Childhood and Stage Career
On a dark night, in a small house of poor musicians, at Kot Murad Khan in the sleepy town of Kasur, in rural, undivided Punjab, a newborn baby girl was crying. When the child was born, her father's sister on hearing her wail, said to her brother "This one even wails in accordance with the scale". She was named Allah Wasai or Allah Rakhi. This girl's voice was destined to be heard beyond the four walls of the humble dwelling in years to come. Allah Wasai's parents were professional musicians and genealogists working for local landowning families, performing at life cycle events. The family also performed at local theatre at seasonal fairs. Her father was Madad Ali and her mother was Fateh Bibi and she was the youngest child of her parents in a family of thirteen. Noor Jehan had six brothers - Mian Nawab Din, Gul Muhammad "Gulloo", Muhammad Hussain, Muhammad Shafi, Siddique, and Inayat Hussain. Noor Jehan had six sisters - Eidan Bai, Haider Baandi, Gulzar Begum (or Bibi Gulzar), Ameena Begum, Baharo, and Undam Begum ("Umda" or "Machine"). Sadly, three of her brothers ended up in mental institutions. She showed an unusual interest in music in her childhood and she had a melodious voice. Realizing her immense talent, her mother started her training in singing and dancing. She received early music lessons through Kajjanbai (a singer between 1920 and 1930) who made her do "riyaz" up to 12 hours a day. After her morning "riyaz", a teacher would come to help her learn to read and write. She received early training in classical singing under Ustad Ghulam Mohammed who instructed her in classical music and voice production within the framework of classical forms of thumri, dhrupad, and khayal. The family moved to Lahore from Kasur where her elder sisters Eidan Bai and Haider Baandi, began their stage career. In around 1930, she won a part in a silent movie called Hind ke Tare (1930) made by Indian Pictures, Calcutta. Thereafter, the family moved to Bombay (now Mumbai) where she made 11 silent films in 1931 launching herself as a top child star during the 1930s in both silent and soon sound films. Her first talkie film was Sassi Punnu released in 1932. She joined Kohinoor United Artists and appeared in some of their films. Later, she was employed by Seven United Artists and played the lead in some of their films opposite Khalil. She took up singing at 6 and started making stage appearances with her elder sisters for rural theatre companies called the Taka Theatre. Later, she joined Sharda Film Co. and has played important roles in several films. She did not sing original songs but the famous hits of the day. She went to Lahore with her sisters and took part in live song and dance which usually preceded the actual film show. She was only nine years old when great Punjabi musician G. A. Chisti introduced her to the stage in Lahore. He composed some ghazals, naats and some folksongs for Noor Jehan and she got 7 1/2 Annas for each song. She also got some classical music lessons from Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. Dewan Sardari Lal, a theatre financier took the sisters to Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1935. During their stay in Calcutta, Mukhtar Begum, the sisters' ideal and a famous stage singer in the 1930s, encouraged the three sisters and recommended to them various producers and to her husband Urdu Drama Writer Agha Hashar Kashmiri (1879-1935)'s Maidan Theatre, where she got the name of Baby Noor Jehan. In later life, Noor Jehan adopted her style of performing and wearing of a sari. The sisters got permanent jobs with one of the Seth Sukh Karnani Companies, Indira Movietone. Their popularity grew as they became known as Punjab Mail.
[edit]
Baby Noor Jehan as a Child Star/Singer
At this time director K.D. Mehra, was in the process of making a Punjabi film, and persuaded his producer to cast the three in Pind Ki Kudhi (1935). At this time, Noor Jehan was beginning to be known as a singer/actress of some merit. In this film Noor Jehan sang and recorded her first film song which was Lang Aaja Pattan. And so began the film career of Baby Noor Jehan. She next acted in a film called Missar Ka Sitara (1936) by the same company and sang in it for composer Damodar Sharma. Baby Noor Jehan played the role of Heer as a child in the film Heer Sayyal (1937). The role of Heer in this film was played by Balo, mother of famous 1960s actress Sabiha Khanum. After four years in Calcutta, back in Lahore, it was Master Ghulam Haider who spotted her immense talent as a singer and composed songs that made her famous overnight. Baby Noor Jehan hit the nationwide with Gul Bakavli (1939) for renowned Bombay producer Dalsukh M. Pancholi in 1939 where she recorded her first hit film song, Shala Jawaniyan Mane. Baby Noor Jehan's appeal changed from a child struggling to play bit roles into a young woman with immense potential ready to take off and launch her singing and acting career. When it was decided to cast her as a heroine the basic problem with the producer and director was how to erase the impression of her being a child in public perception. They feared that she would not be accepted as a heroine by the audience that had billed her a few years of being a child star. The first step was to remove the "Baby" prefix from her name, and though she was young, she was burly and appeared older than her age. Her image on screen posed no problems to the director, and so was born Noor Jehan, set to enter the adult world, barely in her mid-teens. Noor Jehan's first box office hit was in the big Punjabi film Yamla Jat (1940). M. Ismail played the title role and it was on of his best roles. M. Ajmal got his first significant role in this musical film. Chaudhry (1941), though not as big as Yamla Jat, followed. Revolutionary musician Master Ghulam Haider introduced Baby Noor Jehan as a playback singer in Pancholi Art Productions' film Khazanchi (1941). It was the first film which was without actress Noor Jehan on screen and her songs were picturised on other actresses.
