A Melodious Voice



A Melodious Voice
- by Amjad Parvez

Melody Queen Noor Jehan passed away on December 23, 2000. She had a powerful voice and a touch of royalty in her personality. Her fans will remember her magical voice and the regal way in which she carried herself for a long time.

I heard the shocking news of Noor Jehan's death while I was sitting with the Station Director of Radio Pakistan, Lahore. The sad news brought tears to the eyes of many who were present. A feeling of depression followed. At Khalid Asghar's suggestion, music director Jozi Anjum and I wrote a brief write-up on Noor Jehan's life and her contributions to music and films, which was broadcast by Radio Pakistan. Lahore Radio broke the news at about four in the afternoon followed by a somber song. Millions all over the world mourned the departure of Madam Noor Jehan, as she was generally known in the media.

Noor Jehan entered the film industry at a time when it was in its early formative stages in Calcutta and Bombay. Much has been written about her acting and singing in films before and after the creation of Pakistan. At least three generations have grown up listening to her distinctively melodious and powerful voice. I had the privilege of being present at some of her recordings at the EMI studios in Lahore as well as at the shooting of her PTV program titled Tarannum.

Ghazanffar Abbas Bharwana produced A Tribute to the Melody Queen for PTV World depicting Noor Jehan's life and works. It was telecast twice: first on channel 3 and then on PTV world channels on the eve of her death.

Noor Jehan very much admired the composing style of Ustad Nazar-e-Hussain. She would rehearse Ustad's songs many times before going for audio recordings. Her songs based on his compositions became popular overnight and have an everlasting quality about them.

Though she has sung hundreds of songs, her rendering of the motivational song, Ae Watan Ke Sajeele Jawano shows her perfection in singing skills. One has just to look at the range she covers in this song and her evenly poised and balanced voice at both ends of the scale. Both Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhonsle mentioned this quality of Noor Jehan's voice in their telephonic tribute paid through PTV at her death. Another quality that made her superior to the other singers is the ease with which she rendered the murkis, taans, zamzamas and meends during her performances. She thoroughly enjoyed these elements of her singing and always created an immediate rapport with her audience whether singing on stage or otherwise.

Noor Jehan always dressed well. Her choice of jewelry always matched with the colors chosen for her attire. She liked wearing saris most of the time. As a young child, she liked copying the styles of Baji Sardar Akhtar and Bibi Mukhtar Begum. In her later years, she used to wear a scarf around her neck. This style was copied by several other singers and became quite fashionable.

Noor Jehan was an excellent hostess and a great conversationalist with a good sense of humor. She visited my house in August of 1986 when music director Khayyam was my guest. She stayed and talked for hours with Khayyam Sahib and enjoyed listening to his compositions. Later, she invited many of the film and TV folks to a reception at her house. She entertained the guests with lavish food and the songs of Khayyam from the movie Razia Sultan.

One can go on and on highlighting the qualities of her personality and singing capability but at this moment I can safely state that voices like hers are only born rarely. Her death has left a big void in the music scene of South Asia, which may take another century to fill.