1. Jhoom Jhoom dhalti raat (Lata Mangeshkar)

Kohraa (1964) featured the ethereal Waheeda Rehman as the mysterious rake Biswajeet’s second wife who’s haunted by his dead wife. Based on Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (1940), the chilling ambience of this film was sublimated by the producer Hemant Kumar’s vintage music. Lata Mangeshkar’s Jhoom jhoom dhalti raat heightened the feeling of ominous dread in the plot. Montages of the dead woman’s spirit wandering the night in this song were exquisitely expressive. Waheeda Rehman as the Indian version of Rebecca was vulnerable, adamant and very beautiful. Kohraa was one of the superior supernatural thrillers of the 1960s where the actors respond to a particular plot rather than peripheral attractions such as songs and romance.

2. Mujhe apni duniya mein wapas bula lai (Noor Jehan)

Deewana (1964) was perhaps Lollywood’s first ever horror film. It was made way back in 1964 and took its inspiration from the Invisible Man and The Spiral Staircase. Sabiha was cast in the role of an insomniac and the film despite starting off with a certain amount of promise soon deteriorated into an insufferable bore. The intriguing aspect of the film plot that involved the marauding psychotic invisible man was completely ignored while the audience was tortured by an uninteresting romantic plot involving Sabiha, Ejaz and Ilyas Kashmiri.

However, the film had some awesome songs composed by Bengali music director Muslehuddin. It has been noticed that whenever Noor Jehan collaborated with music directors from East Pakistan (whether Muslehuddin or Bashir Ahmed), the result was magic and this song is no exception. This particular ghost song sung by Noor Jehan and chorus and picturized on Nasreen (with Zurain in the frame) was the highlight of the film. Muslehuddin’s was very good with using chorus voices, and in this song he created “that” ghostly effect by blending the chorus effectively with the main voice

3. Rahoun mei thari mein nazrein jamaey (Noor Jehan)

One of the finest ghost films coming out of Pakistan, Ghoonghat (1962) was composed, produced and directed by Pakistan’s ace composer Khurshid Anwar. In this song he used Noor Jehan’s voice effectively to create the mysterious ambience. The ringing of temple bells at the beginning of the song and the use of chorus (one of the best use of chorus in my opinion) further enhanced the haunted atmosphere of this song.

The biggest technical achievement of this film at its time was to create the atmosphere of mystery that has been captured in the outdoor location sequences. It was comparatively much easier to create such an effect on the artificial sets, where the studio lights were under the control of the cameraman and a limited space facilitated the manipulation of artificial mist. But to successfully launch such a venture in the wide expanses of a mountain was an achievement which Lollywood could well be proud of.

4. Kahin deep jaley kahin dil (Lata Mangeshkar)

Bees saal baad (1962) was based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic novel The Hound of the Baskervilles. This ghost song was the highlight of this film and credit should be given to both the music director Hemant Kumar and singer Lata Mangeshkar for creating the spooky/haunted atmosphere required for such mystery/thrillers.

This song also remains a milestone in Lata’s career because she fell ill in 1962 and thought she would never be able to sing again. In Lata’s own words

“In 1962, I fell very ill for about three months. I thought I would never be able to sing again. One day, I woke up feeling very uneasy in my stomach. And then I started throwing up — it was terrible, the vomit was a greenish color. The doctor came and even brought an x-ray machine home because I could not move. He x-rayed my stomach and said I was being slowly poisoned. We had a servant in the house who made the food. Usha (Mangeshkar) went straight into the kitchen and told everyone that from that moment  on, she would do the cooking instead. The servant sneaked off without telling anyone and without collecting any pay. So we thought someone had planted him there. We didn’t know who it was. I was bed-ridden for three months and was so weak.

I will never forget Majrooh Sahib’s kindness to me during those difficult times. He came at six in the evening and sat by me every day for three long months. He ate whatever I ate and recited poetry and read me stories. We talked and laughed together. I thoroughly enjoyed this company.

When I was feeling well enough to sing, the first song I recorded was Hemant Kumar’s ‘Kahin deep jale kahin dil.’”

5. Kahan ho tum saheliyoun (Noor Jehan)

Although technically not a ghost song.. but the singing, the delusions/hallucinations the lonely and sick heroine is going through by being imprisoned in the haunted mansion is enough the create the disturbed and chilling atmosphere required for ghost songs.