[edit]
Noor Jehan as a Singer/Actress
Noor Jehan was first cast as a heroine in Khandaan (1942) opposite Pran (who later became one of India's Most Hated Villains) as the hero. The film was also a debut for director Syed Shaukat Hussain Rizvi. Pancholi had recently involved Rizvi in the editing of Gul Bakavli (1939), Yamla Jat (1940), and Chaudhry (1941). The songs of Khandaan (1942) composed by Ghulam Haider became instant hits and established her as the leading singer of films in India.
Khandaan's success saw her immigrating to Bombay where she shared melodies with the singing star Shanta Apte in Duhai (1943). After that there was hit after hit with songs from Naukar (1943), Nadan (1943), Dost (1944) and Lal Haveli (1944). By now her popularity outsripped all others. She was the darling of masses, recognized and adored both for her singing and acting. After taking the leading role in Nadan (1943), she was presented with second lead in Naukar (1943), while Shobhana Samarth took the lead opposite Chandramohan. Dost (1944) directed by Rizvi, had the extremely gifted Motilal as the leading man opposite Noor Jehan with Rizvi playing her brother. It was in this film that Noor Jehan lent her voice for the first time, to another actress named Husn Bano. It was in Lal Haveli (1944) that Noor Jehan starred opposite singing star Surendra (they later made Anmol Ghadi (1946) together). Lal Haveli was also noted for the fact that Meena Kumari then a child star, played Noor Jehan as a child.
The year 1945 was a turning point for Noor Jehan. In Master Vinayak's Badi Maa (1945) she played lead with "Baby Lata Mangeshkar" and "Baby Asha Mangeshkar" in supporting roles. During breaks in shooting, she would ask the then unknown Lata to join impromptu singing sessions and said to the composers, "Mark my words, this girl will one day become a tremendous singer". Noor Jehan's influence on the early songs of Lata are still discernible. Lata has always respected Noor Jehan and considers her one of her favourite singers. In fact, Lata (Noor Jehan's dearest "Latto")'s early singing was inspired by Noor Jehan, though the latter's weighty vocals were far car from Lata's thin voice. The year 1945 also brought Noor Jehan her first superhit in Bombay, Zeenat (1945). It was her inimitable rendition of the music that gained her the title Mallika-e-Tarranum or Queen of Melody. She dethroned reigning singing star Khursheed and rendered obsolete nautch girl style of Zohrabai Ambalewali and Amirbai Karnataki. She also achieved another milestone, when she sung a Qawwali with Zohrabai Ambalewali and Amirbai Karnataki which was "Aahen Na Bhareen Shikave Na Kiye" - the first ever female Qawwali in subcontinent films.
In 1946, Noor Jehan acted in the enduring classic Anmol Ghadi (1946). The title was a fitting description of the magical moments in this film with superhit songs composed by Naushad making her the undisputed queen of films if there was any doubt left about her being a diva. Composers and lyricists vied to have their creations rendered by Noor Jehan. In the film Anmol Ghadi (1946), she played a poetess named Lata caught in a love triangle, featuring the other two singing stars of the era, Surendra and Suraiya. So popular was the film that Noor Jehan's other three films released that year, Dil (1946), Humjoli (1946), and Sofia (1946) were pale in comparison. In Jugnu (1947), she starred with then rising star Dilip Kumar. The music of the film catapulted the then struggling Mohammed Rafi. Noor Jehan had very few duets as her voice did not require the support and enhancement of others. Her effortless emotive capabilities and fluid grasp over the substance and essence of the lyrics is amazing, even to this day. Noor Jehan's last film in India was Mirza Sahibaan (1947) which starred Prithviraj Kapoor's brother Trilok Kapoor and brought some of her last musical hits.
