Atif Aslam

Atif Aslam is on cloud nine these days. Reason: his project Peace through Music in collaboration with the members of Guns ‘n’ Roses and songwriter-guitarist Lanny Cordola, members of bands like Giuffria, House of Lords and Magdallan (also known as Magdalen after Ken Tamplin’s departure) is on full song.

Atif has already penetrated the Hollywood and Bollywood markets, but with this project the pop icon bags further glory. Images on Sunday recently caught up with him for a chat regarding the project, his future plans and new Bollywood ventures, along with his thoughts on the recent floods in Pakistan.

Q. How has the response been to the project?

A. Amazing. A lot of musicians are really excited about jumping onto the project. Artistes who want to play at different places with different people will have a lot to explore through it.

We started off with a team of three and after the jam session, we are five at the moment. We have many artistes who we expect to join in with the likes of Saeen Zahoor, Abida Parveen, etc., from Pakistan and Matt Sorum, Gilby Clarke, etc., from the West. However, nothing is finalised yet.

Q. Some basic details of the project?

A. It’s about how the Americans should see the brighter side of Pakistan which they haven’t as yet. This is why it’s called Peace through Music. The point of teaming up with American musicians was that there was no better way than that of music to let people from both the sides know what either of them thinks about the other. It’s not just going to be single song; it will be a documentary, a DVD that’ll include the backstage footage of the performances, studio shoots, etc. We will come up with new seasons every year.

I have recorded a couple of songs. One is in Punjabi and another one is called Pakistan. Then there is a beautiful melody, Dreamer Awakes, by Lanny Cordola that I will sing with different famous musicians and artistes.

The songs that I have recently composed are the English track Adam’s Coming out of Heaven and the Punjabi Ek Mein Ek Tu.

Q. How many tracks do you plan to compose?

A. You never know, we might come up with 15 songs, 10 on the CD and the rest on DVD.

Q. When will the project be completed?

A. We haven’t decided a specific date because we don’t want to limit our creativity due to time constraints. When one gets time duration, one becomes very restricted and hence creativity suffers. However, we probably plan to launch it by the end of next year.

Q. Will it be launched season-wise?

A. Yes, but that depends on the response of the first season.

Q. Are you planning to shoot any videos?

A. We haven’t shot a video for this project however we recently shot one for The Sonic Peacemakers Project in Swat for a song called We Will Rise Again composed by Todd Shea in English and myself in Urdu. Urdu lyrics were penned by Shahzad Aslam. It was a great experience.

For this project, there will obviously be many videos but at this time, we are looking for resources because the scope of the project is very big.

Q. Which international artistes are you planning to take onboard?

A. There are many. We have spoken to Chris Martin (Cold Play), Bono (U2) and solo act, John Mayer.

Q. Which local artistes have expressed interest in the project?

A. There are many. To name a few, Strings, Noorie, Saeen Zahoor, etc.

Q. Is this project in competition with Coke Studio?

A. Well, you never know. It might become a part of it. It’s just that we are not going to be egotistic about it. We just want the musicians to come together, be it under any banner; it’s about cultural exchange.

Q. What’s next on your agenda?

A. I will be going to the US to meet up with different inspirational people like humanitarian and writer Greg Mortenson, who wrote the book Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations … One School at a Time, which was about building schools in Gilgit; and author Beo Zafar who wrote the book, The Dreamer Awakes. One of our songs has the same title as that of her book.

Apart from that, Lanny Cordola is going to come to Pakistan and we will be recording a couple of new songs. The idea is to bring the cultural tone with string instruments such the violin, etc. We are constantly exchanging compositions and verses.

Q. You donated your collaborated song with Strings, Ab Khud Kuch Karna Parega, to Azm-i-Alishan. How is the feeling?

A. I thought it would be better if we donated the track to some youth forum because our youth is very distracted right now. I want to create an awareness that we have to do something on our own. We don’t need resources for cleaning up our homes, roads, putting smiles on our faces, etc.

Q. How have you been involved in flood-relief activities?

A. I visited Swat and Charsadda with Todd and Lanny. I am involved with different NGOs and we are sending trucks of food and other items of need to the affectees.