Again Khurshid Anwar collaborates with Noor Jehan and chrous to create this spooky song for mystery/suspense/thriller Hamraaz (1967). The cobwebs, the burning candles, the delusions that her friends are dancing and singing with her, the deep sickly breaths and most of all the haunted humming done by the chorus immerses us into chilling audio-visual experience.

Note:- For a change I didn’t include Lata’s omnipresent “Aayega aanewala”. Although it is one of my favorite songs, I don’t think that song needs any introduction – Ummer Siddique

A scene from Kohraa (1964)

Vintage Favourites - Part 1

Vintage Favourites - Part 2

Vintage Favourites - Part 3

Vintage Favourites - Part 4

1. Ashok Kumar

2. Juthika Roy?

3. Saraswati Devi

4. Surendra

5. Pankaj Mullick

6. Ashok Kumar

7. Pankaj Mullick

8. Probably Kanan Devi?

9. Probably Khursheed Begum?

10. Shamshad Begum

11. Noor Jehan

12. K.L. Saigal

13. Suraiya

14. ?

Also help me identify two more unknown singers from black and white era.

Who is she?

Who is she and the guy next to her?

Mina Hasan

The resemblance to her late mother, Madam Noor Jehan, is striking just as Mina’s witty conversation reflects the singer’s style. As she talks about her mother her sense of loss is obvious, her face clouds over, her eyes become misty and voice choked with emotion even after 10 years of Madam having passed away.

But she quickly composes herself.

There is an inborn elegance and regality in the way Mina Hasan talks. It is also obvious that she led a pampered life. She is also a designer par excellence.

Being the daughter of Noor Jehan and wife of the Hockey legend Hasan Sardar, one would think that she has lived in their shadows all her life.

“Being part of her has given me so much confidence and has opened doors for me in the clothing business. When my partner in India introduces me as Noor Jehan’s daughter, doors start opening everywhere. In India Javaid Akhtar and Kiron Kher take very good care of me because of this privilege, just as the army circle here does because of my mother’s patriotic contribution during the ’65 and ’71 wars. My husband Hasan, who has a name for himself, takes a backseat when people find out who my mother is.”

Life with her mother was heaven. “An amazing parent,” she would cook for them, take them on vacations. She was always a mother first and Mallika-i-Tarannum later, with a huge sense of humour, and loved them fiercely.

Reminiscing ruefully, Mina says Noor Jehan was extremely intelligent and had an intimidating personality. She loved art and the fine things in life and instilled this in her children along with oodles of confidence. Ghalib being her favourite poet, she would quote him often and wrote poetry herself.

“She refined us.” She also knew what to say at the right moment. “When the former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi visited Pakistan, he asked my mother to sing at a dinner. She readily agreed saying that as he was a guest she could not decline as she did his mother, Indira Gandhi, in India when she was their guest.”

Mina’s relationships with her extended family is inspiring. “My mother went through tough times during her career and acquired a big view of life in the process. All her daughters are headstrong because she pampered and smothered them with love.”

Her step-sister Zille Huma and brothers from Shaukat Husain Rizvi were very close to each other just as their children are. Both her brothers have died. “My father, Eijaz, remarried and we are close to my stepmother and three step-sisters. We all get on well and can’t think otherwise.”

Mina Hasan began designing for herself, family and friends as a pastime. “I’ve seen so much glitz and glamour in my life that it seems I have inherited it. I got into couture after my mother passed away. I had nothing to do when she died as my focus in life was just to take care of her during her illness. There was so much emptiness around me when she was gone that I would continuously cry. Distressed at my condition, it was my father who suggested I get into designing clothes commercially.”

With a diploma from London, children all grown up, Mina started making clothes for select clients and gradually expanded the business. “It can be tedious, the minute work, but even then I love it.” Her husband Hasan Sardar has been very helpful and has supported her throughout. She now supplies clothes to a few outlets. “I have opened a shop now, so let’s see how it all works out.”

The glamour through her mother and Hasan, the money and recognition through her work, have come in a package. “I strongly believe women should be independent and be able to make a living for themselves, that is why my daughter and nieces are all educated and working.”

Having always been into bridals and party wear, one year back she stepped into prêt and started sending her clothes abroad. “I design differently according to the taste of the country. India is into heavy stuff and bright colours and in America it’s semi-formal dark colours, black, peacock, etc.”

She admits her clothes are on the expensive side but women in Dubai, Delhi and Karachi, she says, know how to dress and go for quality. “Globally, people are becoming more aware of fashion and we, too, have fantastic designers here in the country.”