Noor Jehan sang 127 songs in Indian films and and the number of talking films she made from 1932 to 1947 was 69. The number of silents was 12. Fifty-five of her films were made in Bombay, eight in Calcutta, five in Lahore and one in Rangoon, Burma.
[edit]
Noor Jehan as a Singer/Actress in Pakistan
The Partition of India was the partition of the film industry. During the partition in 1947, Noor Jehan decided to migrate to Lahore in newly created Pakistan, despite Bombay being the real centre of show business. What was then the heartbeat of India was that Noor Jehan became Pakistani. This must have been a momentous decision for her. She was undoubtedly at the height of her career both as an actress and a singer and she did not forsee any competition of any kind in the near future. Her husband, Syed Shaukat Hussain Rizvi, too did not hail from that part of the subcontinent. He was from Uttar Pradesh and there was no compulsion to shift to Lahore. Many of the Muslim performers who were struggling then to make a place for themselves did not opt for Pakistan and stayed behind in Bombay as it was the real centre for film-making. Many of them flourished in later years and earned the kind of money and fame that would not have been possible in the new country. Movement in the opposite direction was led by Dalsukh Pancholi who had to abandon his beloved Lahore and move to Bombay. Noor Jehan was not a struggling artiste who found her rise to the top blocked by popular stars. She had found her place at the top. She needn't have come to Pakistan. She could have stayed in India and enjoyed her reign at the top. Yet she opted to come to Pakistan along with her husband to set up Shahnoor Studios in the outskirts of Lahore on the vandalised remains of Shorey Studios. This can only be attributed to her commitment to the new country. After the holocaust of the partition as things settled down, the film industry in Pakistan picked up pieces and made use of whatever was available. With the splitting of India in two, so was the labour force, many technicians, music directors, actors, and actresses either stayed in India or shifted to Pakistan. The richness and variety of music directors in Bombay could not be matched with the Punjabi dominating directors of Lahore and this was sorely felt as a limiting factor in the growth of the film music in the early years of the country. It also limited the richness and variety for Noor Jehan to exploit. Being a singer of great creative ability, she made a virtue of her limitation and began exploring different styles.
Three years after settling in Pakistan, Noor Jehan starred in her first film in Pakistan, Chanwey (1951), opposite Santosh Kumar, which was also her first Punjabi film as a heroine. Shaukat and Noor Jehan directed this film together making Noor Jehan Pakistan's first female director. The film was a runaway hit. Most of the songs rendered by Noor Jehan and composed by Feroze Nizami became instant hits, not only in Pakistan but also in India. The film itself ran to packed houses in major cities in East Punjab, proving that Noor Jehan was still loved by millions of cinegoers and listeners of film music on both sides of the border. Indeed, the three year gap in her career did not make a dent whatsoever in her popularity. Noor Jehan's second film in Pakistan was Dopatta (1952) which turned out to be an even bigger success than Chanwey (1951). Such was the popularity of musical score that no song based programme on Radio Pakistan, All India Radio or the newly introduced Hindi Service of Radio Ceylon, seemed complete without 1 or 2 of the film's numbers. In 1953 another Rizvi produced film, Gulnar (1953), directed by Imtiaz Ali Taj, though a well made film, proved to be grosser at the box office. However, its songs, penned by Qateel Shifai and composed by Ghulam Haider were highly appreciated by music connosieurs.
After a years break, Noor Jehan returned with another Punjabi film, Patey Khan (1955) opposite Aslam Pervez, which was another hit. Composer Akhtar Hussain scored some of his finest compositions of his career, all faultlessly rendered by Noor Jehan. In fact, Indian music director O.P. Nayyar was so moved when he heard "Kali Kali Jaan Dukh" that it brought tears to his eyes and he insisted on hearing it again and again. Two films released in 1956 with Santosh in the main lead. One of which was Lakht-e-Jigar (1956). The film faired below average at the box office but the film's music is considered to be the best of composer G. A. Chisti's long and illustrious career. Composing for a Noor Jehan starrer for the first time, Chisti nonetheless managed to come up with one of the most captivating tunes he ever scored. Noor Jehan immortalised Chisti's compositions. The second Noor Jehan starrer of 1956, was undoubtedly one of the most significant musicals in the Pakistani film industry. Directed by Masud Pervez, Intezar (1956), was composed by Khwaja Khurshid Anwar who made his first release in this film after he came in the early 1950s. This film was also the first time Noor Jehan worked with the musical giant and what a combination that was to be. Almost every song he composed for her and she rendered became a rage. Lata Mangeshkar, while recording an interview for the Urdu Service of All India Radio in the 1970s, referred to Intezar (1956), as one of her favourite Pakistani musical hits. Small wonder then that Noor Jehan was given the first President's Award in 1957 for best actress and best singer.
