She was plucked away from our midst by the inexorable angle of death on December 23, 2000. Her removal from the scene ended a brilliant chapter in the annals of Sub-continental music.
One of the most gifted practitioners of the popular variety of vocal music, Noor Jehan mad incalculable contributions to film music, enriching it in more ways than one. Gifted by Nature with a rich, resonant and dulcet voice, which she skilfully employed for the conveyance of a wide range of moods and emotion, the late singer regaled millions of music lovers for more than half a century.
Given her complete dedication to music, the long years Noor Jehan spent in learning the art, and more important, the great facility of expression and variety she brought to her music, she was deservedly called the queen of melody.
It is very difficult, if not impossible, to calculate in terms of numbers as to how many songs were recorded in her voice for the films, television and radio during her long career, but it can be safely stated that they ran into thousands.
Her appearance on TV screen and participation in radio programmes, especially during the war of 1965, not only won the hearts of millions, but also motivated members of Pakistani armed forces to face external aggression with greater courage and valour.
Noor Jehan was hailed by connoisseurs and music buffs, and also by members of music fraternity as the voice of the century. The reverberations of her innumerable songs continue to permeate our cultural ethos courtesy playback reproductive devices.
Making her debut in the world of entertainment at the age of seven from Calcutta about mid-1930s, the late nightingale of Pakistan rose to the pinnacle of glory within a short span of ten years. The first song she recorded in her lisping but malleable voice was for the Punjabi movie 'Heer Seyal', produced by Madan Theatre in Calcutta (now Kolkata). She also enacted the role of (child) Heer in that film.
When she was ten, baby Noor Jehan shifted to Lahore with her family, where she lent her voice for a song of another Punjabi film 'Gulbakauli' (1937), which was composed by legendary Master Ghulam Haider. Senior denizens still remember with nostalgic fondness the refrain of that song - 'Shaala jawaniaan maane', which reached the lips of millions. The film 'Yamala Jat' (Punjabi) was her third film, tunes for which were also invented by the same wizard. After that, it was a complete success story for the Kasur-born artiste, who started her career as a child artist and blossomed into a celebrity before she crossed her teens.
Noor Jehan was aptly called a phenomenon. Singers like her are only rarely produced by history. She carved out a niche for herself and became famous not as an actress but also as a singer, who possessed a golden voice, which brimmed with sonic enchantment.
Her career can be divided into three broad categories. She rose to stardom at Bombay (now Mumbai) as a singing actress after she had enacted the role of a heroine in two highly successful movies produced from Lahore. These were 'Chaudhry' (Punjabi) and 'Khandaan' (Urdu) produced in 1940 and 1941 respectively; her return to Lahore in 1948, when she took up acting in Pakistani movies; and the post-Koel playback singing period, when she used her vocals for the satiation of her creative urges.
For 30 years, she remained a singing actress. During that period her voice was used by such eminent composers as Master Ghulam Haider, Naushad Ali, Sajjad Husain, K. Datta, Shyam Sunder, Khurshid Anwar, Rashid Attray, Saleem Iqbal, G.A. Chshti, Feroze Nizami, Master Inayat Husain and Master Abdullah. They employed her vocal resources intelligently and perceptively. They also exploited her potential for communicating their creative melodic ideas.
Gifted with a sweet voice that was suited for portraying all kinds of moods and emotion, she won the hearts of countless millions in the South Asian Sub-continent.
She skilfully exploited such ornate qualities and sparkles of her voice as murkis and zamzama, a technique that makes a note vibrate with resonance from the preceding and succeeding notes.
From her first movie as a singing actress 'Khandaan' to the last 'Koel' (both produced in Lahore), Noor Jehan's songs cast hypnotic spells on the listeners. The stark, almost unbearably tender songs 'Too kaun see badli main mairay chaand' (Khandaan) and 'Hamain to shaam -e-gham mein katni hai (Jugnu); the buoyant sophistication of Menki fizaaen' (Intezar) and 'Baavri chakori' (Anarkali), and the spare, open sadness of Dil ka diya jalaya (Koel) and 'Bachpan ki yadgaro' (Gulnaar) starkly point to the versatility of the late Melody Queen, confirming at the same time, the range and potential of her vocals.
