the most versatile of singers anywhere; one who did justice to many varying moods across the board. While her sad songs could make you cry, her flamboyant numbers would make you dance; when she sang ghazal or a classic poem, she inspired the listener with her gusto and composure, indeed a rare achievement; her devotional numbers, starting from qawwali and dhamal, and going on to naat and marsiya, hovered between ecstasy and submission.
Amongst her contemporaries she also stood out for her meticulous pronunciation of Urdu and Punjabi; every word she crooned was crystal clear and harked back to the native speaker’s facility with the language, even though Urdu was not her mother tongue. Even so, from her first to the last song she recorded she brought immense effort into rendering it right. Despite her commanding persona, disposition and stature, she was never shy of being corrected; rather, she was humbled and thanked her benefactor profusely when a mistake was pointed out. Noorjehan was never off the learning curve, and in that she died a very young soul.
In a country where stardom is so very rare, she was one of the very few true stars that shone with a blinding glitter. The only other name that comes to mind in relation to Noorjehan’s popularity, though not her persona, is perhaps Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. But then even he owed his runaway fame to a global audience; it wasn’t exactly home-grown.
Besides her singing excellence Madam’s was a multi-faceted personality which will be missed by many for many things. These were her largesse of heart and generosity, witty humour, and certain eccentric traits which she flaunted and got away with like no one else.
we’ll post her songs from time to time iA.