Compared to 1956, the following year was much less eventful. The one release was Nooran (1957), another Punjabi film, with Sudhir playing the main lead. Though the film had some enchanting numbers, the film failed to click at the box office. The year 1958, brought Noor Jehan two superhits. The first was a Punjabi film, Choomantar (1958), with Aslam Pervez as the leading man, that had excellent songs rendered by Noor Jehan under the direction of Rafiq Ali. The next release was Anwar Kamal Pasha's Anarkali (1958) in which Noor Jehan played the title role opposite Sudhir who played Prince Salim. Despite the miscasting for both central roles, the film went on to be jubilee hit solely on the popularity of Noor Jehan's song composed by two music directors. Master Inayat Hussain, the original composer of the film, opted out of the film as the result disagreement with the director after the recording of just three songs. The task of composing the rest of the film's music was handed to Rashid Attre who composed some of the most memorable hits. Her last films after 1958 were the musical hit Koel (1959), Pardaisan (1959), Neend (1959), Ghalib (1961), and Baaji (1963). Noor Jehan last starred in Baaji in 1963, though not in a leading role. She was shown sitting and enjoying the dance in the song - Sajan Laagi Tori Lagan Man Maa. She was still looking her usual gorgeus youthful self. Noor Jehan bade farewell to acting in 1963 after a career of 33 years (1930 to 1963). The pressure of being a mother of six children and the demanding wife of a hero forced her to give up her career. Noor Jehan made 14 films in Pakistan, ten in Urdu, four in Punjabi.
[edit]
Noor Jehan as a Playback Singer
After she quit acting she took up playback singing. She made her debut as a playback singer in 1960 with the film Salma. Her first initial playback for a Pakistani film was for Jan-e-Bahar (1958), in which she sung the song Kaisa Naseeb Layi Thi, picturised on Musarat Nazir. She was soon the most famous playback singer through the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Her songs ranged from Zindagi hai ya Kisi in 1960 to Ki Dam Da Bharosa/Ladki Phansaali Tune in 1996/1998. She also made albums and even though she wasn't acting, she was still a hit. She received many awards, including with the highest Pakistani honour in entertainment Tamgha-e-Imtiaz (The Pride of Performance), Pakistan's top civil award and countless cultural awards. Noor Jehan had done some of her finest singing in Pakistani films.
Her popularity was further boosted with her patriotic songs during the 1965 War between Pakistan and India. No one asked her to sing. She herself phoned Radio Pakistan one morning and said that she wanted to go and sing. They did not believe it and just kept asking, "Is that Madam Noor Jehan?". They though it was some kind of a hoax. Finally, she said, "You think I'm joking with all these bombs falling and these shells exploding?". She first had to get a pass to get out of the house because there was a curfew in the city. When she arrived, they were happy and excited. They kept saying, "It is really you". "Well you can see for yourself", she said. There were no musicians around but she said that didn't matter. She had taken four of her own, one of them was Mubarak, who played the santoor. She set the lyrics to music herself. Merya dhol sipahaya, Mera sonha sheher Kasur ni and Aai puttar hatan te nahin vikday were all her own compositions. It took her literally minutes to compose the tune for Aai puttar. She was accompanied on the tabla by Sabir and the sarangi was played by Nizam sahib. The recording was done by Azam sahib and there was, of course, Sufi Ghulam Mustafa Tabassum who wrote the words. She used to load her musicians into her car and off they would go to the Mall where the recordings were done. Once, as her car moved into the studio, a shell fell, just killing the sentry that had just waved them in. It could have been her. She had three little girls at the time. They were all ill and there was nobody to take care of them. Hina, the eldest, took care of the younger ones even though she was a child herself. She used to cook for them at five in the morning and then be on her way. When the siren sounded, she would push them into the trench they had dug. Her musicians used to tell her to get into the trench when their session was on and the siren sounded. She would tell them "If we have to go, let it be in front of the microphone, singing. Think of the boys who are out there fighting." When she sang Merya dhol sipahaya, it was not pre-recorded. She sang it straight into the microphone and it went live because the tape recorder was not working. It was a very poignant moment for her and she cried a lot. Then she sang. Hassan Latif, who was like a brother to her, helped her in those days. He said to her "You have done something beautiful". He gave her alot of encouragement. He said she was like Umme Kulsum. She never forgot his words for they made a deep impression on her.