Until the release of her film 'Koel' (music by Khurshid Anwar), her voice sparkled with a unique mystique. Until then she had assiduously maintained the level of her sonic charisma, which transcended geographical, political and regional barriers, cutting across every nook and cranny of the Sub-continent.
Thereafter, as a result of the overuse of her vocals for payback singing, the sonic quality of her voice gradually cloyed. Pakistan's ace composer Khurshid Anwar, as far back as 1976 bemoaned that she had spoiled her voice by over-use.
From the film 'Khandaan' (1941), tunes for which were invented by Master Ghulam Haider, Noor Jehan rode over the crescendo of popularity at Bombay, particularly after the release of the film 'Anmol Garri' (1945), compositions for which were made by Naushad Ali.
All motion pictures, for which she was signed in Bombay in the decades of the 1940s, Noor Jehan gave the best of her vocal potential and created a magical aroma, which had enduring impact on the listeners. Nature had lent her unparalleled voice a certain amount of luminosity.
Almost all songs from her films 'Bari Maa', Dost, Anmol Gharri, Lal Haveli, Zeenat, Gaon Ki Ghori and Jugnu, created bewitching impact on the listeners and were hummed and whistled by music buffs for decades. She was known more for her captivating songs than her histrionic talent.
Few singers have earned so much kudos, and commanded so much respect from music buffs as did Noor Jehan. From professional musicians to connoisseurs and uninitiated music buffs, she won ebullient praises.
The sonic appeal of her silky voice mesmerised the listeners in the past and will continue to do so in future. The manner in which she rendered all kinds of songs feelingly transported the listeners to unparalleled heights in ecstasy, not only in Pakistan but also in neighbouring India.
Sincere and genuine tributes to her virtuosity and the range and versatility of her voice has been paid in glowing terms on umpteen past occasions by eminent composers and singers.
Pakistan's music wizard Khurshid Anwar, in an interview published in 1976, said: "Without her voice, I would not have been able to accomplish a tenth of what I have done. She has been the only real voice in Pakistan..."
Lata Mangeshkar publicly acknowledged her indebtedness to Noor Jehan by saying that she learnt the art of singing only after listening to and emulating the style of the Melody Queen's film songs in the early 1940s.
Her sister, and an equally accomplished singer, Asha Bhosle, paid her melodic tributes to Noor Jehan by re-recording over a dozen ghazals earlier crooned by the Melody Queen in respectful emulation of her style. The biographer of Lata Mangeshkar, Raju Bharatan, when writing about Noor Jehan's influence on the style of Lata Mangeshkar's songs, likened the Indian nightingale to Pakistani Melody Queen and by the same token called Lata as the Marathi Noor Jehan.
The late Melody Queen was lucky as a majority of her uproariously popular songs were composed by leading lights of film music, both in Bombay and Lahore, when she was a singing actress. Later, as a playback singer, she recorded a large number of songs composed by frontline Pakistani musicians.
It will be no exaggeration, however, to aver that without her voice, those composers would not have been as popular as they were after using Noor Jehan's malleable and melodious voice. Change of emotion - from the low moan of anguish to the high exclamation of joy as portrayed in the lyrics, prompted the late Melody Queen to change the pitch of her voice, which she exploited to the hilt to convey the mood and emotions spawned by dramatic situations in the films. She personified music and proved, beyond any doubt, that she was a complete musician by virtue of which she led a life of great renown.
Noor Jehan was equally good at rendering songs composed in a classical strand. Her solo number in Punjabi film 'Chann way - Chan they aa tottia', composed by Feroze Nizami, and a duet with Amanat Ali Khan composed for the film Darwaza- 'Piya naheen aye', in raga kalavati by Saleem Iqbal served as a clear pointer to the sound grooming of the late Melody Queen in classical music. Similarly, her participation in a qawwali chorus with Kalyani, Amirbai Karnatki and Zohrabai Ambaleywali, in the film 'Zeenat' (Bombay in 1945), reminds us of her versatility in the art of vocalisation.
Alas! The sparkling golden voice of the Melody Queen, which provided solace and created soothing effects on many a tormented soul, is now buried under the deafening silence of death.
It will take history a long time to produce a singer of her calibre, who would rule over the emotions of a vast multitudes of music lovers in the Sub-continent.