The last of the classicists

Naushad Ali was a staunch advocate of Indian raga-based music in Hindi films

Partha Chatterjee Delhi

Naushad Ali passed away last month in Mumbai. He was 87. When he first came to the city from Lucknow in 1935, it was known as Bombay and was a leading port-city of British India. Sound had come to Hindi films just four years ago and songs dominated the narration, because they brought in the crowds. Hindi and Indian cinema then was inspired by folk theatre forms like tamasha, jatra and nautanki, which relied on songs to tell the story and engage a largely unlettered audience.

Naushad Saheb, who remained a staunch advocate of Indian raga-based music in Hindi films, knew no other music as he was growing up in Awadh and had the privilege of listening to great exponents of Hindustani music—vocal and instrumental—and of course folk singers of note. These two strains of music permeated his whole being.

When he first recorded seventeen-year old Noor Jehan in a duet with Surendra for Anmol Ghari in 1946 he made his presence felt. Her soaring, malleable, melodious, knowing voice juxtaposed against actor Surendra’s quiet, almost mournful, inward turning musings gave the song “Awaaz de Kahaan Heye Duniya Meri Jawan Heye” an uncanny feel of both life’s beauty and its finiteness. A year earlier another Naushad  composition  “Ankhiyon Milake Jiya  Bharmake Chale Nahin Jaana” from Rattan had taken the country by storm.

He was not alone in using classical or folk music in films. But what made Naushad’s melodies different was variety and his sense of rhythm. He was employing folk tunes from various regions ranging from Punjab, eastern UP, Bihar and Bengal.

Contrary to the popular, ill-informed view, he was constantly experimenting within the framework of his musical aesthetics. He and the cranky genius Sajjad were the only two composers from the golden age of Hindi film music who did not fall prey to the raucous influence of contemporary popular western music, although both were aware of western classical music. Sajjad took a shine to the rhythms of the waltz and introduced the piano to Hindi films. Naushad took it up and then passed it on to O P Nayyar who used it to great effect much later.

Naushad’s first assignment was in Station Master in 1937 but it was not until 1940 that the composer made a dent with Prem Nagar. It was another five years before he was accepted in the higher echelons of film music.

It is often said erroneously that Naushad had introduced Lata Mangeshkar as a playback singer in Mehboob Khan’s Andaaz in 1949. This is incorrect. She had already sung for Datta Davjekar in Aap Ki Seva Heye in 1944 and then for Ghulam Haider in Majboor (1947) where she sang “Dil Mera Toda, Kahin Ka Naa Chhoda”. What Naushad did for Lata in Andaaz was to bring her out of Noorjehan’s shadow and make her shine in her own right.

She became Naushad’s principal female singer, as Mohammad Rafi was to become a year later his first choice male singer in Mehboob Khan’s hugely successful swashbuckler Aan.

Shamshad Begum and Talat Mahmood had sung for him beautifully in Mela (1948) and their duet “Duniya Badal Gayee Meri Duniya Badal Gayee” became immortal. Each singer had a peculiarity. Shamshad’s voice was open, flowing like a stream and even after it thickened and changed texture it remained highly expressive. Her last solo for Naushad was the heart-wrenching “Holi Aai Re Kanhaai Holi Aai Re” for Mehboob Khan’s Mother India. (1956).