The diva revisited India in 1982 to attend a function celebrating the golden jubilee of the Indian Talkie. The Mallika-e-Tarranum, enthralled her fans on this side of the border with her evergreen voice. She was granted an audience by the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi at New Dehli's magnificient Rashtrapati Bhawan and was received by Dilip Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar in Bombay. They had kept in touch through meetings at the Wagah Border (1954), London and New York. She performed live on stage for the show Mortal Men, Immortal Melodies. As she sang Anmol Ghadi (1946)'s Awaz De Kahan Hai, all grievances were forgotten and the performer and her audience wept together. That night, she achieved what no ambassador had ever achieved before. She returned home to give glittering performances for PTV's musical Tarranum.
[edit]
Later Years and Death
In 1986, on a tour of North America, her mild chestpain recurred with severity. Her doctors diagnosed angina and an immediate operation was advised. The American surgeons performed a smoothy surgery and Noor Jehan returned to Lahore with a winning smile while hiding her ticking pace-maker. She looked slimmer and prettier and flaunted a band around her neck that changed colours with ever-changing saris. Even her voice sounded fresh. Her facelifts in London were perhaps already known and perhaps also a minor surgical manipulation of her "singer's nodules" which are known to occur with voice overuse.
In 1996, Noor Jehan recorded her last song in Pakistan which was "Ki Dam Da Bharosa?" for the film Sakhi Badshah (1996) and stopped singing due to failing health and newer trends in music. Noor Jehan stayed away from the limelight for four years - a period which seemed like ages for fans, and during which she received treatment at various hospitals. Fans and family, friends and foes, all prayed for a magical cure. Her ex-husband, sons, daughters and grandchildren waited in attendance. Admirers carried fragrant bouquets, well-wishers sent get-well-soon wishes. Dilip Kumar visited from Bombay and General Musharraf from Islamabad. But none could stop her ailing heart from its downslide. It had taken much and could take no more.
Noor Jehan's last days were painful. Once, she almost died but came through. She told Hussain Haqqani that Allah had spared her life so that while she was alive, she could divide her property among her children because if she had not, after she was gone, there would be disputes and that would make her very unhappy. She was not to be disappointed. Her large home in the Liberty Chowk in Lahore's Gulberg which she had been smart enough to get declared commercial property by the Corporation was sold for Rs. 20 crore. She gave each of her six children Akbar, Asghar, Zile Huma, Hina, Shazia, Nazia Rs. 2.5 crore each. She was truly happy and relieved after she did that.
Noor Jehan had been suffering and fighting off a terrible protracted illness concerning her ailing heart as well as several other ailments. She was sent to Karachi for treatment, where she suffered a heart attack. On Saturday afternoon, December 23, 2000, Noor Jehan died from heart failure. She died on the night of Laylat al-Qadr (27th Ramadaan), which is a very important night for Muslims. The funeral prayers were offered at Jamia Masjid Sultan, Karachi. Quran Khawani was held at Shahnoor Studios and her daughter Zile Huma's residence in the nation's capital. She is buried in the Left Side of Gate 2 at the Gizri Graveyard near Saudi Consulate in Karachi. Her grave is built of golden marble and is a grave of striking beauty. In death, Noor Jehan dissociated herself from those she kept her company all her life, and left in the company of taraweeh prayers. When news of her death spread, people could not resist and turned on their TVs in the middle of the holy night's prayers for one last look of that smiling, dimpled face - that magic, charisma, that legend they called Mallika-e-Tarranum Noor Jehan.
