Melody Queen: An eternal icon

Glowing tributes were showered on ‘Malika Tarranum’ in the tribute concert.

ISLAMABAD: Glowing tributes were showered on ‘Malika Tarranum’ (Melody Queen) Noor Jehan at a tribute concert arranged by the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) here on Sunday evening, closely commemorating the eminent vocalist’s 10th death anniversary who passed away on December 23, 2000.

The Melody Queen, during her life and after, earned tributes from some of the greatest music composers, including Ghulam Haider, Ghulam Mohammad and Khwaja Khurshid Anwar as well as singers like Lata Mangeshkar.

It was almost happenstance that brought Noor Jehan to Pakistan after independence. Though, indeed born on this side of the border in Kasur, it was in pre-partition India that Allah Wasai found fame, being discovered in Calcutta (Kolkata), setting off her career as a singer and an actress.

What prompted this decision may be open to interpretation but this move was regretted by many of her esteemed contemporaries in the film industry, the likes of Naushad and Lata bemoaning the loss. In time, Noor Jehan would come to be Pakistan’s foremost singer, a woman indelibly Pakistani and quite simply one of its icons.

Inaugurating the night, Kanwal Naseer, a close friend of the singer and one of the pioneers of radio and television in the country, spoke about her lasting association with Noor Jehan, quoting an oft repeated line that the singer found best described herself, meri zindagi hai nagma, meri zindagi tarana.

PNCA Director General Tauqir Nasir also shed light on the glorious life and career of the Melody Queen. “Her iconic life and songs rendered in films live forever in the memory of the people,” he said.

This was followed by a medley of clips from Noor Jehan’s repertoire, drawing upon films Intezar, Chan Vey, Neend, and Payel. The clips largely feature the jejune actress, pig-tailed and breezy, gliding along a Punjabi meadow or singing along the Karachi coast.

Her voice in those films was still youthfully shrill, quite different from her later, mature turns at Tarranum, singing the poetry of Faiz.

Feting her, the show presented a series of film clips from the various pictures she starred in over the years and rounded off the night with covers of her many famous songs.

Though the majority of her acting work was done in India, it was her impression as a songstress that earned her celebrity status in Pakistan.

After the screening, the musicians for the night came out to perform. TV artiste Rukhsana Murtaza and Rizwana Akbar took the audience to the memory lane singing 11 famous songs of the madame. Singing one of Noor Jehan’s most famous songs, Chandni Raatein, the audience was whipped up into chorusing in and clapping.

This was followed by the quartet of musicians deftly playing an instrumental version of another classic of the singer, gaye gi dunya geet meray, followed by more cover from other singers. The night ended with applause from those in attendance.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 27^th, 2010.