Noor Jehan's songs on CDs

A few years ago Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation released a couple of compressed discs (CDs) containing 24 popular radio naghmay, Kamal-e-Iqbal and war songs recorded in the voice of late melody queen Noor Jehan. The title is Javedan - Noor Jehan, the album is a befitting tribute to the opulent virtuosity of the late singer, whose career spanned a period of 60 years.
Earlier, the Shalimar Recording and Broadcasting Company also released an album containing 39 most popular film songs recorded by Noor Jehan, including four crooned for films produced from Bombay before the partition of the sub-continent.
Noor Jehan was among the few Punjabi-origin singing actresses of the sub-continental silver screen, who are remembered for their wholesome contribution to the promotion of film music. Others in the category were Khursheed Bano and Surriya, both of whom are no more with us.
A larger portion of Noor Jehan's career was spent in Lahore, from where she made her debut as a heroine in the 1940s, in the Pancholi Arts Production movie Khandaan, music for which was composed by the legendary Master Ghulam Haider. It was the film and its songs, which propelled her to the acme of fame and glory.
Starting her singing career at the tender age of seven from Calcutta in about mid-1930s, Noor Jehan rose to fame within a short span of ten years. The first song she recorded in her mellifluous, but lisp voice, was for the film Heer Seyal, produced by Madan Tehatre in Calcutta, in which she also enacted the role of child Heer.
When she was ten, Baby Noor Jehan shifted to Lahore with her family and lent her voice for the recording of a song of a Punjabi film Gulbakauli, which was composed by Master Ghulam Haider. The refrain of the song was Shaala Jawaniann maane, which proved an instant hit. Since then the sky was the limit as far as her fame as a singing actress was concerned. She remained a singing actress for about 30 years.
The songs contained in the referenced CDs, released by Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation, were recorded in the studios of Radio Pakistan, Lahore, with the exception of three that were rendered at soirees (mefil-e-mauseeqi) and recorded direct from the venues. One of the CDs attributes the composition of several war songs to the creative ingenuity of the late crooner.
The late Malika-e-Mauseeqi was an artiste of unprecedented talent and qualities. She could sing all kinds of compositions - of classical strands, folk and light - with equal ease and confidence. It was because of this quality and the depth of her vocals that she became the most sought after playback singer of Pakistan film industry when she retired from acting after her performance in the film Koel.
To her success, the contributions of a large number of composers cannot be minimised. They exploited the potential of her voice for the rendition of their absorbing compositions, which won the hearts of countless millions in the sub-continent.
Without their inputs in Noor Jehan songs, she would not have scaled such heights in popularity. Her voice was used, to name a few, by composers Master Ghulam Haider, Naushad, Sajjad Husain, K. Datta, Feroze Nizami, Khurshid Anwar, Rashid Attray, G.A. Chishti, Masters Inayat Husian and Abdullah, and Saleem Iqbal. They exploited her voice for communicating their creative ideas from the year 1939, till her death, a few years ago.
Gifted with a voice that was suited to convey all kinds of moods and emotions, Noor Jehan won the hearts of millions in Pakistan, India and abroad. Until it failed her, due to excessive use, her voice had a unique aura and mystique, which helped her in reaching the apex of fame. She was one among those few playback singers, who rendered all kinds of songs feelingly.
It is gratifying to see that some one in PBC finally thought of preserving Noor Jehan's most popular, patriotic and other songs, on compact discs for the benefit of posterity, for the lives of cassettes and gramophone discs are limited, after which they get brittle.
Parenthetically, a treasure of music, spanning over 1.5 million minutes duration, is currently catching dust in the archives of Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation in Islamabad. It contained the recorded music of legendary classical, folk and popular musicians, which also needs to be protected from the erosion of time.
This scribe has seen this unique treasure of music and was concerned about its safe preservation. The only way by which it can be saved from total ruin is to transfer it from obsolete tapes to CDs. Undoubtedly, it is a gigantic task, which requires a lot of money to complete. But a beginning has to be made sooner or later.
Hopefully, someone high enough in PBC hierarchy would read this article and taken appropriate action on transferring the invaluable treasure of music (vocal and instrumental) on to CDs. If it is not done in the near future, the loss to the national sound library will be irreparable.