The composer Naushad Ali was a phenomenon of popular Indian cinema from the early 1940s into the early 1970s, who introduced a unique fusion of devotional, classical and north Indian folk music. Without Naushad's vision and thematically composed songs, it is difficult to imagine the impact of films like Mother India (1957), which features classical ragas and folk music. A product of the composite culture of Lucknow, Naushad understood Hindu and Muslim culture and the languages, dialects and poetry associated with them. Against the wishes of his father he learned classical and folk music and, aged 18, moved to Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India's film capital, in 1937, to pursue a career in music in what is today known as Bollywood.
Without any cThe composer Naushad Ali was a phenomenon of popular Indian cinema from the early 1940s into the early 1970s, who introduced a unique fusion of devotional, classical and north Indian folk music. Without Naushad's vision and thematically composed songs, it is difficult to imagine the impact of films like Mother India (1957), which features classical ragas and folk music. A product of the composite culture of Lucknow, Naushad understood Hindu and Muslim culture and the languages, dialects and poetry associated with them. Against the wishes of his father he learned classical and folk music and, aged 18, moved to Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India's film capital, in 1937, to pursue a career in music in what is today known as Bollywood.
Without any contacts, by 1940 Naushad was music director on M Bhavnani's film Prem Nagar. But the "Naushad era" really began with Jamini Dewan's Rattan (1944), after which he became established as one of the highest-paid music directors. For the next 30 years he enjoyed unsurpassed celebrity.
Naushad's creative team chiefly comprised lyricist Shakeel Badayuni, singers Mohammed Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar and film-makers AR Kardar and Mehboob. There were films like Mughal-e-Azam (1960), which showcases the best of Urdu lyrical poetry set to music and rendered, under Naushad's direction, with sensitivity, romance and overpowering emotion. In the 1970s Naushad's high water mark was Kamal Amrohi's Pakeezah (The Pure, 1972).
His magic lay in his appreciation of the nuances of Urdu and Hindustani lyrics and his genius in expressing and enhancing film lyrics. By drawing that inspiration from classical ragas and folk, introducing a range of Indian instruments into film music and grooming some of the most talented singers, Naushad gave his music wide appeal. He also had a keen eye for talent. It was he who, after coming across a girl of 13 singing on All India Radio, gave her a break in AR Kardar's Sharda (1942). The teenager was Suraiyya, who became one of the most glamorous singing stars of the 1950s.
Naushad could produce masterpieces be it a ghazal or romantic song, a bhajan or Hindu devotional number, a qawwali sung by Sufis at a Muslim shrine or a dance number for a nautch girl. His songs were truly Indian in essence.
Akbar Khan's Taj Mahal (2006) bombed in spite of Naushad's music and he seemed to have fallen silent for many years. This was not because his musical genius had dried up - rather because, after the 1980s, Bollywood directors looked upon cinema less as a creative art and more as a moneyspinning device. This left little space for aesthetic music, poetry and romance.
Naushad was one of the last of a group who had urbanity, polish and old world charm. In true Lucknawi style, he also had the gift of kissagoi (storytelling) characterised by effective use of words, poetry, body language and anecdotes. He also published Athwan Sur (The Eighth Note), a collection of his Urdu shairi or poetry. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2006/j......more
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