Another source describes her death as:
Allah Wasai of Kasur died in the arms of her loving daughters in Karachi - the daughters she had brought up as a single parent. Leaving behind millions in gold and cash for her children and thousands of immortal melodies for her fans, she had embarked on her last journey. The falling night of December 23, 2000, was the holiest night of the month of Ramadaan, a night when sins are forgiven and when the doors of heaven are flung wide open. Noor Jehan, who never sang in her life without advance payment, was leaving for the Hereafter with booked promises.
According to an authentic source, Noor Jehan recorded her last song at Evernew Studio in Lahore for director Masood Butt's film Insaaf Ho To Aisa (1998). The song was "Ladki Phansaali Tune", the music was composed by Taafu, the lyrics by Khwaja Pervez, and the song was picturised on Khusbu. Most probably this song was recorded in mid-1996. Due to her health problems, Noor Jehan spent a lot of time to record this song; she recorded word by word with a lot of pauses. She never went to a studio after the recording of this song.
[edit]
Alleged Affairs and Scandals
Noor Jehan said to Khalid Hassan in an interview that "I have to be intensely involved with a man, otherwise I cannot sing. My music abandons me". Noor Jehan had many men in her life starting with her first affair at a young age with Hassan Amin, but broke up with him after falling in love with S.H. Rizvi. He wrote a scurrilous book about his accounts with her in their life together. In that book, he wrote about many of Noor Jehan's affairs (some true some not). Also, some resources claim that Noor Jehan was married more than twice, but it is not known whether this is true or not. If she was married more than twice, than one of her additional husbands would be Aqeel Butt.
Noor Jehan's affair with debonair opening batsman Nazar Muhammad began during the filming of Chanwey (1951). Nazar who was related to music director Feroze Nizami, would come to Shahnoor Studios where the movie was being made. He could carry a tune and obviously had an eye out for her, as she did for him. The affair continued even after it was completed. Noor Jehan, who had a curfew pass, would put on a white burqa and go to Hira Mandi to meet Nazar. One day Rizvi's driver Amir Hasan told Rizvi that he had just dropped Noor Jehan at Islamia Park, where she and Nazar had a place of assignation. Rizvi went with a carload of helpers to the house identified by the driver. It belonged to an old man who sold amulets and traditional medicines. Rizvi knocked at the door and when it was answered, he demanded to know where Noor Jehan was. The old man who answered pretended he didn't know who she was. Rizvi brushing the man out of the way, began to climb the stairs to the upper floor which only had one room. The old man began to shout so the lovers would be warned of the raid. Rizvi saw the two of them lying in bed. Nazar jumped out of bed and leapt out of the window to the ground and broke his arm after falling on it. Nazar was caught by Rizvi's helpers and he never played cricket again.
In the book Rizvi wrote he accused Noor Jehan of affair after affair. He accused her of having an affair with Anwar Jahangir Khan and cinematographer Raza Mir. Also M. Naseem, owner of Popular Pictures, Royal Park, Lahore which was the last affair she certainly had and it lasted quite a few years. Rizvi wrote that Noor Jehan also had an affair with film director Anwar Kamal Pasha who once gave her some brandy to drink, and when it hit her she tore of her shirt. He also accused her of having a casual affair with the brother of a studio employee by the name of Gul Zaman. She asked him to press her feet one day and led him on. Once she was through with him, she told him to get lost. She also tried to have an affair with the actor Santosh Kumar, who said that he respected Rizvi as his father, and would prefer death than have an affair with her. She told him, according to Santosh, in English "I love you and I love others". She also had an affair, claimed Shaukhat, with music director Nazir Ali. She also had a one-night stand, charged Rizvi, with a crockery merchant in Dhani Ram Road, Lahore as well as actor Mazhar Shah. She also had a serious affair with actor Yusuf Khan and a PIA pilot by the name of Ijaz Alam. She may have had none, some, or all of these affairs, but it is not known. Rizvi also accused her of practising black art and preparing some potion based on owl flesh which put those to whom it was administered under her power. Even if she did have all these alleged affairs, she isn't and would never be less than a musical genius.