She went into prêt because it is casual and chic and in demand 12 months round, needing new designs constantly, whereas bridals are limited to seasons. “Designing is actually your imagination and creativeness and good cloth at work, it just comes out when you combine them. The degree helps but you have to have the talent in you. Like actor Mohammad Ali used to say when he would hear my mother sing, that you have to have a voice to sing.”

Noor Jehan loved to wear flashy clothes and dazzling jewellery and had a dress sense which her daughters were exposed to from a young age. “She was immaculately dressed all the time with her hair done up in an elaborate bouffant with a big flower. How you carry yourself is important, you might be wearing very expensive clothes but you look bad if you don’t have proper grooming. She was good at everything. I idolise her and have inherited the dress sense from her and decided to go for a diploma in clothes designing abroad because of the way she looked.”

Mina’s design orientation is Karachi-based, and she makes modern eastern clothes. Her environment was the Murree convent whereas her mother was Lahore-based and had to be glitzy due to her showbiz environment. “But then she could carry her jewellery and saris.”

Plans to present her clothes on the ramp are under way. She will do both prêt and bridal in a fashion show early next year, and is waiting for the right place and the right time.

Auctioning of personal items of famous stars is a known concept abroad. Noor Jehan being a legend, many people would be interested in owning her beautiful clothes. Such a thought has not crossed her children’s mind. “The concept of auction is unknown here. We haven’t thought about it and have distributed her clothes among ourselves. I would have auctioned her clothes for a good cause here if it was demanded.”

Having inherited the genes for singing from her mother, Mina loves to sing for her friends but has never gone public as Noor Jehan never encouraged her children to sing. She had an ustad for six months only. “Singing is more like a therapy for me as I get immense pleasure from it and my husband loves to hear me sing, but I will never perform on the stage.”

Having quite a few qualities herself does her daughter idolise her the way she idolised Noor Jehan? “I would hope so,” Mina says. The mother and daughter bond is quite strong and Alisha, her daughter, trusts her completely in everything. She left a job after getting straight As in America, coming back to Pakistan at her mother’s request, not questioning her once. “We have never been strict with our children but we have given them guidelines as well as their space, just as our parents did with us.” – Khursheed Hyder

Back to Legends – Noor Jehan

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Back to Legends – Noor Jehan

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Back to Legends – Noor Jehan

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C. Ramchandra & Noor Jehan

Noor Jehan in Lal Haveli (1944)

Noor Jehan sang only 1 song for C. Ramchandra in Lal Haveli (1944) – Aao mere pyaare sanwariya.

C. Ramchandra on Noor Jehan

C. Ramchandra: “If you must know, what I really saw in Lata was a Marathi Noorjehan. Noorjehan was my ideal as a singer. You must surely know that I even composed a solo for Noorjehan in ‘Lal Haveli’, the film in which I was an assistant to Mir Sahib. This music director was not available to do the last song of the film, so I got a rare opportunity to compose it myself and, what is more, record `Malka-e-Tarannum’ Noorjehan as Aao mere pyaare sanwariya. From that moment, Noorjehan became my vocal idol, my vocal ideal.”

Raju Bharatan: “So what you saw in Lata was a Marathi Noorjehan,” I said. “And wasn’t it in Noorjehan’s vocal idiom you cast Lata in ‘Anarkali’?”

C. Ramchandra: “Almost all songs I did initially with Lata were composed with the image of Lata as a Marathi Noorjehan,” admitted C. Ramchandra candidly…

Back to Legends – Noor Jehan

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Noor Jehan

Datta Korgoankar composed approximately 11 songs for Noor Jehan in Nadaan (1943) and Badi Maa (1945). He was a Noorjehan believer to the core. To date K Datta remains the only top composer from Maharashtra to whom Noorjehan came first, Lata after. No one regretted Partition more than K Datta. Indeed, his creativity seemed to come to an end once Noorjehan left him high and dry by moving, with a song on her lips, to Pakistan. He once said, “Noor Jehan left for Pakistan and took my creativity with her”.

Take `Badi Maa’ itself in which Lata and Asha, as kid stars, first encountered Noorjehan in all her vim and vitality. So distinctive were K Datta’s creations for Noorjehan in `Badi Maa’ that her four solos in it ring in our ears to this moment as Diya jala kar aap bujhaya, Aa intezaar hai tera, Turn hum ko bhula baithe ho and Kisi tarah se mohabbat mein chain paa na sake. These four Noorjehan numbers, as fashioned by Maratha Datta, are historically most important. Because it was hearing and absorbing these four nuggets of Noorjehan, while acting with her in `Badi Maa’, that Lata Mangeshkar learnt to shape her vocal technique. If Lata came to sound a Noorjehan replica for so long, the tonal base for this was laid, just imagine, by a robustly tall Maharashtrian from the ghats called K Datta in `Badi Maa’.

