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Founders
This website is a 50-50 Indo-Pak collaboration, with one founder each from India and Pakistan.
Gajendra Khanna from India
Inaam Nadeem from Pakistan
Join us and promote peace through Music. All contributions to the site welcome. The founders are extremely thankful to Pradeep Prabhu of Hamaraforums.com for providing the domain, webspace and support for this website since the beginning. It would not have been possible without you.
Tributes
Brief Biography (Part 2)
13 December 2011 Last Updated on 29 February 2012
Continued from Part 1
In 1959 she married Ejaz Durrani a young actor. She had three daughters from him: Hina, Mina and Tina. It was after her marriage
to Ejaz that she decided to quit acting and to take up playback singing. The pressure of being a mother of six and the wife of a demanding 'hero' forced her to give up her career as an actress. However, she turned to playback singing. Perhaps, this was
no bad thing as now she was able to sing many more songs in a year. Now thirty-five, all across South Asia she was known as Malika-e-Tarranum/Melody Queen. Additionally, in Pakistan, her studio wallahs referred her to as Madam: not just did she rule the airwaves - she was undisputed Queen of the Pakistani film industry. Her last film as actress/singer was Mirza Ghalib (1961 dir. S. Attaullah Hashmi). In this she sang the ghazals of Ghalib, the greatest Urdu poet. This proved to be a bridge between her past and future. She had developed a great love for poetry and now started recording the works of leading Urdu poets, both classical and contemporary. This contributed to the strengthening of her iconic stature. She gained another audience for herself. Her rendition of Faiz Ahmed Faiz's Mujh se pehli si muhabbat meray mehboob na maang is a unique example of tarranum, reciting poetry as song.
She loved to sing and reach out to her fans and admirers. She had done records, films and radio, and took up the challenge of television in 1967.
1968 she sang the stirring dhamaal Dam-a-dam mast Qalandar (Punjabi) This song, perhaps more than any other typified Noor
Jehan's appeal, as it hit international charts: it was heard at shrines along the Indus, in bazaars in Calcutta and in discos in New York.
However, just as she reached unimaginable heights as a singer, in the 70s tragedy struck Pakistan and Noor Jehan. While she
was playback singing for the film Heer Ranjha (1970 dir. Masud Pervez), Ejaz was carrying on with Firdaus, on whom Noor Jehan's
songs were being picturised. Khursheed Anwar, a composer whom Noor Jehan admired and respected, perhaps, as none other, had
composed the songs. As the country was torn apart in 1971, when East Pakistan seceded as Bangladesh, Noor Jehan's life was torn apart, as Ejaz walked out on her.
The 1970s saw a gradual rise in Punjabi film culture in Pakistan and Noor Jehan was very prominent in Punjabi cinema with a
huge following in towns and cities. According to Producer Sajjad Gul, "Audiences did not even bother to find out the names of the
actors; it was enough that Noor Jehan's songs were there"
The 1980s, dominated by General Zia-ul-Haq's repressive Martial law and the Afghan war, rang the death knell for the Pakistani film
industry. Noor Jehan made a much-publicized visit to India in 1982.
Here she was able to renew ties with her old friends and colleagues. Lata Mangeshkar and Dilip Kumar were among the many others who were there to wine and dine her. Throughout her life she retained a warm and affectionate relationship with both.
By the 1990s the Urdu film industry had sunk, almost without a trace. However, the Punjabi industry was alive - and Noor Jehan was singing for almost every film. Due to failing health she had to cut back her recording commitments. Ironically, the last song she recorded was Larki Phansa lit u ne tille de taar jesi (Urdu/1998, Isaaf Ho To Aisa). Her patriotic songs sung during the 1965 conflict struck an emotional chord among the masses. Her colourful personality had inspired the incomparable Manto sketch entitled Noor Jehan Suroor-i-Jehan.
She had a heart bypass in the US a decade ago, but apparently developed recurrence of the problem a year or so ago. She breathed her last, in Kararchi, on 23rd December, 2000. For sixty years Noor Jehan reigned as a supreme cultural icon, in India and Pakistan and the diasporas, transcending prejudice, xenophobia and difference.
With a voice that pierced the soul and a personality that won hearts on both sides of the border, Noor Jehan shall always remain alive in the hearts and minds of her fans all over the world.
to Ejaz that she decided to quit acting and to take up playback singing. The pressure of being a mother of six and the wife of a demanding 'hero' forced her to give up her career as an actress. However, she turned to playback singing. Perhaps, this was
no bad thing as now she was able to sing many more songs in a year. Now thirty-five, all across South Asia she was known as Malika-e-Tarranum/Melody Queen. Additionally, in Pakistan, her studio wallahs referred her to as Madam: not just did she rule the airwaves - she was undisputed Queen of the Pakistani film industry. Her last film as actress/singer was Mirza Ghalib (1961 dir. S. Attaullah Hashmi). In this she sang the ghazals of Ghalib, the greatest Urdu poet. This proved to be a bridge between her past and future. She had developed a great love for poetry and now started recording the works of leading Urdu poets, both classical and contemporary. This contributed to the strengthening of her iconic stature. She gained another audience for herself. Her rendition of Faiz Ahmed Faiz's Mujh se pehli si muhabbat meray mehboob na maang is a unique example of tarranum, reciting poetry as song.
She loved to sing and reach out to her fans and admirers. She had done records, films and radio, and took up the challenge of television in 1967.
1968 she sang the stirring dhamaal Dam-a-dam mast Qalandar (Punjabi) This song, perhaps more than any other typified Noor
Jehan's appeal, as it hit international charts: it was heard at shrines along the Indus, in bazaars in Calcutta and in discos in New York.
However, just as she reached unimaginable heights as a singer, in the 70s tragedy struck Pakistan and Noor Jehan. While she
was playback singing for the film Heer Ranjha (1970 dir. Masud Pervez), Ejaz was carrying on with Firdaus, on whom Noor Jehan's
songs were being picturised. Khursheed Anwar, a composer whom Noor Jehan admired and respected, perhaps, as none other, had
composed the songs. As the country was torn apart in 1971, when East Pakistan seceded as Bangladesh, Noor Jehan's life was torn apart, as Ejaz walked out on her.
The 1970s saw a gradual rise in Punjabi film culture in Pakistan and Noor Jehan was very prominent in Punjabi cinema with a
huge following in towns and cities. According to Producer Sajjad Gul, "Audiences did not even bother to find out the names of the
actors; it was enough that Noor Jehan's songs were there"
The 1980s, dominated by General Zia-ul-Haq's repressive Martial law and the Afghan war, rang the death knell for the Pakistani film
industry. Noor Jehan made a much-publicized visit to India in 1982.
Here she was able to renew ties with her old friends and colleagues. Lata Mangeshkar and Dilip Kumar were among the many others who were there to wine and dine her. Throughout her life she retained a warm and affectionate relationship with both.
By the 1990s the Urdu film industry had sunk, almost without a trace. However, the Punjabi industry was alive - and Noor Jehan was singing for almost every film. Due to failing health she had to cut back her recording commitments. Ironically, the last song she recorded was Larki Phansa lit u ne tille de taar jesi (Urdu/1998, Isaaf Ho To Aisa). Her patriotic songs sung during the 1965 conflict struck an emotional chord among the masses. Her colourful personality had inspired the incomparable Manto sketch entitled Noor Jehan Suroor-i-Jehan.
She had a heart bypass in the US a decade ago, but apparently developed recurrence of the problem a year or so ago. She breathed her last, in Kararchi, on 23rd December, 2000. For sixty years Noor Jehan reigned as a supreme cultural icon, in India and Pakistan and the diasporas, transcending prejudice, xenophobia and difference.
With a voice that pierced the soul and a personality that won hearts on both sides of the border, Noor Jehan shall always remain alive in the hearts and minds of her fans all over the world.
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