VIEW: Noor Jehan — the one and only —Naeem Tahir

VIEW: Noor Jehan — the one and only —Naeem Tahir


In desperation for work with some respectability, Noor Jehan decided to stand outside the gates of the Pancholi Studio and sing to attract attention. She knew she could do it. Of course when she sang, time froze and she was admitted into the Pancholi family

It was on December 23, 2000 — the 27th of Ramzan — when the melody queen Noor Jehan turned to eternal life. Her memory will remain green for a very long time.

She was born on September 21, 1926 into the family of Amman Hasso in Kasur. Amman Hasso was loved by the citizens for her voice and her magnanimous charity. The wife of Amma Hasso’s son, Madad Ali, died leaving behind two daughters, Bharo and Umda. He then married Fateh Bibi who was of Kashmiri origin. The marriage produced five sons and two daughters, Eiden and Allah Wasai. The Punjabi expression Allah Wasai means “the one who is taken care of by God”. Indeed she was blessed by Allah and was to be recognised by the world as Noor Jehan, the queen of melody. She was destined to rule the hearts of hundreds of millions of people in and outside the subcontinent. Her superb voice with unmatched singing skills would light up hearts and brighten faces. She shared her noor in her voice. No single person in the subcontinent ruled the hearts of the people longer than Noor Jehan. She was the singer of the millennium. Her voice had the power to stop the moving world and create pin drop silence. She was abundantly endowed by nature in beauty, charm, voice, expression, a brilliant mind and a sense of humour. Noor Jehan had a tireless will to work for perfection. She struggled with courage in an unkind world. She knew she was a woman and that her path would be difficult. But she should be remembered as one woman who could not be defeated. She was a role model for many.

In her early days, as ‘Allah Wasai, she had seen much hardship. The family was forced to move out of Kasur in search of work. Noor Jehan told me of her journey from Kasur to Lahore on foot one very hot summer. She reached the house of a relative in Lahore and Allah Wasai, very thirsty, was offered water to drink in a cup. “I can never forget how nice and cool that water felt to me as it travelled down my throat.”

At the age of five, on the advice of their relative Nazir Begum in Lahore, the two girls Eiden and Allah Wasai were made pupils of Ustad Fazal Hussain for music education. He in turn entrusted them to his disciple Ustad Ghulam Mohammad. Soon Ghulam Muhammad would be struck by the blessing of God endowed upon his youngest student. Her capability to understand the classical and her personal creativity amazed the teacher.

The economic recession after the First World War was telling and by 1932 Allah Wasai started singing in a theatre in Lahore along with her sister Eiden and a cousin, Hyder Bandi. The theatre was probably known as Parbhat Talkies. Traditionally, they appeared before the show during the interval. Allah Wasai sang a naat (hymn) ‘Hanstey Hain Sitarey, Ya Shahe Madeena’. The audience loved the naat and the pretty little girl, so it showered money on them.

Soon this team of singers was to be discovered by the talent hunters of Karnani’s theatre in Calcutta. The family moved to that centre of all show business. Noor Jehan told me of her experiences in Calcutta, which were good, bad, and even tragic. The best thing perhaps was being given the title of Noor Jehan by her favourite star, Seth Kulkarni.

But still she was baby Noor Jehan. She recalled that one evening she was sleeping in the theatre tent provided to them and her mother woke her up and said, “Get up quick. Some film people have come and they want to hear you sing.” According to Noor Jehan, she was half asleep and hardly focused; rubbing her eyes she sang whatever came to mind. It could have been either the naat or ‘Mera Sohna Shehr Kasur’ (my beautiful city Kasur). This was the only ‘audition’ the girl had and she was on her way to such heights of stardom that no one would ever achieve.

In 1942, baby Noor Jehan was ready to be a star. The family had returned from Calcutta and was in dire financial straits. Syed Imtiaz Ali Taj at that time was the prime writer of film stories and worked with Pancholi. Pancholi had Shaukat Hussain Rizvi and Ghulam Hyder in his team as well. In desperation for work with some respectability, Noor Jehan decided to stand outside the gates of the Pancholi Studio and sing to attract attention. She knew she could do it. Of course when she sang, time froze and she was admitted into the Pancholi family. She was the star of Syed Imtiaz Ali Taj’s ‘Khandan’, to be directed by Syed Shaukat Hussain Rizvi. The story of superstar Noor Jehan is no secret thereafter.

Her respect and attachment with the family of Mr Imtiaz Ali Taj is known. In all her trials and tribulations, the house of Taj was her haven. I met her in 1956 and for the following 44 years she was a very dear friend. She loved to be in the company of the educated and intellectuals, particularly Hijab Imtiaz Ali, Faiz and Taj. Her knowledge of classical and popular music was immense and she sang for hours at our house. Of course, Noor Jehan sang our sehra written by Faiz sahib. Yasmin and I could never thank her enough for this gesture, nor could we ever thank Faiz sahib enough.

In 1998, in Cleveland, she was struggling for life and her courage amazed her doctors. I was with her and she shocked me in a moment of consciousness saying that I should write the story of her life. Did she want to tell it all to the world? Maybe she did. She was honest, courageous and proud of her fight in life. Her personality and talent was bigger than what we know as yet.

The writer is a culture and media management specialist, a researcher, author, director and actor