In 1953, at the golden jubilee celebrations to mark the 50-week run of the superhit musical Baiju Bawra at Broadway Cinema in Dadar, film director Vijay Bhat suddenly noticed that music director Naushad Ali was nowhere to be seen. He went to the balcony and saw Naushad all alone with tears in his eyes.
Pointing to the other side of the road, Naushad said to him: “It took me 16 years from that footpath, where I spent many sleepless nights on an empty stomach looking for work, to reach here.”
A few months later, at the inaugural function of the Filmfare Awards, Baiju Bawra won the award in the best music director category.
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The Naushad journey
The story of Naushad Ali’s entry into Indian cinema is as breathtaking as his music. He was born in Lucknow on 25 December 1919 to a conservative family where music and films were frowned upon. When his father found out that a harmonium had been smuggled into his house, he broke the instrument and warned Naushad that he’d have to choose between family and music. Bidding him goodbye, Naushad left for Bombay.
In Bombay, an 18-year-old Naushad had no friends or relatives to fall back on and had to strike out on his own. Ustad Jhande Khan took him in to play the piano on a monthly salary of Rs 40. This was followed by stints as an assistant with music directors Mushtaq Hussain and Khemchand Prakash.
In 1940, lyricist and screenplay writer DN Madhok recommended Naushad as an independent music director for Bhavnani Productions’ Prem Nagar.
Naushad composed music for another 11 films, and slowly cemented his reputation in the film industry. But it was the 1944 film Rattan, which catapulted him to instant superstardom. The film’s soundtrack was a rage and made it the highest-grossing movie of the year. And Naushad became a household name across undivided India.
Songs like Akhiya Milake Jiya Bharmake in Zohrabai Ambalawali’s voice are remembered even today. This was followed by a string of hit scores for movies like Shahjehan (1946), Dard (1981), Mela (1948) and Anmol Ghadi (1946) among others. The pathos-laden Awaz de Kahan hai from Mahboob Khan’s Anmol Ghadi in Noor Jahan’s evocative voice is remembered to this day and, through decades, the diva’s concerts would invariably feature the gem.
Naushad Ali and Khan collaborated again in Andaz (1949). The mesmerising music of the film played a great role in its success. When Naushad gave Lata Mangeshkar the song Uthaye Ja Unke Sitam, Khan was reluctant and reportedly expressed doubt over whether a Maharashtrian girl would be able to render an Urdu ghazal.
Naushad trained Lata rigorously for 15 days, fine-tuning her diction and pronunciation besides familiarising her with the notes of the composition. Once Lata was ready, the rendition was delivered in a single impeccable take.
Despite not going beyond some elementary schooling, Naushad had a great command over Urdu which enabled him to work with lyricists to maximum effect in creating popular songs that had literary merit as well. He would always give lyricists the leeway to write verses, which he would set to tune rather than creating a tune first and restricting their creative abilities. Naushad was equally skilled in scoring background music.
Between Andaz and Baiju Bawra, Naushad had seven more musical hits. It included two golden jubilees starring Dilip Kumar: Deedar (1951) and Aan (1952). Apart from Dilip Kumar’s superlative performance, songs like Hue Hum Jinke Liye Barbaad and Meri Kahani Bhoolne Wale made Deedar a mega-hit showcasing Mohammad Rafi’s unparalleled ability to hit high notes.
In Aan, Naushad experimented with a hundred-piece orchestra — a first in Indian film music. It was also for the first time that Indian film music was written in Western notations, which were published in the form of a book in London.
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The grand musician
By the early 1950s, Naushad stamped his authority as the numero uno in the industry. He was the highest-paid composer and was selective about which films to accept. The mere mention of Naushad in the titles guaranteed a film’s success.
When he turned down the 1955 movie Baradari the producers hired Shaukat Ali and gave him a similar-sounding pseudonym —Nashad—to make the film a success. The ploy worked. To Shaukat Ali’s credit, he created great melodies that included the superhit romantic number Tasveer Banata Hoon, Tasveer Nahi Banti which came alive with Talat Mahmood’s velvety voice.
So popular were Naushad’s compositions that when he married, the band that accompanied him to his bride’s house played all his tunes, unaware that he was their creator.
In his early days, Naushad worked with several singers but once he felt that Lata Mangeshkar and Rafi were ready to deliver, he gave almost all solos and duets to them. Other composers who always looked up to him — some of them enviously — followed suit. This established the duo as the king and queen of playback singing.
The 1960s began with the superhit comedy Kohinoor starring Dilip Kumar and Meena Kumari as lead actors. The classical composition of Madhuban Mein Radhika Nache Re and other numbers continue to mesmerise music lovers today.
Kohinoor was followed by the epic Mughal-e-Azam (1961) and a series of golden and silver jubilee hits. Mere Mehboob, Dil Diya Dard Liya, Leader, Ganga Jamuna, Ram Aur Shyam, Saathi and several other movies are a testimony to Naushad’s genius.
His mastery over his craft earned him the epithet Mauseeqar-e-Azam — The Grand Musician.
Naushad composed for a few films during the seventies, eighties and nineties but he was, by and large, disheartened by what he saw as a decline in the glorious traditions of Hindi film music. When the music director of Pakeezah (1972), Ghulam Muhammad, passed away, it was Naushad who completed the track besides scoring the entire background music.
The Pakeeza title music, known as Tarana-e-Pakeezah, is a seminal piece of work with Lata’s amazing vocals creating an ethereal effect with the alaap that interludes the music.
Proud of his Ganga-Jamuni syncretic ethos, Naushad, who passed away on 5 May 2006, would often allude to Man Tarpat Hari Darshan Ko, a bhajan from Baiju Bawra, as “written by a Muslim, composed by a Muslim and sung by a Muslim”.
Shabir Hussain is the editor of the Srinagar-based kashmirnewsline.net.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)