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 Veteran
music composer Naushad Ali died on Friday
morning at his Bandra residence in Mumbai.
Over 87-year old Naushad, a Dadasaheb Phalke
award winner, had not been keeping well for
quite some time in the recent past, family sources
said.
Naushad was regarded as one of the greatest music
directors of Indian cinema. Since early childhood in
Lucknow he was an avid listener to the live
orchestras accompanying silent films.
He studied under Ustad Ghurbat Ali, Ustad Yusuf
Ali and Ustad Babban Saheb. Before coming to
Mumbai, he repaired harmoniums and composed for
amateur theatricals such as the Windsor Music
Entertainers.
Naushad Ali was born on December 25, 1919. He moved
to Mumbai from Lucknow in the late 1930s to try his
luck as a musician. After initial struggle, he
enjoyed great success in the 1940s as a music
director.
Naushad was one of the first to introduce sound
mixing and the separate recording of voice and music
tracks in playback singing. He was the first to
combine the flute and the clarinet, the sitar and
mandolin. He also introduced the accordion to Hindi
film music and was among the first to concentrate on
background music to extend characters' moods and
dialogues through music.
But perhaps Naushad's greatest contribution was to
bring Indian classical music into the film medium.
Prem Nagar (1940) was his first independent break
but he first got noticed with Sharda (1942) wherein
13-year-old Suraiya did the playback for heroine
Mehtab. It was Rattan (1944) that took Naushad right
to the top and enabled him to charge Rs 25,000 a
film then. Ankhiyaan Milake and Sawan ke Badalon
became the most popular songs of the day.
However, his major hits include Mughal-e-Azam,
Mother India and Baiju Bawra. Songs for his music
have been mostly penned down by Shakeel Badayuni. In
a sense, their partnership can be compared to that
of Rodgers & Hammerstein's.
Naushad churned out hit after hit in the 1940s
mainly in the films of AR Kardar - Shahjehan (1946),
Dard (1947), Dillagi (1949), Dulari (1949) and
Mehboob Khan - Anmol Ghadi (1946), Elaan (1947),
Anoki Ada (1948), Andaaz (1949). |