Q. What are your future plans?

A. I will be touring Australia soon.

Q. Any Bollywood projects coming up?

A. A few acting offers are there. I didn’t like one of the scripts. Nothing is final though.

Profile – Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4

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Back to Legends – Talat Mahmood

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Talat Mahmood

Not many Talat Mahmood fans with associate him with acting. After all, the mellow voice which rendered golden classics like Jalte hain jiske liye, Tasveer banata
hoon tasveer nahin banti, had earned him repute as a singer.

But the incomparable Nutan always referred to Seema and Sone Ki Chidiya as her most memorable films. Both films starred Balraj Sahni and Talat Mahmood. Besides, at a Suraiya retrospective in Bombay in 1994, a much-acclaimed film was the late Sohrab Modi’s Waris. This film, too, starred Talat Mahmood.

“I filled a necessary void in those days,” says the soft-spoken hero of 14 films. “I was a singing hero.” There were other luminaries of Hindi cinedom who had also filled that slot. Prominent among whom was that great singer Kundan Lal Saigal, oft-remembered for his tragic rendering of the role of Devdas. The incomparable Kishore Kumar is remembered for his various comic roles. Why, even the soulful Mukesh tried his hand in acting in an eminently forgettable home production.

Of course, these singers were promoted and sold as stars because of their singing ability. Something like the Elvis craze that swept the United States in the fifties and the sixties. None of those guys expected an academy award winning performance from Elvis – all they wanted was to see their favourite singer, live, on screen. Hence, Presley always had roles specially written for him. And the focus was always on his singing ability.

Which is exactly happened with Talatsaab. He was born into a highly cultured, but conservative, family in Lucknow. Music interested him to such an extent that he studied it as a subject in Lucknow’s Morris College. Often, he sang for the All India Radio, Lucknow. Later, he signed on with HMV. He had to go to Calcutta in 1941 for the recording sessions, which was when he was spotted by the famous New Theatre bosses.

Talatsaab was an extremely handsome young man. Even today, despite the ravages of time, a heart attack and a paralytic stroke, there is a certain heartwarming glow about the man.

P K Sanyal of New Theatres wanted me to sign me on as an actor,” Talatsaab recalled his early days in Calcutta. “I had no objections, really. But my father was a bit upset, though he came around finally.”

Calcutta was the scene of hectic filming during the early 1940′s. Talatsaab’s first film, Raj Lakshmi, co-starred Kanan Bala and Chhabi Biswas. Released in 1945, the film did fairly well and was followed by Samapti with Bharati Devi and Tum Aur Mein with Kanan Devi. Talatsaab had never trained as an actor. He performed by instinct and picked up tips by watching his co-actors on-screen.

“I enjoyed acting,” recalls Talatsaab. “And these were soft, romantic roles in films that has a number of songs. The films of this era followed the singing hero concept very closely.” But the handsome actor, at 22, faced a peculiar problem. Most of his heroines like Kanan Bala and Kanan Devi were older than him and the pairing, at times, looked distinctly odd.

During the late 1940s, the focus of movie making shifted from Calcutta to Bombay. Like several other young aspirants, Talatsaab also made the change. He was warmly welcomed; his reputation had preceded him. Music director Anil Biswas gave him a break in Arzoo and his playback singing for Dilip Kumar proved to be a major highlight of the film.

During the early 1950s, Talatsaab was sought after by every leading music director. He lent his voice to every single top hero, from Dilip Kumar to Bharat Bhushan. In 1951, he made a guest appearance in the Dev Anand-Madhubala starrer, Aaram, sitting at the piano as he rendered that memorable number, Shukriya shukriya. The film was not much of a success, but the song is hummed even today.

His first role as a hero in a Bombay film, though, only came in 1953. “(A R) Kardarsaab chose me as the hero for his film, Dil-E-Nadaan,” explained Talatsaab. Newcomer Peace Kanwal, the winner of a beauty contest organised by Kardar and the Kolynos toothpaste firm, was the heroine.

Dil-E-Nadaan was a soft, romantic triangle with Talat, the singer, being wooed by two women, Peace Kanwal and Shyama. The music score by Ghulam Mohammad produced everlasting hits like Zindagi denewale and Yeh raat suhani raat nahi.

