December 20, 2007

Dec 23 observes the seventh death anniversary of the late singing legend Malika-i-Tarannum Noor Jehan, who singlehandedly lay claim to the genres of acting and playback singing in the cinema of the subcontinent. Here, as Images pays homage to her immortal memory, we also trace her rise to fame and repeated successes with the musical landmarks of her illustrious career.

1930s — Lang aaja pattan channa da o’yaar

Film: Sheila alias Pind Di Kurri (1935)

When the nine-year-old Allah Wasai from Kasur stood to sing her first film song for British India’s first Punjabi talkie in Calcutta, little did know that re-christened as Baby Noor Jehan, she would be proclaimed Malika-i-Tarannum and go on to reign over the stage of South Asian music for the next six decades.

1940s — Aaj ki raat, saaz-i-dil-i-purdard na chaerr

Film: Jugnu (1947)

Noor Jehan broke the silence of the night with this enchanting song, as she looked out from tearful eyes from the other end of a slow-moving boat. Never before had the moon or the flowing stream ever witnessed this intensity of human emotion expressed in such a surreal manner.

Having played child roles in Punjabi movies in Calcutta and Lahore, Khandan — an Urdu classic directed by Shaukat Hussain Rizvi in Lahore (1942) — was her first movie as a full-fledged heroine. The song Tu kaun si badli mein, composed by Master Ghulam Haider, changed the very concept of Indian film music.

But it was in Bombay that she accomplished her first hat-trick with the success of films such as Zeenat (1945), Anmol Ghari (1946) and Jugnu. The song from Zeenat, Bulbuloon mat ro yehan conferred upon her the title of Malika-i-Tarannum — Queen of Melody.

The duets of Anmol Ghari and Jugnu that she sang alongside Surinder Nath and Muhammad Rafi were on the lips of millions across the subcontinent — Awaaz de kahan hai and Yehan badla wafa ka.

With the success of this Noor Jehan-Dilip Kumar starrer, the then 21-year-old singer-actress turned into the most sought after female artiste in the studios of then Bombay. But the political drama being played on the streets outside forced her to move back to Lahore, alongside her director husband and two-year-old son. Many must have seen her departure then as the beginning of her end.

1950s — Chand hansey, dunya basey, roey mera pyar

Film: Intezar (1956)

After the blind village girl rendered this melodious tragedy on a moonlit night, nothing could come in Noor Jehan’s way to fame — neither the socio-political upheaval of 1947 nor the teething problems of Pakistans fledgling movie industry, and not even her marital discord with the director Rizvi.

In the Lahore of the 1950s, Noor Jehan rose like a phoenix from the ashes. Film buffs on both sides of the Wagah Border were thrilled to see her first dancing to the teasing tune of Mundia Sialkotia in Chan Ve (1951), then appearing all sleepless and sombre on a starry night, crooning Chandni raatein in Dupatta (1952). And now, it was the village girl in Intezar piercing the darkness of her blinded world with heart-broken melodies penned by poet Qateel Shifai and composed by music wizard Khwaja Khursheed Anwer. The crooner and the composer re-created the Intezar magic in Ghoonghat, Koel and ultimately in Heer Ranjha.