Sajjad could not digest such remarks and vowed not to compose a song for Noor Jehan for her future films. As a result, for her next film ‘Jugnu’, the music was composed by Feroze Nizami. The movie ‘Dost’ failed as in the movie Noor Jehan called Rizvi ‘bhai’ (bother) (whereas in real life they were husband and wife and public knew it and could not digest it), who portrayed as a friend of hero Motilal. In my book Melody Makers I have observed that Sajjad Hussain needed his classical base to produce melodies that he subsequently did. Prior to the creation of Pakistan he had used the crooners such as Noor Jehan, Rattanbai, Surinder and Nirmala Devi for reproducing his melodies, the latter happens to be the mother of actor Govinda. Even at the time of Partition of Indian subcontinent and a little while later, he used Lata Mangeshkar, Suraiya, Geeta Roy, Asha Bhonsle, Muhammad Rafi and Talat Mahmud though he restricted his choice to Noor Jehan and Lata initially. His compositions of the bhajjan “Darshan pyasi aai daasi” by Geeta Roy and picturised on Madhubala and duet “Dharti sey door” picturised on kids from the movie ‘Sangdil’ were very popular sung by others than by his initial choice.

Despite these failures, Noor Jehan continued getting contracts because of her beautiful voice and pretty face. The same year she acted in a social movie ‘Laal Haveli’ directed by B Laal. The music was composed by Mir Sahab. Surendar and Ulhas were two heroes opposite Noor Jehan. Despite five songs by Noor Jehan out of, which two were duets with Surinder, this movie could not stand opposite Josh Maliha Abadi’s songs in the film ‘Man Ki Jeet’. Despite two years of her stay in Bombay now, Noor Jehan could not click.

In 1945, Noor Jehan played the lead role, alongside Lata and Asha Bhonsle, in the movie ‘Bari Maa’. Noor Jehan sang four songs composed by K Dutta. This movie too did not click as famous hero of Ranjit Movietone; Eishwar Laal was cast as hero opposite Noor Jehan. The supporting cast was Sitara, Yaqub and Meenakhshi. Capable director of that time Master Naik directed this movie. One song “Aa intizar hei tera, dil beqarar hei mera” still mesmerises me. Movie ‘Bhai Jaan’, an adaptation of English movie ‘Blue Angel’ was directed by S Khalil. This movie was re-made later in Pakistan with names ‘Anjuman’ and ‘Dillan Dei Saude’. The great music composer Shyam Sunder composed its music with Karan Diwan as hero and Shahnawaz as his elder brother. Four songs by Noor Jehan were all hits like “Aaja bedardi aaja mere dil mein samaa”. There is an interesting anecdote about this film. In those days there used to be two recorded versions of a song, one for the movie and one for the record. Due to an argument with S Khalil, Noor Jehan refused to re-sing the Columbia Recording Company’s version. So, for that purpose voice of Zeenat Begum was used. The same year a very successful movie ‘Gaon Ki Gori’ was released. Nazir acted as hero opposite Noor Jehan. Wali Sahab’s songs and Shyam Sunder’s music did wonders. Who can forget the song “Kis tarah bhoole ga dil un ka kheyal aya”!

In 1945, Noor Jehan achieved a milestone, when she sung a qawwali “Aahen na bhareen shikave na kiye” with Zohrabai Ambalewali and Kalyani for Syed Shaukat Hussain Rizvi’s movie ‘Zeenat’. This was the first ever Qawwali recorded in a female’s voice in South Asian films. Through this song, Nakhshab was introduced to the film industry. The theme of this move was unique in the sense that a bride gets widowed on the first night of her marriage. Actor Salim Raza especially came from Lahore to play the role of the bridegroom. Meena Kumari’s sister Khurshid Junior played the role of Noor Jehan’s daughter. Shyama and Shashikala were extras in the qawwali scene. A lovely song “Nacho sitaro nacho, ab chand nikalne wala hei” was a super hit song by Nakhshab. It was due to the success of the film ‘Zeenat’, that director Mahbub personally came to congratulate Noor Jehan and signed her for his forthcoming movie ‘Anmol Ghari’. It is strange that despite giving hit music in the movie ‘Zeenat’, music composer Hafeez Khan went into oblivion. Comedian/actor/filmmaker Rangeela later shot into fame after remake of this movie as ‘Diya Aur Toofan’ much later in Pakistan.

Now coming to the film ‘Anmol Ghari’, the year 1946 brought a lot of fame to Noor Jehan. Despite that, 68 years have passed since its music was created by Naushad Ali, it still looks young because of simplicity of its tunes like ‘Jawan hei muhabbat haseen hei zamana”, “Aja meri barbaad muhabbat ke sahare”, “Mere bachpan ke sathi mujhe bhool na jana”, “Kaya mil gaya bhagwan tumhain dil ko dukha ke” and above all the duet “Awaz de kahan hai” (with Surendar, the singing hero). 
Continued

Frome : Daily Times June 05, 2014