Its music took the film world by storm, and spawned what is known as the Punjabi school of music. In what must be unprecedented for a singer on debut, all the nine songs of this film were in the voice of Shamshad Begum. This movie became a big hit, prompting Pancholi to use her in the Hindi film, Khazanchi (1941). Thus, she was already famous when Das Sukh Pancholi gave her a break in the Punjabi film Yamala Jat (1940). This led to her entry as a singer in AIR Peshawar, and later Lahore around 1937. She sang about 200 songs for the gramophone company (Xenophone), which made her quite well-known. She did not have a formal training in music.
Masterji was so impressed that he instantly signed her for 12 songs at Rs 12.50 per song, a big sum that time. She gave her audition before Ghulam Haider, who was the music director of the record company. The father reluctantly allowed her, but with strict conditions that she would sing under veil, and she would never let herself be photographed. Her father did not like Shamshad to take up music seriously, but her uncle Amiruddin persuaded him to let him take her to a recording company. The principal assigned her to lead the prayers at the age of ten. She, too, acknowledged Naushad’s role in her career, even though he did not hesitate to jettison her when he firmly settled for Lata Mangeshkar (giving her about 160 songs).īorn on Apto conservative Muslim parents, Miya Hussain Bakhsh Maan and Ghulam Fatima in Lahore in a large family, her naturally-gifted talent for music was discovered early when her voice towered over others in school prayers.
Naushad publicly acknowledged that she played an important role in giving a boost to his career at a critical stage when he was looking for a voice which did not have the ‘nautch-girl’ tinge. She continued her great run concurrently with C Ramchandra, SD Burman, Ghulam Mohammad and later with OP Nayyar, but the 60 odd songs she sang for Naushad still remain at the highest pedestal for me. Much later, when I was better informed and I had an overview of her career, I knew she was discovered by Ghulam Haider, she sang for most of the famous composers of the vintage era, and she was already at the top when Naushad first used her in 1946 ( Shahjehan). I would be surprised if any of her famous songs, which I would automatically attribute to him, turned out to be composed by a different music director. In my mind the best of Shamshad Begum always meant Naushad.
A tribute to Shamshad Begum on her 96 th birth anniversary (14 April 1919 – 23 April 2013)
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