There was much for Lata to admire in the way K Datta composed for Noorjehan. How can anyone of that musically refined generation forget the virtuosity Noorjehan brought to those `Nadaan’ tunes of K Datta: Roshni apni umangon ki mita kar chal diye, Ab to nahin duniya mein kahin apna thikana, Dil doon ke na doon baaton pe unka kya bharosa, Naachti jaa gaaye jaa ho ho mujhe behlaye jaa and Ek anokha gham ek anokhi musibat ho gayi.

The last-named number of Noorjehan, K Datta told me, fetched him the ultimate tribute from no less a movie stalwart than Mehboob Khan, who said: “Bhai Datta, yeh gaana to aap ne Khuda ke darbar mein baithe hue banaya lag raha hai” (“It sounds as if you created this song sitting in Allah’s abode”). K Datta now played for me that Allah-given Ek anokha gham ek anokhi musibat ho gayi on a harmonium presented to him by O.P. Nayyar. How grimly significant that the one music director, O.P. Nayyar, who never in his life commissioned Lata, should have gifted that harmonium to the one Maharashtrian composer who believed only in Noorjehan!

Noor Jehan in different poses

Profile

Filmography – Pakistan

As a Singer

Hindi/Urdu Song List – 1941 – 1950 – 1951 – 1960

Her collaborations with Music Directors

Datta Korgoankar – C. Ramchandra

Her duets with Co-Singers

Suraiya

As an Actress

Her Film Reviews

Intezar (1956)

Her pairings with Co-Workers

Pran – Aslam Pervaiz

Back to Legends – Noor Jehan

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Noor Jehan

Noor Jehan the Melody Queen reigned supreme over the South Asian music scene for more than six decades. She rose from near oblivion of the backwaters of Kasur, then hardly more than middle-sized Punjab town, to the dizzy heights of stardom as far back as the 40s, with songs ranging from classical to folk and ghazal to geet. Her mastery over melody with a strong background of classical music remains unmatched. She sang Punjabi songs and Urdu ghazals with equal ease and amazing finesse.

Noor Jehan was born in Kasur on Sept 21, 1926. Her given name was Allah Wasai. She started her career on the stage at the age of six when Dewan Sardari Lal, financier of a theatre in Calcutta, took her there with her two older sisters Eiden Bai and Haider Bandi, who were both stage singers. The three sisters instantly shot into the limelight. Allah Wasai became Baby Noor Jehan.

Director K.D. Mehra cast them in his Punjabi film Pind Di Kuri in which Noor Jehan sang her first film song. One of the film’s songs, Langh aaja patan channa dey o yaar, became an immediate hit, and remains a popular number even today. The picture was released in 1935, and the next year Noor Jehan was given roles in Fakhri-i-Islam and Heer Sial. In 1937, when Pancholi Studio was set up on The Upper Mall in Lahore, its owner, Dilsukh Pancholi, employed Noor Jehan and her sisters for the film Gul Bakawli. It set a record at the box office.

In 1940, Noor Jehan was cast in Yamla Jat, with M. Ismail in the male lead, and the following year she sang for the film Chaudhry. The same year, Pancholi started work on the Urdu film Khandan for which he acquired the services of Syed Shaukat Husain Rizvi as director. Rizvi had edited every film in which Noor Jehan had acted or sung since Calcutta, and their association was to later blossom into love and marriage.

Khandan was the first picture in which Noor Jehan was cast as the leading lady. She was only 15 years old at that time, and the prefix Baby was now dropped from her name. It is said Pancholi did not like the togetherness of Noor Jehan and Rizvi, and after the film was completed – released in 1942, it went on to become a hit – he sacked the actress. Noor Jehan’s leading man in Khandan was Pran.

Rizvi and Noor Jehan then moved on to Bombay where the former started making Naukar, based on a story by Saadat Hasan Manto. The film flopped, but the two decided to get married. Rizvi then made Dost in which he played the role of Noor Jehan’s brother. This too flopped. Between 1943 and 1946, Noor Jehan acted in Duhaai, Nadaan, Lal Haveli, Bhai Jan, Village Girl, Badi Maan, Zeenat, Anmol Ghari, Dil and Hamjoli. Zeenat proved extremely successful at the box-office, and its qawali number, Aahen na bhareen, shikwey na kiye… is still fondly remembered by many.

