Golden Era of Bollywood: Shamshad Begum- Kishore Kumar sang as chorus boys for her songs

Tuesday 14 April 2020

Shamshad Begum- Kishore Kumar sang as chorus boys for her songs

You will be surprised to know that In the late 1940s, the great composer Madan Mohan and Kishore Kumar sang as chorus boys for her songs at the Filmistan Studio. Begum promised at this time that she would sing songs composed by Mohan once he started his career as a music director and would accept a lower fee. She also predicted that Kumar would become a great playback singer. She later recorded duets with Kishore Kumar, including "Gori ke Nainon Mein Nindiya Bhari" from Angarey and "Mere Neendon Me Tum" from Naya Andaz.
The credit of discovering Shamshad Begum’s talent, polishing her singing and bringing her to the limelight goes to the music director Gulam Haider. Her first song" Sawan Ke Nazare Hain" from Khajanchi(1941) was a hit. She became a favorite female singer of the composers of that era including Naushad Ali, O. P. Nayyar, C. Ramchandra and S. D. Burman from 1946 to 1960.
Shamshad Begum was born on 14 th April 1919 and died on 23 rd April 2013. Her talent was first spotted by her principal when she was in a primary school in 1924. Impressed by the quality of her voice, she was made head singer of classroom prayer. At 10, she started singing folk-based songs at religious functions and family marriages.
She began her singing career from All India Radio (AIR) in Peshawar and Lahore from 1937.It was from here Ghulam Haider was popularly known as the Materji, who was the music director of Xenophone picked her and signed her for 12 songs at Rs 12.50 per song, a big sum that time. She was about 13 then.

Shamshad Begum’s debut in Hindi films came in 1941 in Khazanchi, a year before Noorjehan’s in Hindi films in Khandan (1942), both under Ghulam Haider. In the next year the song Duniya mein garibon ko aaram nahi milta from Zameendar (1942), and Gaaadiwale dupatta uda liya jaye re from Poonji (1943). Mehboob Khan liked her voice since Khajanchi so Khan used Begum's voice in Taqdeer (1943), where he introduced Nargis as the heroine. Begum was soon singing for other composers including Rafiq Ghaznavi, Ameer Ali, Pt. Gobindram, Pt. Amarnath, Bulo C. Rani, Rashid Atre and M. A. Mukhtar, in the pre-independence era.

Readers would be surprised to know that this popular song of Pakeezah was originally sung by Shamshad Begum way back in 1941 film Himmat, composed by Pt. Gobindram and written by Aziz Kashmiri.

Naushad acknowledged in an interview that he was indebted to Begum in reaching the top. It was Begum's solo and duet songs sung for Naushad in the late 1940s and early 1950s which made Naushad famous. Naushad was floored on the clarity of her tone, She sang 60 songs under his direction. She was the lead singer in Anokhi Ada, Mela (1948) and Chaandni Raat (1949). After using Lata Mangeshkar as the lead singer in Andaaz (1949), Naushad came back to Shamshad Begum with a bang in Baabul (1950) and Jadoo (1951). Her last song for him was the iconic qawwali-muqaabala – Teri mehfil mein kismet aazma kar hum bhi dekhenge (Mughal-e-Azam , 1960).

Two of the most iconic songs of our films – Ana meri jaan meri jaan Sunday ke Sunday and Mere piya gaye Rangoon – are C Ramchandra-Shamshad Begum creation, She sang nearly 60 songs for C Ramchandra. He used her voice for the first time in a film Safar, 1946, in a duet with him. She is credited with singing one of the first Westernised songs, "Meri jaan...Sunday ke Sunday", this made her the most sellable female voice. She kept getting more offers to sing songs and was the highest-paid female singer from 1940 to 1955 and again post-Mother India in 1957 to 1964.

In 1946, S D Burman asked Shamshad Begum to sing in his debut Hindi film as music director, Shikari (1946), with the song, "Kuch Rang Badal Rahi". In 1949, came Shabnam, in which Burman asked her to sing duets named "Pyar Main Tumne" and "Kismat Bhi Bhichadna" with Mukesh, which became popular. Shabnam was Burman's biggest hit to that date with Filmistan,

In 1954, when Nayyar got a break as a composer, he approached Begum to record songs for Mangu. Nayyar described her voice as resembling a "temple bell" for its clarity of tone. He worked with her until the late 1960s and gave her many hit songs, including "Ab To Jee Hone Laga" from Mr. & Mrs. '55, "Leke Pehla Pehla Pyar", "Kahin Pe Nigahen Kahin Pe Nishana", "Boojh Mera Kya Naam Re" – CID (1956); "Main Jaan Gayi Tujhe" from Howrah Bridge, "Zara Pyar Karle" from Mangu, "Saiyan Teri Ankhon Mein" from 12' O Clock, "Thodasa Dil Lagana" from Musafirkhana, and many others.

Her songs from the 1940s to the early 1970s remain popular and continue to be remixed. She sang over 6,000 songs in Hindi and Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, and Punjabi languages and of the 1287 songs were Hindi film songs.

Shamshad Begum died at her Mumbai residence on the night of 23 April 2013 after a prolonged illness. She was 94 that time. Her melodious voice with powerful lyrics gave us songs that have remained popular even today.