Shamshad Begum

Shamshad Begum (Urdu: شمشاد بیگم, IAST: Śamśād Bēgam; 14 April 1919 – 23 April 2013) was an Indian singer who was one of the first playback singers in the Hindi film industry. Begum is regarded as one of the best and most popular female playback singers, and a pioneering figure in Hindi film music and was also one of the most influential playback singers during the "Golden Age" of Bollywood (1940s–1960s). Notable for her distinctive voice and range, she sang over 6,000 songs in Hindustani, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, and Punjabi languages, among which 1287 were Hindi film songs. She worked with renowned composers of the time, such as Ghulam Haider who first discovered her. She also worked with Naushad Ali and O. P. Nayyar, for whom she was one of their favorites. Her songs from the 1940s to the early 1970s remain popular and continue to be remixed.

Shamshad Begum was born in Lahore, British India (present-day Pakistan) on 14 April 1919. the day after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place in nearby Amritsar. Though many records originally listed her birthplace as Amritsar, her daughter, Usha Ratra, clarified in a 2013 interview that Begum was born in Lahore into a conservative Punjabi Muslim family, noting that her father worked as a mechanic (mistry). She was one of eight children, five sons and three daughters, born to a conservative Punjabi Muslim family of limited means. Her father, Mian Hussain Baksh, worked as a mechanic and her mother, Ghulam Fatima, was a pious lady of conservative disposition, a devoted wife and mother who raised her children with traditional family values. Despite family objections, Shamshad Begum started singing at weddings and social events at the age of 12. During her initial recordings, her father insisted that she wear a burqa and not be photographed.

In 1932, the teenage Shamshad came in contact with Ganpat Lal Batto, a Hindu law student who lived in the same neighbourhood and who was several years older than her. In those days, marriages were performed while the bride and groom were very young, and Shamshad's parents were already looking out for a suitable partner for her. Their efforts were on the verge of bearing fruit in 1934, when Ganpat Lal Batto and Shamshad made the decision to marry each other. In 1934, despite strenuous opposition from both their families due to religious differences, 15-year-old Shamshad married Ganpat Lal Batto. The couple had but one child, a daughter named Usha Ratra, who in due course married a Hindu gentleman, Lieutenant Colonel Yogesh Ratra, an officer in the Indian Army.

Ganpat Lal Batto died in a road accident in 1955. His death left Shamshad deeply upset, as he had been the focus of her life and they were extremely devoted to each other. He had managed many aspects of her career and contracts, significantly boosting her professional development. Following his death, Shamshad became listless and lost the will to pursue her career, which subsequently declined sharply. Indeed, while Shamshad Begum was an outstanding and famous singer, she was always a wife and mother first — someone who instinctively prioritised her family over her career. She preferred to keep away from the public eye and business dealings, believing it improper for a woman to be involved in such matters.

After her husband's death, Shamshad Begum began living with her daughter and son-in-law in Mumbai, first in south Mumbai and later at Hiranandani Gardens. She gradually became a recluse and devoted herself entirely to her grandchildren, to the point that the general public was unaware of whether she was alive or dead. In 2004, a controversy erupted in the media, when several publications wrongly reported that Shamshad Begum had died a few years previously. Shamshad's family clarified in a press release that this was not so. Her self-imposed seclusion is remarkable, because during all those decades away from the public eye, her old songs remained popular with the public and were often played on Vividh Bharati and All India Radio.

Begum's talent was first spotted by her principal when she was in primary school in 1924. Impressed by the quality of her voice, she was made head singer of classroom prayer. At 10, she started singing folk-based songs at religious functions and family marriages. She received no formal musical training. Her singing ambitions, which she held from 1929, met with opposition from her family. In 1931, when she was twelve, her uncle, who enjoyed qawwalis and ghazals, secretly took her to Jenophone (or Xenophone) Music Company for an audition with Lahore-based musician and composer, Ghulam Haider. Begum said in an interview, "I sang Bahadur Shah Zafar's (the poet-ruler) ghazal Mera yaar mujhe mile agar." An impressed Haider gave her a contract for twelve songs, with the same facilities provided to top singers. It was Begum's paternal uncle Aamir Khan<Tribune/> who convinced her father, Miyan Hussain Baksh, to allow her to sing. When she won a contract with a recording company, her father agreed to let her sing on the condition that she would record in a burka and not allow herself to be photographed. She earned 15 rupees per song and was awarded 5,000 on the completion of the contract on Xenophone. Xenophone was a renowned music recording company, patronised by the rich, and her popularity grew in elite circles in the early 1930s. Though she had won the Xenophone audition without having any formal music training, Hussain Bakshwale Sahab and later Ghulam Haider improved her singing skills between 1937 and 1939.

Her popular breakthrough came when she began singing on All India Radio (AIR) in Peshawar and Lahore from 1937. Producer Dalsukh Pancholi wanted her to act as well in a film he was producing. Begum readily agreed, gave a screen test and was selected. Her father became angry, when he found out and warned her that she would not be allowed to sing if she continued to harbour a desire to act. Begum promised her father that she would never appear before the camera. She continued to sing songs on the radio. She never posed for photographs, and few people saw her pictures between 1933 and the 1970s.

Shamshad Begum sang for AIR through her musical group 'The Crown Imperial Theatrical Company of Performing Arts', set up in Delhi. The then AIR Lahore helped her to enter the world of movies as they frequently broadcast her songs, which induced music directors to use her voice for their films. Begum also recorded naats and other devotional music for a couple of gramophone recording companies. Her crystal-clear voice caught the attention of sarangi maestro Hussain Bakshwale Saheb, who took her as his disciple.