Archive for Lollywood
Nazir Begum
Nazir Begum was a Pakistani playback singer active from mid-50s to 60s in Urdu and Punjabi films. She sang two of her earliest duets with Mehdi Hassan for Miss 1956 (1956) and remained middle-of-the-range singer throughout the late 50s and 60s singing for many Urdu and Punjabi films including Hasrat, …
Munawwar Sultana
Munawwar Sultana started her career as radio and playback singer probably around mid 40s. She used to take musical lessons from Master Ghulam Haider. She, along with the music composer G.A. Chisthi, is mostly credited for bringing the dead film industry of Lahore-Pakistan back to life. Munawwar Sultana sang the …
Mujeeb Alam
I could not forget that brilliant rendering of Faiz’s Iss dhoop kinarey sham dhaley! Mujeeb Alam sang it for A.J. Kardar’s Qasam Uss Waqt kee, released in 1969, with his warmly vibrant voice that spoke volumes about the mix of dear wishes and secret sorrows that burgeoned in the bosom …
Firdousi Begum
The fascinating voice of Firdousi Begum reverberated in the horizons of the film world at the very outset of the 60′s. She made her debut with song Ankhain Tori Rah Takain in Urdu film Chanda which was released in 1962. The songs were so sweet that the cine lovers echoed …
Bashir Ahmed
When first I heard this most haunting number, Mera dil najaney kab se tera pyar dhoondta hai, from Iqbal Yusuf’s cloak-&-dagger movie, Hill Station, released in 1972, I was transported back to the days when I had visited East Pakistan at a very young age. The song seem to nostalgically …
Noor Jehan
____________________ Back to Legends – Noor Jehan ____________________ Noor Jehan the Melody Queen reigned supreme over the South Asian music scene for more than six decades. She rose from near oblivion of the backwaters of Kasur, then hardly more than middle-sized Punjab town, to the dizzy heights of stardom as …
Mehdi Hassan
Nowhere else in the world one can find any example where literature and music are inalienably strung together, save for Urdu adab. It is because in the subcontinent one of the richest genres of Urdu literature, ghazal is not only something to extract reading pleasure from but also to sing …
Mala
In the good old days Mala was sometimes compared (erroneously) to Lata, perhaps due to her shrill voice and the duo of Rushdie-Mala was to the Pakistani films what Rafi-Lata was to the Indian counterpart. Mala’s real name was Naseem. She was born in Faisalabad, Punjab. She had been interested …
Naseem Begum
Naseem Begum was a well known Pakistani playback singer who was born in Amritsar, British India, in 1936. She took her musical lessons from the classical singer Mukhtar Begum – elder sister of ghazal singer Farida Khanum and wife of noted poet and playwright, Agha Hashr Kashmiri. Naseem Begum started …
Ahmed Rushdi
The men hovering around that brilliant playback singer, Ahmed Rushdi, who played such important cameos in his career, like Parvez Malik, Waheed Murad, Suhail Rana and Masroor Anwar were all greats in their own capacity. They had all brought about a sort of revolution in our films, which could be …