Two Noor Jehan films were released in 1947 – Mirza Shahiban and Jugnu. Jugnu was directed by Rizvi and was a resounding success. Noor Jehan’s leading man in Jugnu was Dilip Kumar and the music was by Feroze Nizami. The song Yehan badla wafa ka… was on the lips of young and old alike.

After partition in 1947, Noor Jehan and Shaukat Hussain Rizvi shifted to Lahore where they were allotted the Shori Studios, subsequently renamed Shahnoor Studios. Here, Rizvi started his new picture Chanway (1951) which also did well. It was at this point that Noor Jehan decided that she would sing only for films in which she also acted. In 1952 came Dupatta which was directed by Sibtain Fazli. She also acted in Imtiaz Ali Taj’s Gulnar which did average business at the box-office. A little later she appeared in M.A. Rasheed’s Patey Khan and seemed to have fallen in love with its distributor, M. Naseem. This created a gulf between Noor Jehan and Shaukat Rizvi and their marriage broke up.

Other films in which Noor Jehan sang and acted included Agha Gul’s Lakht-e-Jigar, Masud Pervaiz’s Intezar, Anwar Kamal Pasha’s Anarkali, J.C. Anand’s Nooran, Hassan Tariq’s Neend and Khurshid Anwar’s Koel. Her films Pardesan and Ghalib failed which led to differences between Noor Jehan and M. Naseem, and the two parted ways.

Noor Jehan then came close to Ejaz who was then being cast as a hero in several films, and the two were soon married. She then decided to quit acting and concentrate on playback singing. She sang for Masud Pervez’s Heer Ranjha, with the music being provided by Khurshid Anwar and the songs written by Ahmed Rahi. Many of the numbers, including Mein tey ho ho gaiyee qurban rey, were immensely popular. She became the centre of attraction for all film-makers who vied with on another to have her sing for their ventures.

For the loved ones, it seems that Noor Jehan has the quality of being a paras or a good luck charm. From Khandan to Gulnar, she had been a part of Shaukat Hussain Rizvi long career in films both before and after independence. After their divorce Shaukat could make only three films, Jaan-e-Bahar, Ashiq, and Dulhan Rani, but none of these clicked with the audience, creating doubts in the film trade about the capabilities of the maker of such great hits as Khandan, Zeenat, and Jugnu.

Similarly, Ejaz too went through the same kind of turmoil soon after he separated from the singing goddess and never quite reached the form that he had once attained with her. Ejaz then turned to production and made Dosti starring Shabnam, Rahman, Husna, and himself under the competent direction of the veteran Sharif Nayyar, and shot on locale partly in London and partly in the beautifully photographed northern areas of Pakistan. Yet the main attraction turned out to be the musical compositions of A. Hameed sung in the voice of the crooner, Noor Jehan. Chitthi zera saiyanji ke naam likh de and other lyrics by Tanvir Naqvi enthralled film-goers for so long that the film broke all previous records and became yet another diamond jubilee (in local cinema lingo `diamond jubilee’ refers to a hundred-week run) bonanza of Pakistani cinema.

It is estimated that since 1935, Noor Jehan sang some 3000 film and non-film songs which is a record. Her rendering of Faiz’s Mujh Sey Phehhli Si Mohabbat, recorded for the film Qaidi, moved the great poet so much that he was reported to have gifted the poem to the singer. Her patriotic songs sung during the 1965 conflict struck an emotional chord among the masses. Her colorful personality had inspired the incomparable Manto sketch entitled Noor Jehan Suroor-i-Jehan.

In her later years, critics say Noor Jehan had overexposed herself and descended to the level of singing double-entendre songs which were popular but a far cry from the standards she had set for herself earlier in her singing career. Noor Jehan is survived by two sons and four daughters. The sons, Akbar Rizvi and Asghar Rizvi, run Shahnoor Studios and one of the daughters, Zille Huma, is a popular singer. Noor Jehan and Lata Mangeshkar shared many things. Both were born in September and both started their singing career from childhood. Both played roles in feature films and both remained active for about 60 years as singers. Besides, both Noor Jehan and Lata worked in the film Badi Maa, made in Bombay in the forties, and both sang thousands of hit songs – Source(s) - Various