[edit]
Personal Life
During the production of Khandaan (1942) and on the sets, a relationship turned affair developed between Noor Jehan and Syed Shaukat Hussain Rizvi. They soon started a turbulent love affair which took place during shootings in Pancholi Studios in Lahore. When her brothers came to know of it, their love and marriage was opposed and her brothers beat her for this reason. They finally eloped and married in 1943, against the wishes of Noor Jehan's brothers who didn't want to lose her and also charged Rizvi for the abduction of their sister. Their marriage produced three children. They were Akbar Hussain Rizvi (b. 1945), Asghar Hussain Rizvi and Zile Huma. Akbar and Asghar were born in Bombay and Zile Huma was born in the then newly-created Pakistan. In 1955, she appeared in the Punjabi film, Patey Khan, and she seemed to have fallen in love with the film distributor M. Naseem. This created a gulf between Noor Jehan and Shaukat Hussain Rizvi, and they were divorced. As part of the spoils, Noor Jehan had to write off her share of Shahnoor Studios to S.H. Rizvi. However, her film Pardaisan, produced and directed by M. Naseem, released in 1959 and failed at the box-office, which led to differences between Noor Jehan and M. Naseem, and the two parted ways.
However, Noor Jehan didn't remain single for long. She soon fell in love with 25 year old actor Ejaz Durrani and they became very close. On October 19, 1959, they were married. Their marriage produced three daughters. They were Hina, Shazia, and Nazia. Noor Jehan glowed with marital bliss and was utterly devoted to Mr. Durrani (she seriously considered giving up singing for him). However, they were divorced in 1968. They were divorced because of Ejaz's affair with the famous Pakistani actress Firdous. A couple of years later, when Ejaz was picked up at Heathrow Airport, England with a cache of narcotics concealed in film cans tried and sentenced to four years in the clinker, it was Noor Jehan who came to his help. She paid lawyers' fees, which were quite considerable and spent a lot of time and money to bail him out, despite her reputation of being tight-fisted. The man who had let her down and left her to raise three daughters, she helped generously in his adversity.
[edit]
Descendants
Noor Jehan has a few famous descendant's such as her daugher Zile Huma, who is a well-known Pakistani singer and the only of her four daughters to follow in her mother's steps, and her granddaughter Sonya Jehan who is a fast-upcoming Bollywood actress. She was born to Akbar Hussain Rizvi, Noor Jehan's eldest son and his French wife, Florence. Her birthname was Sonya Rizvi but she was re-christened Sonya Jehan in honour of her grandmother. Her two sons now run Shahnoor Studios alongside their half-brothers. Also, Zile Huma's youngest son Hamza Ali is an upcoming name in the Pakistani film and music industry. He made his debut in films in 1997 when he first appeared in Sala Bigda Jayay. He said "I have seen it all, though it hasn't been long since I joined showbiz but I have been part of it all my life because of my Naano and my mom". Carrying stardom in his blood, his elder brother is the lead vocalist in the rock band E.P..
[edit]
Facts
- Noor Jehan is credited in various ways such as, Nur Jehan, Nur Jahan, Madam Noor Jehan, Madam Noor Jahan, Noorjahan, Noorjehan, Nurjehan, and Nurjahan.
- Sour and oily food is death to a good throat - who doesn't know that? And yet Noor Jehan used to eat pickles by quarters of seers and the interesting thing is that whenever she has a film song to record, she would eat quarter seer of pickle quite ritualistically, then wash it down with ice-cool water, the reach over to the microphone. She said her voice was enlivened this way.
- Noor Jehan never liked to step out of her home and never liked parties. She also preferred to avoid hotels and public gatherings. Noor Jehan's eldest daughter Zile Huma only got to see the inside of Shahnoor Studios after she was married. Her three daughter's from Ejaz Durrani had never done that once.
- Noor Jehan had a distinct look, her hair parted at the center and was tightly combed back in a braid. She believed in big and bold jewellery and wore double-breasted "kurtas" and "shararas". She brought back conservative dress code with her "dupatta" covering her head putting an end to the carefree heroine of the 1930s. Noor Jehan also wore some revealing dresses in her days, including a one-piece bathing suit on the Clifton Beach, in Koel (1959), with Aslam Pervez by her side.
- Noor Jehan always preferred her year of birth to remain a romantic mystery. When interviewer Khalid Hassan first met her in 1967 she told him "People often wonder how old I am. Let me tell you, in terms of experiences of life and men I have always been 100 years old." There are several arguments to Madam's actual birthdate. Many suggest that she was born on September 21, 1926 and others believe she was born on September 21, 1929. Some people have went far enough to believe that her birthday is September 21 or 23, anywhere between 1922 and 1929. In the book, Noor Jehan Ki Kahani Meri Zubani, a book about the life of Shaukat Hussain Rizvi and Noor Jehan together, written by Syed Shaukat, her birth certificate is reproduced and the date on it is September 21, 1926. Another argument came that on Noor Jehan's grave, the date of her birth is September 23, 1929. It is not known which one is exact.
