Shabnam kyun neer bahaaye
Posted on: August 1, 2014
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
GEMS FROM THE MIGRATORS….Song No. 6
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After Partition, the film industry in Pakistan was at its lowest ebb. Main reason was that most of the film activities were taking place only in one place-Lahore. During the riots, most studios were either burnt or damaged and there was a shortage of Financers, Distributors and technical staff. Composers who migrated from here to there had got accustomed to working in an organised sector and in Pakistan almost everything was in a mess. It is to the credit of few dedicated people in Lahore that by 1948 the first film, entirely made in Pakistan, with the entire crew from within the country, rolled out successfully. Despite lack of facilities, talented composers created inspired music and most composers succeeded there.
India, having a huge industry base spread over several locations throughout the country was not much disturbed in film making. Here are the statistics for films made in India during this period.
| Year | Number of films produced |
|---|---|
| 1945 | 74 |
| 1946 | 153 |
| 1947 | 181 |
| 1948 | 149 |
| 1949 | 157 |
| 1950 | 113 |
One will observe that during the period 45 to 50, maximum films of films were made in 1947. This may be because all the ‘ would be’ migrators hurriedly completed their pending films, prior to their departure. This also indicates that the damage done to Indian film industry due to partition or the en bloc migration of artistes to Pakistan was on a limited scale.
Today we will talk about a Giant among the Pakistan film industry, post Partition- KHAWAJA KHURSHID ANWAR ji. He is probably the only composer on whom plenty of information is available here and in Pakistan. One of the major source of his information is Dr.Surjit Singh ji’s site and the other is Cineplot. Additionally, there are many Pakistani sites and Blogs where information is available on him.
Khwaja Khurshid Anwar (21 March 1912 – 30 October 1984) was a filmmaker, writer, director and music composer who gained extreme popularity both in India and Pakistan. He is widely credited as being one of the most original and inventive music directors of his generation.
Khwaja Khurshid Anwar was born into a Kashmiri family on 21 March 1912 in Mianwali (now in Pakistan) where his maternal grandfather Khan Bahadur Dr.Sheikh Atta Mohammad (who’s daughter married philosopher-poet Muhammad Iqbal, to whom he was thus a nephew) held the post of civil surgeon. His father Khawaja Ferozuddin Ahmad was a well-known Barrister settled in Lahore. The ace jurist had a love for music so much so that he had a huge collection of gramophone records of Indian classical and neo-classical music and his precocious son had an unhindered access to them all. Moreover, in the weekly soirees of music which were held in the lawyer’s house, renowned masters used to perform, and it was here that the young Khurshid Anwar developed a taste for classical music. Viewing Khrshid Anwar’s keen interest Khansahib Tawakkal Hussain took him under his tutleage in 1934.
Khurshid Anwar was also a brilliant student at Government College, Lahore, the renowned seat of learning. Having topped in the Masters in Philosophy (1935), he appeared in the examination for Indian Civil Service (ICS) but due to his political and anti-Raj activities, the colonial masters would not let him share power. Interestingly, he had also absented himself from the prize-distribution ceremony of the Punjab University held to honour the students with distinctions. When his name was called to receive the Gold Medal in Philosophy, nobody turned up. The British Chancellor of the University who was awarding medals remarked that the student having forgotten to receive the medal is a true philosopher. Actually,he was busy listening to music in his home.
In 1939 Khurshid Anwar joined All-India Radio, Delhi as Programme Producer/Music. It was from here that he acceded to the requests of A.R. Kardar, the renowned film producer, to join Bombay filmdom as Music director. He made his debut as a music director in Kardar’s Punjabi venture “Kudmai” (1941]. His first Hindi film was “Ishara”(1943]. The film gained much popularity from its songs which included “Panghat pe muraliya baje” by Suraiya, “Shabnam kyon neer bahaye” by Gauhar Sultana, and “Dil deke dagha nahin dena” by Vatsala Kumathekar. Some of his other Hindi films were Parakh (1944, with Saraswati Devi), Yateem (1945, with K. Dutta), Aaj Aur Kal (1947), Pagdandi(1947), and Parwaana(1947) which was the last movie in which K. L. Saigal acted and sang. For “Singaar” (1949) he got the Clare Award for Best Music Director. His later films “Nishaana” (1950) and “Neelam Pari” (1952) added new feathers to his cap. He remained an inspiration to many later day music directors in both India and Pakistan. For many years, Roshan was a disciple of his, as was Shankar of Shankar Jaikishan. He was regularly praised by his contemporary Naushad Ali, who considered him to be one of the finest composers in the subcontinent.In one of the interviews,however,he said that Naushad’s knowledge of Classical music was not good,but he manged to churn out melodious songs.
Khurshid Anwar migrated to Pakistan in 1952. It was in fact his arrival in a newly independent land where the nation was in search of its expressions in arts especially in music. And it was here in 1956 that Khurshid Anwar gave Pakistani film music its identity through his magnum opus “Intezar”. The film also gave a new lease of life to Noor Jehan, his lead singer for the years to come. After, “Intezar”, Khurshid Anwar continued with his stylistic creations in films such as, Mirza Sahiban (1956), Zehre Ishq (1958), Jhoomer (1959), Koel(1959), Ayyaz (1961), Ghunghat (1962), Haveli (1964) Chingari (1964), Sarhad (1966), Hamraz (1967), Guddo (1970),Heer Ranjha (1970), Salam E Mohabat (1971), Parai Aag(1971), Shireen Farhad (1975), Haider Ali (1979) and Mirza Jat (1982).
Khurshid Anwar died on 30 October 1984 in Lahore after a protracted illness. In recognition of his contribution in enrichment film music, the Bombay film industry awarded him the coveted Mortal-Men-Immortal-melodies Award (1982). Great Urdu poet of 20th century, Faiz Ahmad Faiz was a lifelong friend of Khurshid Anwar. During an interview, in reply to a query of Anwar Maqsood, Faiz acknowledged that he was inspired by Khurshid Anwar.
He has also been praised for his efforts to keep alive Classical music not only through his compositions but also through his unique collection of classical Music performances recorded by EMI Pakistan, known as Aahang-e-Khusrav in two parts(1978). Raag Mala has ten volumes includes 90 Raags in ten Thaths. Each Raag has a short introduction in the voice of Khurshid Anwar explaining the characteristics of the Raag followed by its audio performance by renowned Classical singers of Pakistan. The second part of Aahang-e-Khusravi is Gharaon Ki Gaiyki in 20 volumes which consists of audio recording of representatives of the main Gharanas of Classical singers in Pakistan. In recognition of his services for the cause of music, he was awarded the coveted ‘Sitara-e-Imtiaz’ by the Government of Pakistan in 1980.
He got Nigar awards 3 times. He also got President’s award for Best Music and Best story for film Intezar-56. Film Intezaar-56 was released on 12-5-1956 at Lahore.It was produced by Sultan Jilani and directed by Masood Parvaiz.The cast consisted of Noorjehan,Santosh kumar ( real name Syed Moosa Raza ),Asha Posley and others. Film Intezar was so famous and a Hit film that in India,Dilip kumar,K.Asif and financer seth Palan ji wanted to release the film in India. The south Giant producer S S Wasan of Gemini studios contacted him and asked for the rights of the film and enquired how much will be his fees. Khursheed Anwar replied that his works are open for all those who will join him in the crusade against vulgar music. he said there will be no fees and the film was remade in Tamil subsequently.
He had great respect for S.D.Burman, followed by Salil Chaudhari for their musical genius in India.
He made 1 Punjabi and 9 Hindi films in India and 18 films in Pakistan. As a producer and also writer he made 6 films and directed 3 films in Pakistan.
In India, he has composed 72 songs, but not even 1 song is there by Lata mangeshkar. He used Geeta, Asha etc, but not Lata. There was a story circulating that Lata was called for rehearsals for a song composed for film Neelampari-52. She came but did not wait for the composer to come after hearing that the composer can neither sing nor play a single instrument ! In an interview, on asking about this, his brother Khawaja Sultan Ahmed ji said that it was not true. She was tied up with HMV for consecutive 5 days for recording and so could not come for rehearsals. He also said that Khurshid Anwar ji could sing well and played instruments too.
Today’s song is from film Ishara-1943. The film was produced by D.R.D.Productions and was directed by J.K.Nanda. The Lyricist was D.N.Madhok and the cast was Prithviraj Kapoor, Swarnalata, Suraiya, Vatsala Kumthekar, K N Singh etc.
Swarnalata was already an established heroine in Hindi cinema before she opted to migrate to Pakistan with husband Nazir, a prominent actor-producer-director, following the partition of India. Swarnalata enjoyed a successful career in Pakistan as well proving to be a popular leading lady in both Urdu and Punjabi films across the border.
Swarnalata was born on 20-12-24 in a Siyal Jat Sikh family in Rawalpindi. She came to Delhi to complete her education and then joined The Academy of music and Arts,at Lucknow. She lost her parents early and lived with her elder brother. She was spotted at a hostel in Lucknow when she got an offer to act in films. Her initial reaction was to refuse outright but the director, who had spotted her, convinced her brother who in turn convinced her and soon Swarnalata found herself in Bombay.
Swarnalata made her film debut in 1942 with Awaaz (1942). Followed films like Tasveer (1943) and Raunaq (1944) opposite Motilal and Ishara (1943) with Prithviraj Kapoor before she hit the big time with Rattan (1944). Old timers still fondly recall the image of her running after Karan Dewan, who is seated on the tonga, ‘singing’ the most popular song of her career in India and imploring him – Ankhiyan Mika ke Jiya Bharma ke Chale Nahin Jana. Rattan was a huge success launching the career of music director Naushad. Ironically, this tale of two young lovers separated when the woman is married off elsewhere was thought to be a commercially risky venture and the original distributors re-sold the film rather cheaply fearing the worst. The rest as they (always) say is history as Rattan became the biggest hit of the year. Another extremely popular song of the film was Sawan ke Badalon.
Swarnalata played leading lady to Dilip Kumar in only his second film, Pratima (1945), made at Bombay Talkies. The same year saw the release of Preet and Laila Majnu where Swarnalata was cast opposite Nazir in both films. The two fell in love and Swarnalata got married to Nazir and converted to Islam taking on the name Sayeeda Bano. However, she continued to retain her screen name for her films as an actress though she did give her Islamic name as producer. Following her last film Ghar Baar (1948) in India, Nazir and Swarnalata migrated to Pakistan. Recalling the shift, Swarnalata said it was no big deal. Nazir decided they should go to Pakistan so they did! The first film they produced there, Heer Ranjha, ended in tragedy as whatever they shot was out of focus and so, the film had to be shelved. ( This Nazir was an actor,producer and director. He was the maternal uncle of K.Asif, maker of Mughal-e Azam. In his struggling days, Asif stayed with his mama. That time Nazir’s wife was Sitara Devi-who eloped with K.Asif to Delhi. Nazir gave her divorce and then married Swarnalata).
Swarnalata then officially made her debut in Pakistani cinema with Sachai in Urdu and Pherayin Punjabi, both the films releasing in 1949 with her cast opposite husband Nazir in both.Sachai, which unfortunately flopped, also saw Swarnalata become Pakistan’s first ever woman producer. However, Pheray, also directed by Nazir and based on Noor Jehan’s Village Girl (1945) that incidentally saw Nazir star opposite the legendary singing star, became Pakistan’s first ever silver jubilee hit film! Pheray’s music by the great GA Chisti proved extremely popular especially Mainu Rab di Sohn Tere Naal Pyaar and Ki Kitta Taqdeer. The team of Nazir-Swarnalata-GA Chisti followed Pheray with Laarey the following year but unfortunately the film did not have quite the same impact even though it was a musically strong film.
After a somewhat lean period with flops like Anokhi Dastan (1950) and Bheegi Palken (1952),Shehri Babu (1953), a Punjabi film, produced and directed by Nazir, proved to be a huge blockbuster with the reigning top star of Pakistani cinema, Santosh Kumar, cast opposite Swarnalata. The film boasted of a superb musical score by Rashid Attre bringing to the fore singer Inayat Hussain Bhatti as an actor besides also featuring Zubeida Khanum’s early hit songs and remains one of the most popular films ever to come out of Pakistan. Swarnalata was now at the peak of her career in Pakistan.
Though not a conventional good-looker, Swarnalata was a more then capable actress besides being a graceful enough dancer as well. In one of her last interviews given on television in Pakistan, she emphatically stressed,
“Swarnalata ka apna style tha. Koi Swarnalata ko koi copy nahin kar saka. (Swarnalata had her own style. No one could copy her).”
Heer (1955) was undoubtedly Swarnalata’s best known and most popular film in Pakistan. Returning to the Heer-Ranjha legend, this Punjabi film, was a huge success at the box office with Inayat Hussain Bhatti and Swarnalata playing the doomed lovers. But it was also to be the last high point of a glorious career.