Dil-E-Nadaan’s music became the rage. And Talatsaab became a sought-after hero in Hindi films. Then followed Daak Babu (with Nadira), Waris, Raftar (Nadira and Naaz) and Diwali Ki Raat (Roopmala, Shashikala and Leela Mishra). In the last mentioned, the elegant Talatsaab played a taxi driver.

Well known director Satyen Bose directed him in the 1957 hit, Ek Gaon Ki Kahani (Mala Sinha). Producer S U Sunny – who had made the Dilip Kumar starrers, Babul and Udan Khatola – cast the singer-duo of Suraiya and Talat Mahmood in Maalik. The innovative Khayyam scored the music for Lala Rookh, a fantasy where Talatsaab starred with Shyama.

“I never did more than one or two films at a time,” Talatsaab recalled. “I also noted the difference between filming in Bombay and filming in Calcutta. Unlike the more artistic Calcutta where movies were made at a slow pace, Bombay was commercial. Life was hectic. Everyone was  in his own world and was, of course, very professional.”

What kind of an impact did Talat Mahmood make as an actor?

The great singer thought a while and then candidly admitted, “Listen, I was not competing with stars like Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand or Ashok Kumar. But, in those days, soft, romantic films were appreciated and singing hero like me could do well.” His films were not box office bonanzas. Neither were they disasters which disappeared without trace, days after their release. Three of his films – Waris, Sone Ki Chidiya and Ek Gaon Ki Kahani – were much-appreciated hits.

Talat Mahmood’s major drawback was that, quite often, he held himself back in crucial romantic scenes. His self-consciousness showed. He could not essay violence and comedy. But he was adequate as an emotional actor. And he had a large female following.

From 1956, Talat Mahmood regularly went on foreign tours. The concerts – held in the UK, the US, the Gulf and even the distant West Indies – were super hits. To the extent that, in the Caribbean, Indian residents even gave up watching cricket to attend his shows.

When he sang in Kabul as the royal guest of King Zahir Shah, the women in the palace competed to get themselves photographed with him. He got a ticker tape welcome in Mauritius. The late Anwar Sadat, president of Egypt, was one of his fans. But the ultimate accolade came from Pakistan – at the packed Karachi stadium, Pakistani women came in thousands to listen to him. It was a first.

It was also a display of star quality. But as he acted in films and spent months abroad on concerts, music directors and producers had to look for other playback singers. As a result, Talatsaab lost out on some memorable films like Madhumati.

Some of the music directors felt that, having turned actor, he would not be easily available as a playback singer. As Talatsaab’s son, Khalid, explained, “Also, Father would never ask for favours. Not would he undercut anyone. He was, and is, a thorough professional and a gentleman.”

By the mid-1960′s, film music had changed. Shammi Kapoor, with his boisterous Yahoo image, had arrived. There were fewer opportunities for a voice like Talatsaab’s. But the concerts continued, so did the recording of private ghazals. The government honoured him with a Padma Bhushan and Doordarshan made a documentary on him – V Gangadhar

Profile – Fact File

Filmography – Interview – Photo Gallery

Back to Legends – Suraiya

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Suraiya

There was a time when traffic jams at Marine Drive (Mumbai) were caused not due to a long line of cars, but because of a young charismatic actress whose melodious voice had cast a spell on thousands of young Indians. Entering her home at Krishna Mahal on Marine Drive today, instantly transports you into another age and time.

“I WAS 12 AND LOOKED LIKE MUMTAZ MAHAL!”

Suraiya’s career as an actress began as a child artiste.

“One day, my ‘mamoo’ (maternal uncle) Zahoor, who was a popular villian in films, took me along to watch the shooting of Prakash Pictures’ ‘Taj Mahal’. There, I met the producer, Nanubhai Vakil, who felt that my face was ideally suited for the character of young Mumtaz Mahal and asked my uncle if I could do the film. My mother and grandmother agreed. So, I went off to Delhi to shoot at the Red Fort for 10 days.

“And that was followed by one offer after another.” And a star was born.

SINGING WAS AN ACCIDENT

“I was never trained in singing. Madan Mohan, who lived close by and Raj Kapoor once dragged me to participate in the children’s programme on the All India Radio. Naushad sa’ab, who heard my voice on the radio, got in touch with me to sing for Kardar sa’ab’s film, ‘Sharda’. And I sang ‘Panchi ja peeche raha hain bachpan mera’, which was picturised on Mehtab. I was 11 years old then.”

