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An tribute to the Doyen of India's Best Music Composer, Naushad
* * * Although I knew Naushad Sahab in my capacity as a film-journalist since the 1940s, my wife and I came close to him only in the year 1965 when we approached him with the invitation from the Government of Tanzania requesting us to bring Naushad Sahab and Rajendra Kumar along with his wife to Dar-es-Salaam to be the Chief Guests at the premiere of producer Poonamchand Shah's color film PALKI, a Rajendra Kumar-Waheeda Rehman starrer with Naushad Sahab's music in the true traditional classical mood which had taken our entire country by storm, in the summer months of the year 1969. Unfortunately Waheeda was unable to come due to pressing shooting commitments. From the moment we landed at the Dar-es-Salaam Airport in Tanzania by an East African Airways flight, where we were received by tumultuous mobs all holding garlands and bouquets of flowers, to the time when we took off for Bombay, we were the focal point of the huge and enthusiastic crowds of fans, men, women, and children, mobbing us, taking autographs and pestering us to come to their homes for dinner! The citizens of Dar-es-Salaam were all great fans of Naushad Sahab, they worshipped him like a god, and we have seen hundreds of local citizens whether Asian or African Muslims bending down and kissing the very ground where his footprints had left a mark as he walked by. What a touching way to express their love for their beloved Naushad Sahab! In 1982 he was awarded Dadasahab Phalke Award from the then President of India Neelam Sanjiva Reddy. In 1992-1993 when my book on the late Mehboob Khan titled MEHBOOB: INDIA'S DeMILLE the first biography, by me was being released, Naushad Sahab was kind enough to come and release the book himself. He did so on the stage at the Nehru Centre in the presence of Nadira, Nimmi, and myself and the photograph of the occasion shows him presenting the first copy of Mehboob's biography to Mehboob Sahab's first wife, who was very old at that time. Padmbhushan Naushad Sahab even graced the occasion by releasing the Dilip Kumar biography written by me, along with Mr. M. V. Kamath another Padmabhushan who is a veteran journalist. Such incredible fan-worship I have never seen even for the topmost screen stars of that of any era. Other occasions when Naushad Sahab visit us at our home in Silver Beach at Shivaji Park. Indeed we were honored to accompany Naushad Sahab to Pune some years ago where some musical groups were felicitating Naushad Sahab for having given hit music in his recent films. The theatre where the function was held was overcrowded, and crowds were banging on the locked gates, demanding to be allowed to come inside, stand and watch the proceedings! Wherever he went and was asked to speak a few words, he would always urge the audience, especially the parents of to-day's youth to inculcate the love for our old traditional Indian classical music and not to give in to today's orchestrated cacophony and which is dished out as "music" which is nothing but crap. He would always recite a few impromptu couplets in Urdu, his mother-tongue, which were very pleasant to hear. Here in Pune, Naushad Sahab's innate courtesy caused him to wear a Marathi-style pheta (the traditional headgear worn by the erstwhile ruling Peshwas of Pune) and he had also prepared a few welcome lines in Marathi which he spoke—and received long and tremendous applause for having spoken in Marathi. Our younger daughter Lakshmi was a great favorite of his. Whenever he would visit us at our home Lakshmi would give him long lectures, as though she was his grandmother, regarding what food to eat and what foods to avoid. As a result Naushad Sahab used to always address Lakshmi as Dadi-maa, which of course means grandmother! As regarding drinking there was never any problem, all Naushad Sahab ever drank was pure water. He was probably one of the very, very few people in the film-line who never touched alcohol. The passing of Naushad marks the end of the Golden Era of Indian Cinema Music, which lasted from the early 1940s-thru-to-the-late-1980s. Before him, many earlier "greats" of the music world such as Anil Biswas, Khemchand Prakash, Shanker Jaikishen, Sajjad Husain, Mukesh, Mohammed Rafi, singing-stars Suraiya, Khurshid, Noorjehan, Uma Devi (actress Tun Tun), Raj Kumari, plus so many others, had already passed away. Fortunately, we are blessed, with the presence of the famous singer 'Shamshad Begum' who lives here in Hiranandani Gardens, as the Singer of the Golden Era whose presence itself is a main link with Naushad Sahab. Alas! There is no one in his family to carry on the torch for his intense love of Indian classical music, but for his grand-daughter who was just being taught by him, the classical music. Unfortunately the cruel hand of Fate snatched him away from amidst all of us. May his soul rest in peace.
By Bunny Reuben
"You Say You Know Me From The 'Andaz' Days," Naushad Said, "But I Know You From The Days When You Came To Become An Actor!"
