Queen of Melody

Music and melody reached new heights in the subcontinent when Noor Jahan commenced singing and from the beginning, till the end, she ruled on the music industry of both the countries Pakistan and India and remained an undisputed queen of melody in the subcontinent throughout her life and her status remains intact till today.

It was Madam Noor Jahan who rekindled Pakistani music by giving us everlasting melodies in her soulful and soothing voice especially during the golden era of Pakistan,s film industry. Her songs of that era are still perceived as the precious heritage of this country.

Born in1926 in Kasur Allah Vasai aka Noor Jahan inherited singing from her mother and it was quite a clear right from her childhood that she was going to be a virtuoso in singing. Her mother sent her to Calcutta (Kolkata) so that her hidden talent could be unearthed and she could get an entry into the Indo-Pak film industry and there she met Mukhtar Begum who after listening to Allah Wasai,s melodious voice gave her the name Noor Jahan and she later earned fame with that name.

In 1935 Noor Jahan acted in movies like Pind Di Kuri, and Sheela but the movie that attracted film buffs towards her was Gul Bakauli in 1939 followed by the blockbuster movie of the early 40s Khandan released in 1942 in which she acted opposite noted Bollywood actor Pran.

After her success as an actress, she started singing for movies most of those movies were directed by prominent film directors of that era Syed Shaukat Hussain Rizvi to whom she later tied the knot of marriage, and at the time of partition both migrated to Pakistan.

Before migrating to Pakistan both the husband and wife contributed remarkably well to the amelioration of the film industry of undivided India.

However, Noorjahan gave a series of blockbuster movies there including Naukar-1943, Zeenat- 1945, Gaon Ki Gori, Bari Maa, Anmol Ghadi- 1946, Mirza Saheba, and Jugno in 1947. The movie Jugnu is still remembered for the flawless chemistry of Dilip Kumar and madam Noorjahan as an acting pair and the idiocentric on-screen appearance of Dilip Kumar.

In Pakistan, her first movie was Chan Vey. In that film, she acted opposite Santosh Kumar- A Superstar who was the first choice of every director during the decades of the 50s and 60s. Noor Jahan,s Song Chandni Raatein for Movie Dupatta in 1952 further added to her fame and became her identity.

After around 30 years in 1963 Madam decided to quit acting and dedicate the remaining half of her life to singing. For an actress of her caliber, it was durable to take such a decision and that too at the peak of her career but she did that gallantly and never looked back since then.

It is rightly said that all the decades ever since she entered the industry belonged to him she achieved glory while singing all genres of music whether it was playback singing or Ghazal singing nobody was near her in both the industries. In an interview, while commenting about Madam Noor Jahans, illustrious musician Nisar Bazmi said " Noor Jahan was a complete singer no one was her rival even no one dared to become her rival".

When it comes to the debate of Lata vs Noor Jahan, Lata has always discouraged such comparisons saying that Noorjahan was her Guru-Mentor and a persistent source of inspiration. And then those abiding words of Dilip Kumar that "Like one sun and one moon there is only one Noorjahan in this Universe" on the occasion of Golden Jubilee of Bombay Talkies in 1981 when she visited India after 34 years dumped this peripheral debate.

She was on the forefront during the Indo-Pak war of 1965 and gave life to the words of Sufi Tabbasum and other prominent poets through a melodious voice to infuse the spirit of patriotism among the soldiers fighting on the borders against the ten times powerful enemy. It would not be wrong to say that she too fought like a soldier but with the weapon of melody.

Madam was the first choice of every music director right from the beginning of her career she could sing the songs of low as well as high nodes with equal ease and melody, she sang around 20,000 songs in Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi Saraiki, and Bengali languages and lent her voice to almost all actresses of that era

According to the famous journalist, Tahir Sarwar Mir Her every song was an instant hit therefore there is no exact number of her hit songs.

Besides 15 Nigar Awards she has been Awarded Tamgha-e- Imtiaz, Sitara-e-Imtiaz, and Pride of Performance by the Government of Pakistan in recognition of her wide range of services in the field of entertainment.

The undisputed Queen of Melody passed away on 23 December 2000 but her melodious voice still echoes in our hearts and minds.