“NARGIS ENVIED ME”

“Frankly, I hadn’t planned a career in films. I was just lucky to have got good roles. Nargis would always tell me, ‘Somehow you get the best roles’,” says Suraiya, modestly.

“Most of my roles were simple, but the audiences loved them. And I was lucky to have got simple, melodious and easy to pick up songs to sing, and work with the best composers of the day like Naushad, Husnlal-Bhagatram and Anil Biswas. We didn’t even dream of promo videos, ads and all the associated technical wizardry then. But we still caught the audience’s imagination.”

THE CROWDS WENT SURAIYA-MAD

And how! When ‘Pyar Ki Jeet’ was released, it drew crowds outside Suraiya’s house that had to be controlled by posting an inspector and four constables outside her house.

“When I went for the premiere of the movie ‘Badi Bahen’, there was such a big crowd outside! As I walked into the theatre, they pulled at my clothes. There was a lathi charge and people were injured. I stopped going for premieres thereafter.”

“DEV SAVED MY LIFE”

No Suraiya interview can be complete without a reference to the Dev Anand-Suraiya love story. While Dev Anand himself went on to marry Kalpana Kartik and, later, to romance several other women, for Suraiya, it seems that love began and ended with Dev Anand.

“We were picturising a song in a boat right in the middle of the river, when the boat overturned and we found ourselves floundering in the water. I didn’t know how to swim. Dev brought me out of the water. I thanked him, saying, ‘If you hadn’t saved me, my life would have ended.’ He retorted, ‘If your life had ended, so would mine.’ We were drawn to each other.”

“MY GRANNY WAS DEAD AGAINST DEV”

“I worked with Dev in seven films. Inevitably, people started talking about our romance and my grandmother learnt of it. She was extremely angry because Dev was a Hindu and granny was very orthodox.”

“WE DECIDED TO ELOPE”

The highlight of this romance was the plan the lovers made to elope. While shooting for ‘Jeet’, the director decided to film on location instead of erecting a set. Also part of the plan was the summoning of a real ‘panditji’ to get Dev and Suraiya married during the shot. They would then get into the car and drive away – all as part of the scene, but in reality escaping.

“I BACKED OUT”

Unfortunately, Suraiya’s grandmother came to know of the plan.

“Eventually, my grandmother succeeded in separating us. Dev was deeply hurt and offended by my lack of courage. But I was afraid for him. In retrospect, I don’t think anything would have happened if I’d been bold enough. But I was terrified of my grandmother. And was heartbroken. But time is the greatest healer.”

A practical woman, Suraiya prefers not to be a prisoner of the past. She agrees that had she chosen one of the many marriage proposals that came her way, life would have been different. But, she says, “Who can say what may have happened had I married? I’ve seen so many friends’ marriages crumbling. I’ve been single and happy, living and doing the things I like, with a circle of close friends. But I’ll admit that after my mother expired some years ago, I felt some amount of loneliness creep in.”

“PANDIT NEHRU COMMENDED ME”

“I’d been a fan of Mirza Ghalib since childhood. And so when Sohrab Modi sent for my grandmother and discussed the role and other terms with her, I was thrilled.

“It was a very simple film, made in three months. Yet, what an effect the film had! It was the first feature film to be awarded the President’s Gold Medal. At a function in Delhi, Pandit Nehru, after watching the movie, said to me, ‘Ladki, tumne kya unke (Mirza Ghalib) ghazalein gaayi. Tumne Mirza Ghalib ki rooh ko zinda kar diya.’ For me, that was an award better than an Oscar.”

“MY TIME HAD COME”

‘Rustom Aur Sohrab’ made in 1962 was Suraiya’s swan song. Why?

“I hadn’t been keeping well and had collapsed with weakness during the shooting of the movie. I was forced to take a break and recuperate. During that time, I really enjoyed resting and realised how tired I was with work. I completed the films I had on hand and decided to call it a day. And I’ve never looked back.”

Incidentally, this legendary actress-singer still retains a lovely schoolgirlish lilt in her voice. Time, it seems, hasnt laid its hands on it – Source: Feminaindia.com, Interview by: Sheila Vesuna

Note:- This interview was conducted in late 90s.