Having grown up in Lahore in the 70’s and 80’s, the strains of lilting Punjabi melodies were always a warm and familiar presence.
Even though in middle class upwardly mobile urban families Punjabi had sadly come to be associated with rural backwardness, Punjabi music with its deep cultural roots continued to exert an influence. Even in homes where children were discouraged from all things Punjabi lest they give off a whiff of the “paindu” lower classes, times of celebration such as mehndis remained incomplete without the girls on the dholki singing a repertoire of Punjabi wedding songs.
Traditional melodies such as “Mathe Te Chamkan Waal”, “Saada Chiriyan Da Chamba Ve”, “Raat De BaaraN Wajje Aape Meri Neendar Khule”, “Mehndi TaaN Sajdi Je Nache Munde Di MaaN” sung at these functions at least familiarized young boys and girls with the music of their native soil.
I was particularly fortunate to grow up in a family where I was amply exposed to both the Punjabi language and music but many years abroad had served to obscure many of those fond memories. It is only after the internet revolution that I have rediscovered much of that music. In this post I want to share some of my favorite Punjabi singers and their music and provide a guide to some excellent sources for further enjoyment for those who may want to explore further. This is the first in a series of three planned posts and here I will focus on Punjabi Film Music.
Few now remember that until the 1970’s Pakistan had a fairly thriving film industry based in Lahore. Noor Jehan’s masterful voice so dominated Pakistan’s film music singing that it overshadowed other unjustly forgotten talents. I am particularly fond of Zubaida Khanum’s singing. Here’s a wonderful song by her composed by “Baba” G.A. Chishti from the 1957 film “Yakke Wali” in which Musarrat Nazir played the title role. The song is Resham Da Lacha Lak We. These old black & white films evoke a simpler, more innocent time and place. I feel that in many of these songs the Punjabi film heroines are portrayed as less demure figures than their contemporaries in Bombay’s films of that era. Many of these women seem to exude a rugged self confidence even within the confines of their traditionally assigned roles.
Zubaida Khanum sang some of the most popular Punjabi film songs of the 50’s and 60’s. Some of my other Zubaida Khanum favorites include AssaN Jaan Ke Meet Lai Akh Way” from the 1955 film Heer, Bundey Chandi Dey and from the film Chan Mahi.
Some other of my Inayat Hussain Bhatti favorties include Chan Mere Makhna (popularized more recently by Shazia Manzoor) and a nice duet with Zubaida Khanum called Goray Goray Hath Kali Wang Mundaya.
No post on Punjabi film music can be concluded without including a sampling from Noor Jehan’s legendary career in Punjabi film singing. Many of her songs (courtesy of singing at Mehndis) are so deeply rooted in West Punjab’s culture that they are intimately familiar even to those who have never set foot in a Pakistani cinema. Here is a personal favorite titled Chan Mahi Aa from the 1970 film Heer Ranjha composed by the master tunesmith Khurshid Anwar.
Heer Ranjha had a phenomenal soundtrack and virtually all the songs were superhits including Mein Cham Cham NachaN, Wanjhli Walarea, Rabba Wekh Laya, Kadi Aa Mil Ranjhan We and Irene Parveen’s lovely, chirpy number TooN Chor Mein Teri Chori. Here are some other Noor Jehan songs I like: Weh Sonay Deya Kangna Sauda Iko Jaya, (a wonderful song in which Anjuman truly makes Noor Jehan’s voice come alive), Tere Mukhre Da Kala Kala Til We , Jadon Holi Jai and countless more.
Fawad blogs at Written Encounters where this post was first published.
Thank you Fawad for good post.
I have heard my Punjabi friends express the same experiences and feeling about how Punjabi language was abandoned in favor of Urdu.
First time when I heard this, I was quite surprised and somewhat confused.
There are may be many factors that probably contribute to this behavior.
Factors:
1. Pre-partition: Urdu was considered a Muslim language and in Punjab medium of instruction was Urdu. Even my Hindu/Sikh friends’ father write Urdu.