Those were Naushad Sahab's very first words to my wife Krishna and to me when we entered his house just a month before his tragic and untimely death. "And please remember you never have to take an appointment to come and see me," Naushad continued, "because both Krishna and you are as dear to me as my own family members. Come whenever you like, come as often as you like." He further went on to elaborate his comment as to where he had met me—and then I remembered: It was when producer-director A. R. Kardar who owned his own film-studio named Kardar Studios at Lower Parel in Bombay, had announced a contest in association with the Kolynos Toothpaste (now defunct) manufacturers that they were looking for newcomers, both young men and young women, to be groomed for stardom under the personal tutelage of Mr. Kardar himself. And I was one of the star-aspirant trying my luck to get chosen for the stardom. (I was chosen to be one of the finalists, but developed cold feet on the final day and never showed up. Well that's another story). Naushad Sahab was born in Lucknow on December 25, 1919. His parents were Mariam and Wahid Ali, who was a Munshi in the court of Lucknow. His love for music was born with him and he told us that "I remember my passion for music from my earliest years." "When my father found out from outside sources that I was more passionately interested in music than in taking up one of the jobs he had found for me," Naushad said, "he was infuriated and he issued me with an ultimatum, saying "If you want music—please leave my house, and if you want the house and home, then please leave music". My father, on his side, was adamant - and I, from my side, was equally adamant. So I told my father: "No Sir, you may keep your house and home—and I will follow the path of music! Inevitably, Naushad Sahab landed up in Bombay with very little money in his pocket and not knowing anybody at all, to do anything for him. He knew that if he spent the little money he had and tries to find a place to sleep, he would have nothing to eat. "So I preferred to remain hungry," Naushad Sahab smiled, "And as far as sleeping was concerned, I decided to sleep on the pavement exactly opposite the Broadway Cinema at Dadar. "Cross the road I did," Naushad Sahab said smilingly to us, "When Producer Vijay Bhatt's movie "BAIJU BAWRA" was released at the Broadway Theatre in 1952. The music of this was composed by me, and when my picture BAIJU BAWRA became a Silver Jubilee and Golden Jubilee super-hit at many theatres besides Broadway. Yes, it took me sixteen long years of struggle in the music-field to cross that road from obscurity to, I think, international fame. Of course we understood that he was speaking symbolically, because long before BAIJU BAWRA was released (1952), Naushad Sahab had already scored music in 33 films, most of which were super-hits, because the songs in all these films were super-hits. These are some of the films in which Naushad Sahab scored super-hit music: Bhavnani Productions PREM NAGAR (1940), Prakash Pictures DARSHAN (1941), Chitra Productions KANCHAN (1941), Prakash Pictures MALA (1941), A. R. Kardar's NAI DUNIYA (1942), A. R. Kardar's SHARDA (1942), Prakash Pictures STATION MASTER (1942), A. R. Kardar's KANOON (1943), A. R. Kardar's NAMASTE (1943), A. R. Kardar's SANJOG (1943), A. R. Kardar's GEET (1944), A. R. Kardar's JEEVAN (1944), A. R. Kardar's PAHLE AAP(1944), Jamuna Production RATTAN (1944), A. R. Kardar's SANYASI (1945), Mehboob Khan's ANMOL GHADI (1946), A. R. Kardar's KEEMAT (1946), A. R. Kardar's Shah JEHAN (1946), A. R. Kardar's DARD (1947), Mehboob Khan's ELAN (1947), A. R. Kardar's NATAK (1947), Mehboob Khan's ANOKHI ADA (1948), Wadia Films MELA (1948), Mehboob Khan's ANDAZ (1949), Tajmahal Pictures CHANDNI RAAT (1949), A. R. Kardar's DILLAGI (1949), A. R. Kardar's DULARI (1949), S. U. Sunny's BABUL (1950), A. R. Kardar's DASTAN (1950), Filmkaar Ltd's DEEDAR (1951), A. R. Kardar's JADOO (1951), Mehboob Khan's AAN (1952), Prakash Pictures BAIJU BAWRA (1952) During the background music of AAN which was recorded in London Naushad Sahab was a first and the only Indian to have been allowed to conduct the London Philharmonic Orchestra. To narrate the entire story of his life, his music, his successes, his international fame, his first meeting with Orson Wells in London, all this cannot fit within the confines of a magazine article.