Post Heer, saw the decline in Swarnalata’s career as films like Sauteli Maa (1956), Sabira (1956) and Noor-e-Islam (1957) flopped at the box office. Singing star Noor Jehan was still around and younger heroines like Sabiha Khanum, Shamim Ara and Mussarat Nazir had begun to rule the roost in Pakistani cinema. The Swarnalata – Nazir combine still came out with the odd film like Shama (1959) and Billo Jee (1962) but by now, their glory days were clearly behind them.
Swarnalata’s last roles saw her supporting Sabiha and Saloni in Sawaal (1966) and Zeba inDuniya Na Mane (1971) after which she retired gracefully from the silver screen.
Some other films of Swarnalata include Inkar (1943), Us Paar (1944), Shyam Savera (1946),Maa Baap ki Laaj (1946) and Abidah (1947) in India besidesBNauker (1955) – a remake of the Indian film Aulad (1954) and Khatoon (1955) in Pakistan.
Swarnalata passed away in Lahore in Pakistan on February 8, 2008.
When Swarnalata acted in film Ishara-43, she was cast opposite Prithviraj Kapoor-who was almost 45 years old at that time. Suraiya played the role of the ‘other’ woman. At this time she was just about 13-14 year old. Thus Suraiyya acted with Prithviraj Kapoor and later on was the heroine of his sons Raj Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor as well.
A singer from Lucknow was brought to Bombay to record songs for this film-Gauhar Sultana, who gave playback to Swarnalata in the film. Suraiya sang for herself. For 9 songs of the films, 6 singers were used The Lyricist was D N Madhok. Both Khurshid Anwar and his brother Sultan Ahmed did not have good opinion of Madhok. They thought that Madhok sold his tunes to other composers. Khurshid ji had good relations with the director J K Nanda.
Let us now enjoy this Gem from film Ishara-43,sung by Gauhar Sultana of Lucknow…
(Note: My thanks to Harish Raghuvanshi ji,Dr, Surjit singh ji,Cineplot,Mazhar site, upperstall and saadat hasan manto)
Song-Shabnam kyun neer bahaaye (Ishaara)(1943) Singer-Gauhar Sultana, Lyrics- D N Madhok, MD- Khursheed Anwar
Lyrics
Shabnam kyun neer bahaaye
shabnam kyun neer bahaaye
duniyaa soye ae ae
aur ye roye jaaye
shabnam kyun neer bahaaye
jaise nirdhan ke rone par
jaise nirdhan ke rone par
hansae hai dhanvaan
waise shabnam ke rone par
waise shabnam ke rone par
kaliyon ki muskaan
shabnam roye ae ae
kaliyon kaa munh dhoye
apni jaan ganvaa kar pagli
jag mein phool khilaaye ae
apni jaan ganvaa kar pagli
jag mein phool khilaaye
shabnam kyun neer bahaaye
shabnam kyun neer bahaaye
moorakh hain jo chaar ghadi ke
moorakh hain jo chaar ghadi ke
jeevan par itraate hain
hanste phoolon ko dekho jo
hanste phoolon ko dekho jo
khilte hi murjhaate hain
shabanam roye ae ae
moorakh gaafil soye
ro-ro ke shabnam is jhoothe
jag kaa bhed bataaye
ro-ro ke shabnam is jhoothe
jag kaa bhed bataaye
shabnam kyun neer bahaaye
shabnam kyun neer bahaaye
5 Responses to "Shabnam kyun neer bahaaye"
August 2, 2014 at 2:09 pm
Arun Ji,
I would like to quote P G Wodehouse’s line.
“As we grow older and realise more clearly the limitations of human happiness, we come to see that only abiding pleasure in life is to give pleasure to other people.”
Thank you Arun Ji for all those immense reading and listening pleasure that you have provided to innumerable persons like me. Same is applicable to Atul Ji, Sudhir Ji and their likes.
Thank you once again for yet another informative article on Khursheed Anwar and Swarnalata and the beautiful song rendered by Gauhar Sultana.
Can You give some more information on Gauhar Sultana of Lucknow.
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August 2, 2014 at 2:31 pm
N Venkataraman ji,
Thanks for your kind words.
I tried very hard-not only now,but since many years-but I am unable to get any information on Gauhar Sultana,so far.
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March 29, 2019 at 8:17 am
Gauhar Sultana was a well known singer in Lucknow. She is mostly known for singing on All India Radio. She was a playback singer in only two films, Ishara in which she sang three songs in, and Double Cross 1938 in which she sang for also.
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
August 1, 2014 at 5:31 pm
What a voice. Great stuff.
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