Shamshad Begum – Naushad Collaboration

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Back to Legends – Shamshad Begum
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Shamshad Begum & Naushad

After Lata Mangeshkar, Shamshad was Naushad’s second favorite female singer. Naushad gave Shamshad some of the best songs of her career. Shamshad sang for Naushad for the first time in Shah-Jehan (1946). Shah-Jehan – a soundtrack dominated by K.L Saigal numbers, Shamshad held her own with the two solos she got to sing including Jab usne gaisou bikhraye badal aaya jhoom kai. This started a long term partnership between these two legends that lasted for 16 years!

Naushad on Shamshad

Shamshad was a big name when I came to films. Her songs from the films made by Pancholi at Lahore had become very popular and she already had nationwide popularity. Later on, when she came to Mumbai she continued to be at the same height as in Lahore.

When I called her for the first time to sing for my films in the midst of the 1940s decade, I found that her voice was like a sharp edged knife. It used to rush straightaway through the heart of the listener. I liked her way of singing and from our first meeting itself, she became one of my pet female playback singers. Over the years I recorded a number of songs in her voice which also became very popular.

Shamshad’s tonal quality was very impressive. She was very sharp in grasping the tune and rendering it. I did not have to spend much time for her rehearsals as she was very fast in picking up.

I remember an interesting anecdote about her. Once she came to my place for rehearsing a song. I was busy with something else and told her to wait for me upstairs in the hall. She went upstairs and occupied one of the seats near the balcony. Just before that my assistant Master Ibrahim had gone upstairs and standing in the balcony he wanted to light a cigarette. But before he could do it, the match box slipped out of his hand and fell outside the balcony in a crevice. Ibrahim tried his best to pick it up by leaning from the pillars of the balcony but could not succeed. Then he got down from the balcony and somehow managed to pick up the match box. Coincidentally, it was around the same time Shamshad Begum started looking out from the balcony. She saw that a tall black man with red eyes suddenly came up and started smiling at her. He had a defect in one of his eyes and impressions of small pox on his face. Looking at this horrible figure Shamshad felt that it must be some ghost. She became very much frightened and started running from her place with a big shout, “Save me! Save me!”. After hearing the cry I came running upstairs. I found my assistant was quietly standing in the balcony and was looking at Shamshad as if nothing had happened. But she was very much frightened. I realized the situation and told Ibrahim to leave the place and pacified Shamshad.

Shamshad had sung for almost all the heroines for the films made in Mumbai. She was a reigning singer in the decade of the 1940′s. When towards the end of 1940′s and beginning of 1950′s, new female singers started lending their voices, Shamshad started receding back. Still in the decade of the 1950′s I got quite a number of songs recorded in the voice of Shamshad Begum. Even in the year 1960 she sang for Mughal-E-Azam. It was a Qawwali song, a duet, shared with Lata Mangeshkar.

Shamshad – Naushad Collaboration

Shamshad sang 61 songs for Naushad in 19 films. Shamshad songs from Deewana (1952) were deleted from the film. Shamshad’s songs from Son of India (1962) were re-recorded in Shanti Mathur’s voice and used in the film.

Listen!

Shamshad’s first song for Naushad – Jab usne gaisou bikhraye from Shah Jehan (1946). The song is heavily influenced by Arabic music with the opening bars sound just like an Oum Khaltoum song – the style of singing, the use of percussion and the bank of violins playing in harmony.