Arshad Mahmud is a Pakistani composer, musician, actor and singer. Mahmud started his professional life in the early 1970s on Pakistan Television as part of an ensemble of young artists led by Shoaib Hashmi. He later served as a producer and executive at EMI Pakistan where he worked with and introduced many talented musicians to the recording industry. Until recently he was the director of programmes at the National Academy of Performing Arts, Karachi (NAPA) since its founding over a decade ago. A close friend and collaborator, Mahmud was the composer for many of Nayyara Noor’s songs, especially her rendition of Faiz Ahmad Faiz’ poetry.
Nayyara Noor was divinely melodious and actually an extremely skilful singer. She added great value to a music composition with her slick dexterity, rendering intricate musical phrases with remarkable ease and aplomb. She sang with a wealth of feeling and in her renderings she would inflect in such a way that the poetical intent came to the fore. After her maiden appearance as a singer in a TV programme titled Such Gup in 1973, she soon became one of the most pursued playback singers in the music industry. The format of the programme was like a magazine and the content primarily focused on socio-political satire.
An Urdu puritan asked Shoaib Hashmi, the director of the programme, that if the common proverb is ‘gup shup‘ why did he choose to call his programme Such Gup? Hashmi’s prompt reply was that it is true that the entire programme is Gup – except Nayyara’s song at the end of the programme, which is “such”. In that weekly programme Nayyara sang many songs written by modern Urdu poets like Meeraji, Ibne Insha, Nasir Kazmi, Taseer and Faiz Ahmed Faiz and earned acclaim by the connoisseurs of poetry and music.
From the 1970s onwards, she garnered much popularity and led all the way for three decades singing for films and television. However, despite her being in demand as a singer, she did not sing much. The reason was that she was very selective in her choice of whom she would work with. The substance or the content of her musical collaboration was also important to her. She never refused point blank, but used other tactics to avoid involving herself in a musical work in which she couldn’t put her heart in. Though she worked with several composers, Robin Ghosh from the film world, and Khalil Ahmed and Arshad Mahmud (writer of this article) from the non-film circuit remained her foremost choices of composers to work with.
As a true artist, she preferred art over commerce and allowed her creative instincts lead her to the unique path she had adopted for herself. Due to her love for Urdu poetry, she managed to create her own place unmatched place in the musical panorama of South Asia.
She sang Faiz Ahmed Faiz with devoutness. An album “Nayyara sings Faiz” was released in 1976 to celebrate Faiz’s 65th birthday. During the launch on February 13, Faiz heard all the titles of the album in complete silence in front of a fairly large crowd of invitees. Later Faiz Sahib sitting in the front row requested an important guest to vacate the seat next to him and signalled Nayyara to come and sit with him on the sofa. She ran and sat with him; he patted her head and said “shabash”. This small gesture by Faiz was something monumental for her at that young age. She would happily narrate this story often to her friends.
This album continues to remain popular amid the lovers of Faiz’s poetry. Many contemporary singers have also done cover versions of the songs included in the album. Two tracks, which I believe have charmed us the most, are “Aaj Bazar Mein Pabajolan Chalo”and “Hum Ke There Ajnabi”.
In the years to follow, Nayyara kept singing regularly for television and films and there are a number of songs to her credit which indeed enriched the cultural heritage of the region. Just to mention a few:
‘Aye Jazba-e-Dil Gar Mai’n Chahoon’
Poet: Behzad Lucknavi
Composer: Master Manzoor
‘Kabhi Hum Khoobsurat They’
Poet: Ahmed Shamim
Composer: Khalil Ahmed
‘Phir Sawan Rut Ki Pawan Chali’
Poet: Nasir Kazmi
Composer: Arshad Mahmud
‘Ae Ishq Hamein Barbaad Na Kar’
Poet: Akhtar Shirani
Composer: Khalil Ahmed
‘Tera Saya Jahan Bhi Ho Sajna’
Film: Gharana
Lyrics: Kaleem Usmani
Composer: M. Asharaf
‘Roothe Ho Tum Tumko Kaise Manaon Piya’
Film: Aaina
Lyrics: Tasleem Fazili
Composer: Robin Ghosh
‘Hansi Khanakti Hui’
Lyrics: Hasan Akbar Kamal
Composer: Arshad Mahmud
‘Chalo Us Koh Par’
Poet: Zehra Nighah
Composer: Mian Sheharyar
‘Mujhe Apne Zabt Pe Naz Tha’
Poet: Iqbal Azeem
Composer: Arshad Mahmud
‘Jor Se Baaz Aye Par Baaz Ayen Kiya’
Poet: Ghalib
Composer: Arshad Mahmud
Nayarra spent her childhood in Assam where she was born. The family migrated to Pakistan in the late 1950s and settled in Lahore. She was great devotee of the period of the New Theatres and Begum Akhtar. She, at a very young age, incessantly listened to Begum Akhter, Kamala Jhariya, Punckhaj Malik and the other greats of that era on the hand wound gramophone. This deep listening was followed by learning these songs to its minutest detail and then singing it herself.