- Noor Jehan is one of Asha Bhosle's most favourite singers. On another website she said a few words on Noor Jehan:
- Noor Jehan's stirring dhamaal Dam-a-dam Mast Qalandar (Punjabi) is heard on shrines along the Indus, bazaars of Kolkata, and in the night clubs and discos in New York!
- Master Ghulam Haider whom she considered to be her "film line" ustad. He taught her how to stand in front of a microphone, how to render words such as hai and mohabbat, and how to breathe while singing.
- Despite being deaf from one ear, Noor Jehan's voice and her music are an excellent piece of work.
- Noor Jehan sings in Ragi which means she strains her vocal cords, thus rendering voice an artificiality. She is able to change, vary, strain, snap, twist, and swing her vocal cords according to the demand of the song. Noor Jehan's God-gifted capability to strain her vocal cords wherever and whenever she desires has really made her a unique artist. Even in Alaps (prelude modulation), Taans (stretched key note), Pulteys (turn-over modulation) and Murkis (sudden metrical zig-zag), she is able to produce variety. Even master musicians have to be careful in the rise and fall of her voice.
- When she made an early meeting with Khalid Hassan, she told him about her growing up in Kasur. She said "We were brought up with great love, and our parents always doted on us and also told us that true joy resides in your own heart and you always carry it with you no matter where in the world you go. Nobody can bring you joy if you don't have it within your heart". She said many things that her parents told her that had guided her through life. "My father used to say that if you cannot help people, you should not harm them. He also used to recite Kabir: Aey Kabira teri jhoonpari jal-kattion ke paas: Jo karain ge so bharian ge, too kyoon bhavo udas. Because of my parents we grew up honest and hard-working, never greedy or envious of others who had more. We were happy with what we had. We were not ashamed of our slender means. It was not important. When I was a child, there was one prayer I always used to say: O God, do not make me dependant on anyone except on Your glorious mercy. I have taught the same thing to my daughters".
- The late Naseer Anwar once told Khalid Hassan a lovely story about Noor Jehan. It happened in the 1930s in the city of Lahore. The devotees of a local Peer had arranged a special evening of devotional music in his honour. Among those who were brought on to perform was a little girl who sang some naats. "Sing us something in Punjabi, little daughter", the Peer said to her. She immediately launched into a Punjabi folk song, one line of which went something like: "may the kite of this land of five rivers touch the skies". As she sung the words in her young and perfectly modulated voice, the Peer went into a trance. Then he rose, put his hand on the girl's head and prophesied, "Go forth, little girl, your kite will one day touch the skies". How Pakistan has regressed as time has past was brought home to me in the late 1970s when a mullah in Lahore issued fatwa against Noor Jehan, declaring her "outside the pale of Islam for having said that music was a form of worship".
- Noor Jehan was an extraodinary woman who lived on her own terms. She went through good times and bad, marriages, divorces, heartbreaks, casual and serious love affairs, fame, fortune, lonelinesss, and in the last years of her life, unremitting ill health. She bore it all with quiet confidence and much grace. She never felt sorry for herself, never looked for pity. She was accused of being possessive. It is true that she was because she wanted to hold on to what she had acquired through her own efforts. She bore the financial burden of helping her large family through the years. Noor Jehan looked after the financial needs of her large family - and even the family that was not immmediate - all her life. Once she said "People often ask me why I don't stop working. Well, how can I? If I don't work, who is going to take care of all these people".
- In a conversation with Naveed Riaz somewhere in the 1980s, she remembered her early years and spoke of them movingly. She spoke about her mother "After my morning riyaz, a teacher would come and help me learn how to read and write. At times, I found it a bit much and so one day, I declared that I was not going to study anymore. That was the only time my mother hit me. She struck me just once and said Nahin Nooriji, tussi parho gai. Now that I think about it, had it not been for her, I would not have learnt to read and write. When I record a song, I have the words in front of me on a sheet of paper. And by God, every time I look at sheet of paper, I remember my mother. I feel like raising my hands in prayer to God and ask Him to shower His blessings on my dear mother. You know, so much time has passed, but I can still feel the thrill of riding on my father's shoulder as he walked through the street. There I am, perched high, looking down on people and shops. O I remember those days!
- On another website, legendary music composer Naushad remembered Noor Jehan and spoke about her:
