Harjap Singh Aujla writes from New Jersey

THOSE born before or after 1947 have grown up with the songs recorded in the voices of Shamshad Begum and Surinder Kaur. If Surinder Kaur was the leading most folk and country singer of Punjab, Shamshad Begum was the leading most playback singer of the state. Both have contributed immensely to the culture of Punjab and our heads bow in reverence before both these folk heroines.

Shamshad Begum was born in the walled city of Amritsar round about in 1920. Being bestowed with a sweet, crisp and deep voice, Shamshad Begum became very popular at a young age in her home town. She was not even fifteen years old, when the people started inviting her as a folk singer during family occasions like weddings, betrothals, birthdays and festivals. Lahore being very close to Amritsar, her fame spread to the “Mohallas” (neighbourhoods) of Lahore too.

All India Radio Lahore opened a modern studio in 1937. This new radio outlet needed staff artists for various fields like drama, news reading, talks and different categories of music. Who could be better for Punjabi folk music than Shamshad Begum of amritsar? On receiving an invitation from All India Radio Lahore, Shamshad Begum appeared in the audition test. She was confronted with some well known experts in classical music. Shamshad Begum hardly had any initiation into the realm of classical music, but otherwise she was perfectly in “Sur” and “Taal”. To her surprise Shamshad Begum passed the audition test and became a casual artist in light music at Punjab’s only radio station.

Shamshad Begum started performing Punjabi folk music at least once in every fortnight at All India Radio Lahore. Initially India had very few radio stations and since the broadcast spectrums were virtually empty, the few radio stations had a wide spread night time reach. Shamshad Begum’s captivating voice received universal acclaim. People living in far off places like Bahawalpur, Jhang, Multan, Montgomery, Lyallpur and Rawalpindi started sending their requests for listening to Shamshad Begum’s popular Punjabi songs. Thus Shamshad Begum became a household name amongst the well to do radio owning Punjabi families.

One Punjabi film was made in Lahore in 1934, only three years after the advent of talkies in India. Since there were very few cinema halls in Punjab, the first film failed at the box office. The second Punjabi film was made in 1939 in Lahore. Its name was “Gul Bakawli”. This film did reasonably well in both Lahore and Amritsar, the two cities that had a substantial number of cinema halls. A child star Noor Jehan was the new find in this film and she became the leading female voice in this film. The maverick music director of this movie, Ghulam Haider had Shamshad Begum’s name in mind, but somehow Noor Jehan only could hog all the limelight. But Ghulam Haider introduced Shamshad Begum in his very next film “Yamla Jatt”, which introduced modern day villain Pran as the leading actor.

After 1940 success of “Yamla Jatt”, Shamshad Begum became a must sing artist in every Punjabi film made in Lahore. Shamshad Begum lent her sweet voice to about half a dozen films made in Lahore between 1940 and 1943. Before 1940, Shamshad Begum used to commute from Amritsar to Lahore, but during the shooting of “Yamla Jatt”, Shamshad Begum moved to Lahore.

Round about in 1944, Ghulam Haider decided to set up shop in Bombay, the rapidly developing dream city of filmdom. In his long and wide entourage were included his nationally famous several piece orchestra and the up and coming singers like Noorjehan, Umrao-Zia-Begum and Shamshad Begum.

On arrival in Bombay, Shamshad Begum started singing extensively for the Urdu and Hindi films too. After setting her foothold in Bombay, Noorjehan gave a run for the money to the already established singer-actress Suraiya and on her part even Shamshad Begum started getting the songs earmarked generally for the non-heroine actresses. The field of female playback singing was very crowded during those times in Bombay. There were a host of senior artists like Zohra Bai of Ambala, Amir Bai Karnataki, Nassem Akhtar, Gauhar Sultan, Khursheed, Laltha Dawoodkar and Raj Kumari. Shamshad Begum brushed most of them aside to get a decent share of playback singing assignments.

After settling down in Bombay, Shamshad Begum started singing for most of the big name music directors like Naushad, Sajjad Hussain, Nashad, Shyam Sunder, C. Ramchandra, Sachin Dev Burman, Khem Chand Prakash, Pandit Husnalal Bhagatram, Ghulam Mohammad, Vinod, Hans Raj Behl, Allah Rakha Qureishi, S. Mohinder and several others. Most of her songs became quite successful.

Shamshad Begum had the distinction of singing duets with most of the big tag male singers like G.M. Durrani, Trilok Kapoor, Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh Chand Mathur, Talat Mahmood and Kishore Kumar. Her duets with Talat Mehmood like “Duniya badal gayi meri duniya badal gayi” and “Milte hi ankhen dil hua diwana kisika, afsana mera ban gaya afsana kisika” sung for film “Babul” became land-mark evergreens. According to Mohammad Rafi, Shamshad Begum’s duet with Kishore Kumar sung for film “Naya Andaz” entitled “Meri neendon mein tum mere khwabon mein tum, ho chuke hum tumhari mohabbat mein gum” is a truly  outstanding duet. Shamshad Begum’s duet with Lata Mangeshkar entitled “Kisike dil mein rehna tha to mere dil mein kyon aye, basayi thi koi mehfil to is mehfil mein kyon aye” is one of the most favourite songs of music director Naushal Ali.

From the second half of 1947, Lahore’s Punjabi film industry also moved almost en-block to Bombay. Punjabi film “Chaman” was made in 1948 in Bombay. Pushpa Chopra (now Pushpa Hans) and Shamshad Begum were the main singers in this film. Some songs of course were given to Lata Mangeshkar. All three singers did full justice to their tunes composed by music director Vinod, a fresh arrival from Lahore. This film did extremely well at the box office and its emotionally masterpiece songs sold like hot cakes. The success of this film encouraged many producers to venture into making of Punjabi films.

Shamshad Begum sang for another Punjabi block-buster “Lachhi” in 1949. Hans Raj Behl composed its soul inspiring music. All songs became hit. In 1950, three Punjabi films “Posti”, “Bhaiyaji” and “Madari” were released. All had great music composed by the best in the business and Shamshad Begum’s voice was at her melodious best. Then a few more Punjabi films were made like “Chhayi” and “Phumman” and Shamshad Begum received a lot of name and fame.

Film “Kaude Shah” made in 1952- 1953 had music composed by Punjabi to the core music director Sardul Kwatra. This was a great musical and Shamshad Begum was its star singer. Some of its songs like “Chhan chhan kardi gali de wichon langhdi, veh mere sajna di dachi badami rang di”, “Ajj sohne kaprhe te chunni vi bareek e, inj mainoon jape ni tenoo mahi di udeek ke, kyon ni billow theek e, pathar te leek e” and “Chhad de toon mera dupatta, sun veh majhe diya jatta, jioonda rawhen veh, lok bhaire boli maarde” became super hits.

Shamshad Begum gave memorable songs to film “Jugni” in 1954. Even in film “Vanjara” (1954) Shamshad Begum did full justice to song “Jatt palle pai gaya”. Subsequently Shamshad Begum sang for virtually every Punjabi film made up to 1960. After that her singing assignments tapered off and by 1970 she took a quiet voluntary voluntary retirement.

Till recently Shamshad Begum was a forgotten singer living in virtual solitude. A few years ago another Shamshad Begum, the mother of a famous actress of yesteryears Naseem Bano and the grand mother of Saira Bano, died in Bombay. Many people believed that it was the singing sensation Shamshad Begum. Many newspapers had written customary obituaries about singer Shamshad Begum. But the fact remained that the playback singer Shamshad Begum was still alive.

Prizes and awards are given every year. But on 26th of January 2009, something strange happened. The President of India’s much anticipated annual “Padma Awards” were announced from the Rashtrapati Bhawan and it appears that on the recommendation of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, the pride of Punjab and the holy city of Amritsar, Muhtarima Shamshad Begum was given the Padma Vibhushan Award. Justice was delivered quite late to her, during her twilight years, but justice has finally been done to this great singer. We are all proud of her. She is close to ninety years in age. We are praying for her longer life.

harjapaujla@gmail.com

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Comrade Tera Singh Chan remembered

SURREY: The progressive groups gathered at the Newton Library past Saturday to remember Comrade Tera Singh Chan, who passed away last month in India . A prominent writer and a peace activist of Punjab , India he breathed his last at 88 on July 9. He is survived by his wife, three sons, three daughters and 12 grandchildren and five great grandkids. His eldest daughter, Sulekha currently lives in Delta.

Chan was not only a towering figure in the field of Punjabi literature but an important link in the progressive movements in India . Apart from the literary personalities, prominent political figures also participated in the memorial ceremony organized by his admirers under the aegis of the BC Cultural Foundation. Among the key speakers was Dr. Darshan Gill, the leader of the BC Cultural Foundation who recalled his association with Chan as a journalist with Nawan Zamana, a leftist Punjabi daily. Gill worked under him in Jalandhar. He also read out a message from Gurcharan Rampuri, a local Punjabi writer and a contemporary of Chan. Rampuri had sent his tributes to Chan for his active role in the world peace movement.

Since Chan was one of the pioneers of the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA), a secular theatre group, Rajwant Maan, who earlier worked with this group shared her memories of operas authored and played by Chan. She wrote a piece on Chan for Indo Canadian Times in which she had written about her close association with him.

One of his famous operas, Phullan Da Suneha was performed by the team of children with the help of the Taraksheel Sabha leader Parminder Swaich. While Iqbal Soomal sang his patriotic song, Hey Piari Bharat Maan, Rupinder Khaira recited Kaag Samen Da Boleya.

The Marxist leader from India , Mangat Ram Pasla who is visiting Canada to attend a series of events especially came to attend this unusual memorial service. He said that Chan believed in the philosophy of the arts for the people. ``That’s what he stood for and that’s why he will always be remembered by ordinary people’’. The Indo Canadian Workers’ Association President and another Marxist leader, Surinder Sangha agreed. ``His operas gave voice to the oppressed people.’’ He added that Chan had not only fought against the British rule but also the tyranny of the independent Indian state. Sangha’s association had earlier brought a condolence resolution in the memory of Chan. Both Pasla and Sangha are affiliated with the Marxist Communist Party of India that parted ways with the Communist Party of India (CPI), the group Chan was associated with.

Bibi Veeran, the local CPI leader said that Chan believed in social equality and the left parties should continue to work together to eradicate caste based discrimination and the exploitation of the poor. The supporter of the ultra leftist Naxalite movement, Jasvir Mangoowal observed that the current Indian system needs radical change and that is what Chan was fighting for even after India became free.

Ujjal Dosanjh, the Liberal MP said that Chan was a versatile personality with an internationalist outlook. Harry Bains, the NDP MLA from Surrey was also present. Harbans Singh Aujla, the local leader of the Shiromani Akali Dal also attended the event and paid tributes to Chan on behalf of his party.

Sohan Pooni, the historian and a freelance writer shared his opinion about Chan’s association with the freedom movement. Sadhu Binning, the leader of the Punjabi Language Association also spoke on the occasion. He said that Chan was a determined linguistic activist who struggled for the cause of the Punjabi mother tongue and continued to participate in public rallies despite his old age and poor health.

Others who spoke on the occasion were Harjit Daudhria, the Fraser Valley Peace Council leader and Joginder Shamsher, another freelance writer. Kirpal Bains and Jaiteg Singh Anant spoke as Chan’s family friends. Chan’s granddaughter, Sirjana who came from Texas to attend the event said in a choked voice that we don’t have much to say about the great man who is being remembered today as a writer, a thinker or a political activist as we always saw him as our Naana.

The event began with a moment of silence. A slideshow of his selected pictures was also shown. Besides Indo Canadians, progressive Pakistanis also attended the function.

Born in Kaimbalpur which is now in Pakistan Chan had started his career as a teacher. He later worked for two leftist Punjabi publications, Preet Lari and Nawan Zamana. He was an Assistant Editor of the latter before he worked for the Information Department of the Soviet Embassy in New Delhi.

He had authored a number of poems and Operas. One of his poems was which was dedicated to the ``Mother India’’ was included in the school text books. This had virtually become a national song. He himself had participated in the passive resistance movement against the British occupation of India.

One of his popular Operas, Lakkar di latt (A wooden leg) about the hardships of the war victims who lost their limbs in the bombings had moved many people. Interestingly, he was named by his mother as Tera (Yours) as a gratitude to God after his other siblings had died at the time of their birth. But he had died as an atheist. Although he supported turban and a long flowing beard that often gave an impression of his being a devout Sikh, he did not want his children to perform religious rites after his death. Even during the last years of his life he never prayed despite poor health and insistence of his relatives to do so.

His commitment to secularism can be judged from the fact that he had allowed one of his sons to marry a Muslim woman. Likewise, he had allowed another son and a daughter to marry persons outside his caste group. Doing so was not easy as he had faced opposition from within his own family.

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