If a dispassionate history of the evolution and development of Hindi film music gets written, Naushad Ali's name will certainly find a pride of place. This Saturday, on Naushad's sixth death anniversary, one doffs off one's hat to the maestro for the enormous contribution he made to creative music in Hindi films.
Son of a munshi, Naushad was born on December 25, 1919, in Lucknow. He had a keen interest in music right from childhood and negligible interest in studies. Against the wishes of his parents, he moved to Bombay in 1937.There, he met Ustad Jhande Khan, a film composer, and became his assistant for the film ‘Sunehree Makree' and got to compose his first song, ‘Kyon dil deewana hain, akal se begana.' Sadly, the film was never released. The following year, he got the opportunity to assist composer Mushtaq Hussain Khan for the films ‘Nirala Hindustan' and ‘Pati Patni.'
In 1939, Naushad joined the film production company, Ranjit Movietone, as an instrumentalist under music directors Manohar Kapoor and the legendary Khemchand Prakash for ‘Aakhein' and ‘Ghazi Salauddin,' respectively. Manohar Kapoor was also the composer for the Punjabi film ‘Mirza Saheban,' produced by D.N. Madhok, the renowned lyricist. During the film's making, Madhok recognised Naushad's talent and recommended him to Seth Chunni Lal Shah, the proprietor of Ranjit Movietone, as a composer for his next film ‘Kanchan.'
The first song for ‘Kanchan' — ‘Bata do mujhey kaun gali gaye Shyam' was filmed on actress Leela Chitnis. Owing to artistic differences, Naushad left the film in the middle.
The turning point
Naushad's turning point as a composer came after he met Mehboob Khan. He was recommended to Khan by producer and Khan's brother-in-law, A.R. Kardar. By then, Mehboob Khan had produced classics such as ‘Aurat' (1940) and ‘Roti' (1942) with music by Anil Biswas. After Khan and Biswas went their separate ways, it was Naushad who took Biswas's place and went on to lend an upward swing in his career graph by composing for ‘Mother India.' To give one more instance, the first year's royalty for the sale of gramophone records — its cost was Rs. two each then — of his super-hit film ‘Rattan' (1946) was over three lakh rupees, a huge amount then. The total production cost of the film was just Rs.75,000!
Naushad composed some memorable melodies for the films that followed — ‘Gayey ja geet milan ke,' ‘Dharti ko akash pukarey', ‘Mera dil todne wale' and ‘Ye zindagi ke mele.' And also numbers such as ‘Lagan more man ki, balam nahin jane,' ‘Panchhi bun mein,' ‘Na socha tha kya, kya ho gaya,' ‘Chhod babul ka ghar,' ‘Mera jeevan sathi bichhad gaya' and the beautiful duet of Lata Mangeshkar and Shamshad Begum, ‘Kisi ke dil mein rehna tha, to mere dil mein kuon aaye.'
There was another fabulous duet, ‘Miltey hi aankaein dil hua diwana kisi ka' from ‘Babul' (1950), sung by Shamshad Begum and Talat Mahmood. There is an interesting anecdote related to ‘Babul' which can give one an insight into Naushad, the man.
During the recording of a song, Talat smoked in the presence of Naushad. This annoyed Naushad so much that Talat never got to sing his songs! Among the films that helped his growth as a composer are ‘Dastan' (1950) and ‘Jadoo' (1951). In these films, for the first time he used a western orchestra in an outstanding manner. Though in later years, he preferred the purity of Hindustani music, some numbers from these films were singular in their approach. For instance, ‘Ye mausam ye tanhai', ‘Aye shamma tu bata' and ‘Nainon main preet hain', sung by Suraiya, were played on Radio Ceylon for many years as the signature tune for its programme ‘Aap ki Pasand.' In ‘Deedar' (1951), his two numbers — ‘Dekh liya maine, kismat ka tamasha dekh liya' and ‘Bachpan ke din bhula na dena' — had amazing use of the harmonium that enhanced the melody of the compositions.
Another milestone
‘Baiju Bawra' (1952) was a milestone in Naushad's career. The Hindustani classical-based music still sounds so fresh even after six decades. The alluring jal tarang support in ‘Jhoole main pawan se'was unique. Ustad Amir Khan's solo, ‘Tori jai jai ho kartar' and ‘Aaj gawat man maro jhoom ke', a duet between him and Pandit D.V. Paluskar, are benchmarks in Hindi film music. ‘Baiju Bawra' ran to packed halls for a record period of over 75 weeks. To celebrate its success, a grand function was organised at the Broadway Theatre in Dadar, where Naushad was felicitated. On stage, overwhelmed by emotions, he could utter just a few words, “It took me 16 years to come to this stage from the footpath, where I used to sleep when I first came to Bombay.” Another milestone in his career was ‘Udan Khatola' (1955). Though the film had nothing much to talk about by way of storyline or direction, the music of Naushad stood out.
Naushad's association with Mehboob Khan continued for many years, with films such as ‘Mother India', ‘Anmol Ghadi' and ‘Elaan.'Though Khan was a towering figure in the film world, Naushad never allowed him to interfere in his music. Once, in an interview, Naushad recalled, “When I recorded my first song for Mehboob's ‘Anmol Ghadi', the director asked Noor Jehan to change a note here, add a stress there. The next day I went to the sets where the song was being filmed After getting Mehboob's permission, I peered through it and asked the people to move a table to the left, a chair to the right. Mehboob caught me by the ear and said, ‘Your job is music, direction is my job.' I said that was the very admission I wanted from him -- his job was direction and not music. After that Mehboob never entered the recording room again.” The celebrated K. Asif's magnum opus ‘Mughal-e-Azam' was a celebration of great songs, opulent sets and a stellar cast. Undoubtedly, its music was one of the major factors for its stupendous success. Even to this day, music lovers hum ‘Pyar kiya to darna kya', ‘Mohabbat ki jhoothe kahani pe roye' and ‘Mohe panghat pe.' Naushad was an exceptional human being too, a noble poet at heart. Even though he lived well in later life, he never forgot his early days of struggle.
Naushad was bestowed a number of awards including the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the Padma Bhushan and the Dada Saheb Phalke Award. In Naushad's story, one clearly comes across a message: if you know what your heart wants, the elements do conspire to make it true.
The royalty for the sale of gramophone records of Naushad's ‘Rattan' was over
Rs. three lakhs. The total cost of the film's production was just Rs.75,000!