2. Urdu was adopted as a national language. A bad decision but in the context of political thought that was prevalent, it was not a bad idea because all the nation building theorists right down from Mills favored a nation based on common thread and didn’t vision of democracy was for a Nation-State not a multi-ethnic Nation.
3. Forget about the what the political theorist thought, the biggest problem with us at the time was that we were just coming out of a colonized society with colonial mindset.
4. Not wanting to let people know who you truly are is our own social problem that I think could emante from our caste driven society and after modernization of India Urban and Rural divide came about in open. Today in Karachi, Urdu is being abadoned in favor of English. Not a single person speaks Urdu without inserting one english word and I would say we are so used to speaking in that manner that I bet we can’t speak without utter few Urdu words.
Anyways, good post. We should have a language policy that respects and supports all the languages in Pakistan. There is no reason why we can not have many official languages. At least we should agree on the principle that languages spoken by people of Pakistan must be respected and government should not favor one over the other or in other words favor all the languages.
How we implement this principle of freedom and respect for spoken languages is different matter.
Thank you Fawad for introducing ‘urban’ advanced and so called ‘civilized’Punjabies about the ‘Paindu’ backward music. But I am sorry you mention ‘Paindu’ in a derogatory tone forgetting that Punjabi is basically a paindu culture having deep relation with the ‘mitti’ (earth) of this beautiful land of Punjab. I was born in a small village of the west Punjab, but lived there only a couple of years in my childhood while passed all my long life in the major cities of Punjab ( I hate using ‘the’ with Punjab as the British did treating it just an adjective and not a proper noun) mostly in Lahore. But I believe ‘once paindu always paindu’ as even while in London whenever home-sickness ever overtook me it was my village which I remembered. In fact a Punjabi, being inherently a ‘Paindu’, has such a deep relationship with the land of his birth which I found none else. This recalls to me an old Punjabi film song:
“Pindaan diaan ajab bahharan ne
Jattaan pehliaan de wich ral behnrhaan
Dukh wand leine sukh wand leina
Shehraan de jameaan paleaan noon
Ki ehnaan gallaan diaan kaaraan ne”
(I wish I could have written this Urdu rasmulkhat)
Btw, there were some beautiful films produced at Lahore in early 40’s before Partition (A horrible word for Punjabies associated with their carnage as a result of hatred born of politico-religious fanaticism) like
ATP Team: Thanks for cross-posting this. I particularly appreciate the excellent photographs you have added to the original post.
I think you are right. Unfortunately too many Punjabis themselves consider their own language ‘paindu’ even though if you read the poetry or hear the music in Punjabi you realize what a lyrical and beautiful language it is (I think all languages are beautiful). I think we should all take pride in all languages of Pakistan
@Jawad,
very good start, please continue
” nothing paindo about it ”
par definition, pain-do !!, i.e. a constant, monotonous
repetition of painful, re-do, of backward funny naivety,
its speciality of sub-conti, usualy the “urban” panjabi
taunt, for rural punjabi peasants, adopted later by general
“Babu” panjabi jiyalas but remains a punjabi term as
Pinde, dhok, jhok, chakk, deh, kulan, Gharhi, waal etc.
I.H.Bhatti’s songs were very popular, a folkloric voice,
his other songs like ” Sahnon sajna de milan di tang e ”
(if I am right )
Zubaidah Khanum’s voice was and is the most beautiful,
fine, melodious and unique on the sub-conti.
Firdous & Aijaz’s Heer Ranjha was not the only one,
there was later another version of Heer Ranjha, in late
70s (?) which impressed me so much.
Firdous, what a huge mass of charm and a jatti’s beauty.
Bakhsha hay tujhko fitrat nay,
ik wajood-e-paiker-e-Firdous
Ankhein Ghaz’zalan hein,
to muskan qasza-o-quass
(Rafay Kahsimiri)
Punjabi songs on bongos congos, ( wanjli waleria )
total horror.