KAISE EK MAMULI DARZI SANGEET KA SAMRAT BAN GAYA --- SANGEETKAR NAUSHAD ALI KI AJEEB DASTAAN. - BY ALI PETER JOHN

It was a Friday morning and I was asked to meet Naushad Ali who I knew and the whole country and even the world knew was one of the most talented, significant, and rich when it came to Indian classical music and Indian film music. He was getting ready to go for his namaaz. But I don’t know why he kept talking to me about his life and his passion for music. His sons Rehman and Raju kept reminding him about his namaaz but he continued talking and by the time he left for his namaaz, he had opened up and told me the unusual story of his life and when I left Aashiyana, the house he had built on carter road in Bandra, I myself felt like offering namaaz for him. Before leaving, I had one good look at the old piano in the drawing room of Aashiyana, he said it was a piano he had bought more than 50 years ago when he was making a few hundred rupees as his fee. The piano fascinated me so much that I sat on the parapet of the beach outside his palatial house and wrote a poem on the miracles he must have worked on a poem I wrote was published in a special issue brought out on the occasion of his receiving one of his many awards. I am still looking for that memorial issue carrying my poem in a prominent way. I have made many requests to people who I felt could have a copy of that issue and have still not found it and now finding it has become one of the major missions of my life …..

Naushad Ali was born in the small town of Lucknow in 1919 (if I am right). He was fascinated by every kind of music which he had heard when he was just a little boy. By the time he was in his teens, he had decided to be a musician and was secretly working out the whys of finding his goal. When his father who was a very stern Muslim and who was a munshi found out how his son, Naushad was madly in love with music. He called him to his room one day and asked him what he was going to do in life (the young Naushad was a tailor those days). Naushad told his father that he wanted to be a musician and his father got into a rage and asked his son to choose between his house and his love for music. And Naushad left his father’s house to discover the world of music and his place in it. In those days (and even today, music was and is considered to be some kind of a sin).

He knew that he could reach his goal only if he reached Bombay and that is what he did. he was in Bombay within days without knowing where to go and who to meet for any help he needed. He finally found a friend from Lucknow in Colaba and lived with him for some days. He reached Dadar and spent several nights sleeping on the pavement, but didn’t lose hope or sight of his goal.

From Dadar began his invisible train to take him to his goal. He was by now an expert in playing every kind of Indian instrument and was lucky to play some major instruments for some musical groups. His talent for music attracted some of the leading composers of the time. And his life took a new turn when the composer Khemchand Prakash took a liking for both his talent and his character as a simple, honest, and hardworking young man. He always recognized Khemchand Prakash as the man who showed him the way to his goal and to his future.

It was in 1940 that Naushad got his first break as an independent music director and then for the next 60 years and more it was the music of Naushad Ali that ruled the waves and no other wave or trend could stop him. he was scoring music for some of the biggest films and his music was considered to be the high point of every film he gave music to. He was at his peak when his parents asked him to get married. They had already seen a girl for him. When the girl’s parents asked what the to-be bridegroom was doing for a living in Bombay, they said he was working as a tailor (darzi). Naushad agreed to get married. It was an accepted fact between the two families that Naushad was a darzi. The truth was not revealed to anyone. And when Naushad was riding the bridegroom’s horse, he was both amused and surprised when the band ahead of his horse was playing all his songs from the films he had scored music for. The secret was finally out when Naushad himself told all of them about his success story as a music director of Hindi films.

He specialized in classical music which the experts felt was not the kind of music the masses would love in the films they were used or addicted to. But Naushad took this weakness in his music as a challenge and scored the kind of music in some films like Baijiu Bawra that he could win the hearts and souls of people with his music strictly based on classical music. And when there was a need to blend schools and trends of music, he did it and still ended up scoring classic music for the classes, critics, and even the masses.

He must have scored music for about 70 films in his entire career, but every film he was the music director of was a gem because of the outstanding music which was very much a part of the film. In fact, some of the best filmmakers and music critics from India and Hollywood praised him as the composer whose music played a vital character in every film he was a part of.

Naushad had played a very crucial part in the lives of singers like mohammed rafi (who he called the Aatma of his music), lata mangeshkar, Mukesh, asha bhosle, manna dey, and later-day singers like Hariharan. He was the first film composer who attracted major vocalists like bade ghulam ali khan and some other kings of vocal classical music to sing for films which were avoided by these singers before Naushad could manage to make them know the worth of singing for cinema which was still being looked down on by many.

If there was one singer who benefited most from Naushad’s music, it was undoubtedly Dilip Kumar. Naushad was the first choice for the music director of any film starring Dilip Kumar. and as I say this, some films of the dilip kumar and Naushad combination that come to my mind are Aan, Mughal-e-azam Leader, Ganga Jamuna, Ram aur Shyam, Kohinoor, and at least 5 other major films starring Dilip Kumar. The 2 men who formed a formidable team in films were also the best of friends and shared many of their hobbies which included going for shikars and fishing at the powai lake and other places which they kept a secret. They were also known for pulling the legs of one another at public functions and they were also in the forefront of all the rallies and functions organized for different important causes like famines, droughts, earthquakes, and wars.

Naushad was responsible for bringing major Urdu poets like Shakeel, badayuni,majrooh sultanpuri, khumaar barabankavi, and d.n. madhok to write songs for films and these poets went on to be the most popular song writers of hindi films.naushad himself was a good writer who wrote in urdu and was a better poet and was best known for his collection of poems known as “Aathvaan sur-the other side of Naushad”.

There have been 5 documentaries made about Naushad. There have been a number of books written about him and there are many students in India, Pakistan, and abroad who are doing their Ph.D. on his music. At no other time have young people taken an interest in his work both as a composer and a poet.

The man who was a darzi at one time is now known as sangeet samrat Naushad Ali and has several institutes and a road named after him. he won every major award in the country which includes the padma bhushan, the Dada Saheb Phalke award of the government of India, the sangeet natak akademi award, the lata mangeshkar award and the many Filmfare awards and the national award besides the countless award conferred on him by prestigious organizations in different parts of the world.

The man who had started his affair with music in 1940 continued it till he was 86 years old and scored music for the new genre of films and scored music for the films of Govinda and shah rukh khan. He even took change as a challenge in his 80s and scored music for tv serials like the sword of tipu sultan and taj mahal, the immortal love story.

I was like I always say very lucky to know this great creation of god. I was with him when the road opposite his house was named sangeet samrat Naushad Ali. But I was not lucky enough to be their when he finally said goodbye to the world. I was on my way to the office when I got the news about his passing away and had decided to attend his final farewell, but when I reached somewhere near the Juhu kabrastan I realized that he was already buried in the same kabrastan where his dear friends like Madhubala and sahir Ludhiana and Meena kumari were resting. But can some people like the name i have mentioned here ever rest? They are always alive. Their work has made them immortal and that is one blessing even god cannot take back from them