* * * Although I knew Naushad Sahab in my capacity as a film-journalist since the 1940s, my wife and I came close to him only in the year 1965 when we approached him with the invitation from the Government of Tanzania requesting us to bring Naushad Sahab and Rajendra Kumar along with his wife to Dar-es-Salaam to be the Chief Guests at the premiere of producer Poonamchand Shah's color film PALKI, a Rajendra Kumar-Waheeda Rehman starrer with Naushad Sahab's music in the true traditional classical mood which had taken our entire country by storm, in the summer months of the year 1969. Unfortunately Waheeda was unable to come due to pressing shooting commitments. From the moment we landed at the Dar-es-Salaam Airport in Tanzania by an East African Airways flight, where we were received by tumultuous mobs all holding garlands and bouquets of flowers, to the time when we took off for Bombay, we were the focal point of the huge and enthusiastic crowds of fans, men, women, and children, mobbing us, taking autographs and pestering us to come to their homes for dinner! The citizens of Dar-es-Salaam were all great fans of Naushad Sahab, they worshipped him like a god, and we have seen hundreds of local citizens whether Asian or African Muslims bending down and kissing the very ground where his footprints had left a mark as he walked by. What a touching way to express their love for their beloved Naushad Sahab! In 1982 he was awarded Dadasahab Phalke Award from the then President of India Neelam Sanjiva Reddy. In 1992-1993 when my book on the late Mehboob Khan titled MEHBOOB: INDIA'S DeMILLE the first biography, by me was being released, Naushad Sahab was kind enough to come and release the book himself. He did so on the stage at the Nehru Centre in the presence of Nadira, Nimmi, and myself and the photograph of the occasion shows him presenting the first copy of Mehboob's biography to Mehboob Sahab's first wife, who was very old at that time. Padmbhushan Naushad Sahab even graced the occasion by releasing the Dilip Kumar biography written by me, along with Mr. M. V. Kamath another Padmabhushan who is a veteran journalist. Such incredible fan-worship I have never seen even for the topmost screen stars of that of any era. Other occasions when Naushad Sahab visit us at our home in Silver Beach at Shivaji Park. Indeed we were honored to accompany Naushad Sahab to Pune some years ago where some musical groups were felicitating Naushad Sahab for having given hit music in his recent films. The theatre where the function was held was overcrowded, and crowds were banging on the locked gates, demanding to be allowed to come inside, stand and watch the proceedings! Wherever he went and was asked to speak a few words, he would always urge the audience, especially the parents of to-day's youth to inculcate the love for our old traditional Indian classical music and not to give in to today's orchestrated cacophony and which is dished out as "music" which is nothing but crap. He would always recite a few impromptu couplets in Urdu, his mother-tongue, which were very pleasant to hear. Here in Pune, Naushad Sahab's innate courtesy caused him to wear a Marathi-style pheta (the traditional headgear worn by the erstwhile ruling Peshwas of Pune) and he had also prepared a few welcome lines in Marathi which he spoke—and received long and tremendous applause for having spoken in Marathi. Our younger daughter Lakshmi was a great favorite of his. Whenever he would visit us at our home Lakshmi would give him long lectures, as though she was his grandmother, regarding what food to eat and what foods to avoid. As a result Naushad Sahab used to always address Lakshmi as Dadi-maa, which of course means grandmother! As regarding drinking there was never any problem, all Naushad Sahab ever drank was pure water. He was probably one of the very, very few people in the film-line who never touched alcohol. The passing of Naushad marks the end of the Golden Era of Indian Cinema Music, which lasted from the early 1940s-thru-to-the-late-1980s. Before him, many earlier "greats" of the music world such as Anil Biswas, Khemchand Prakash, Shanker Jaikishen, Sajjad Husain, Mukesh, Mohammed Rafi, singing-stars Suraiya, Khurshid, Noorjehan, Uma Devi (actress Tun Tun), Raj Kumari, plus so many others, had already passed away. Fortunately, we are blessed, with the presence of the famous singer 'Shamshad Begum' who lives here in Hiranandani Gardens, as the Singer of the Golden Era whose presence itself is a main link with Naushad Sahab. Alas! There is no one in his family to carry on the torch for his intense love of Indian classical music, but for his grand-daughter who was just being taught by him, the classical music. Unfortunately the cruel hand of Fate snatched him away from amidst all of us. May his soul rest in peace.
(The Author is a resident of Hiranandani Gardens, Powai. Bunny Reuben is a senior film journalist and author who has chronicled the trends in Bollywood since the late 1940s and was a close friend and publicist of legendary showman Raj Kapoor. Reuben has penned several biographies of Bollywood personalities of Rak Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and the latest on the life and times of the screen villain Pran. PP has featured him in depth in 'Powai Ke Badiyan Log' some four years back.)
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