Learning those intricate and varied musical structures provided the requisite practice (riaz) to train her voice which astounded and enticed her listeners. These songs were an integral part of her repertoire whenever she was invited to perform in a concert in the times to follow. While singing these great melodies she added immense value with her outstanding skill.
One such composition was “Unka Ishara Jan Se Piyara”composed by the great Anil Biswas and originally sung by Naseem Akhter for a film Pehli Nazar produced in 1945. Nayyara sang it magnificently at a live concert and this recording was also heard by Anil Biswas. He wrote a letter to Nayyara:
“My dear child Nayyara,
Heard your song (incidentally my composition). You sounded like a nightingale. I wish you were the original singer of these songs. You touched a chord of my heart, which had almost gone deaf. It came to tune when I heard you. Bless you my child, bless you.
Musically yours,
Anil Biswas
25-12-94- Merry Christmas and musicful New Year.”
I met her when we were all in our teens in the Lahore of the 1960s. She was studying textile design at NCA National College of Arts (NCA) and I was at Government College. We met at a music concert organised at NCA. There were two more friends; one played tabla and the other accordion and harmonium. I played guitar. The following years were a pure joy as spearheaded by Nayyara we regularly performed in Lahore’s educational institutions together. She was a class act and had developed some kind of a fan following amongst the youngsters of Lahore in those days. We were performing almost every week while another male singer, Sheharyar Zaidi joined our group. Later, he became Nayyara’s husband.
This group, after three years formed the core music team engaged to create music for a PTV programme titled Akar Bakar; followed by Such Gup. This was the beginning of a fruitful professional journey.
After she passed away in early hours of August 22, I and her family – Sheharyar Ziadi (husband), Nade Ali and Jaffer (sons) – received thousands of condolences messages from all over the globe, which is testimony of the love and admiration she accumulated because of her exceptional gift and craft. One such message I received was from Baiju Mangeshkar, Lata Mageshkar’s nephew, and I quote;
“Dear Arshad saab, I’m so sorry to hear about Nayyara Noor ji’s passing
I had mentioned when we had spoken how I loved and admired your collaboration with her. Thank you for the music.
I’m sure this must be a personal loss for you. I grieve with you all and her family in spirit.
May her soul rest in eternal peace.
Amen”
Later, he wrote on his social media page:
Chalo uss koh par, ab hum bhi chadh jayein,
Jahan jaa kar, koyee kabhi wapas nahi aata…
The tender, the moving, the sensitive, the expressive and the caressing ways of Nayyara Noor ushered in a new sound and a progressive era in the world of Ghazals and Nazms with collaborations with immensely talented composers Arshad Mehmood and Khalil Ahmed especially that brought life to the liberal thoughts of Faiz and the picturesque visions of Nasir Kazmi. It opened a new dimension to my listening in this genre for which I’m so grateful. She bid adieu yesterday. Gone too young. I am saddened.
May her soul rest in peace.”
That same night I also received a message from my niece, who sent an image of a page of her autograph book which Nayyara signed and wrote, and I quote;
“To live in hearts, we leave behind, this is not to die”
She will always live in my heart!
Arshad Mahmud is a Pakistani composer, musician, actor and singer.