RMIM Archive Article "309".
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian
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# RMIM Archives..
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# Subject: Feroze Nizami - in search of excellence
# Author: Saeed Malik
# Source: The Nation Midweek (Pakistan)
# Contact: Khawaja Naveed Aslam (knaslam@paknet1.ptc.pk)
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In search of excellence
SAEED MALIK
Another Lahore musician who, too, made qualitative contributions
to the culture of the city as well as Pakistan, was the late
Ferozeuddin Ahmad, commonly known as Feroze Nizami. Throughout
his long career, he remained in the forefront of the avant-garde
movement in compositional music, especially during the early
years of independence.
Not many contemporary composers invented melodies which had such
a strong imprint of their creator as those of Feroze Nizami. What
is particularly interesting is that Nizami's music,
stylistically, changed very little over the decades; the same
qualities and mannerisms by which his later works are recognised
could be found in many of his earlier compositions.
During a conversation with this scribe when he was at the peak of
his career and popularity, Nizami said" I try to make my music
speak simply and directly about what is in my heart at the time I
am composing. If there is love, sadness, or if I am in a
disturbed state of mind, these moods become a part of my
compositions".
In the early 1940s, a group of young and educated Muslim
composers would regularly meet in Bombay (and sometimes in
Lahore) to confabulate on musical problems, and about their
constraints as composers. These talented artists included Rafique
Ghazanvi, Khawaja Khurshid Anwar and Feroze Nizami. All of them
had been nurtured on the classical traditions of Muslim gharana
of musicians, which they were promoting with much zeal and verve,
either through their classical vocalisation, or via their film
compositions.
In the beginning, Feroze Nizami distinguished himself due to his
expertise in rendering the Kirana style of classical singing. He
inherited the artistic mantle of his distinguished teacher and
mentor, Ustad Abdul Waheed Khan, whom he admired so profoundly.
The elder brother of cricketer Nazar Muhammad, late Feroze Nizami
was a man of multi-dimensional personality. He was a classical
vocalist of repute, who used to broadcast his music from Lahore,
Delhi and Bombay, both before and after the partition of the
Sub-continent. He composed music for a large number of movies,
first at Bombay, and later, at Lahore and Karachi, and was
acclaimed as one of the best music composers of undivided India.
He was a musicologist too. He wrote a large number of research
articles in English which were published in The Pakistan Times
for several years. His Urdu books on music and mysticism were
titled as Asrar-e-Mauseeqi (which was prescribed by the
University of the Punjab for its course for graduate students in
music) and Sarchashma-e-Hayat on sufism, of which he used to talk
so much with a great deal of pride. He also dabbled in
homoeopathy and practised the art of transcendental meditation.
Another vocation of his was his frequent enlightening discourses
for young pupils in metaphysics. He was one of the senior
students of Ustad Abdul Waheed Khan (others being Waheeda Khanum
and Nazar Mohyuddin, who died as actor Amar in Bombay a few years
ago) who trained him in the Kirana gharana traditions of kheyal
vocalisation. The late Nizami was also influenced by the singing
styles of the prominent exponents of Rampur gharana. The
versatile musician from Lahore, Nizami accepted Ustad Sardar Khan
Delhiwaley as his teacher about the middle 1950s and received
melodic eduction from him till 1963, when that grandson of the
legendary Mian Taan Rus Khan died in Lahore.
One of the most influential composers representing the Punjab
school since the advent of sound motion pictures in the Sub-
continent, Feroze Nizami remained in the forefront of progressive
movement in compositional music. He used every means and genre -
classical, folk, popular and even melodies derived from Hindu
liturgical modes. His greatest achievement and milestone as a
powerful and original creative force was reflected in his
enchanting compositions in the films Jugnu (Bombay), Dopatta and
Chann Way (Lahore).
A graduate from the famous Islamia College, Lahore (1929), this
singer-composer-theoretician found it relatively easy to acquire
the skill of a classical musician. "My educational background
helped me much in understanding and comprehending the finer
points, and in discerning the nuances of this finest of the fine
arts", he used to say with a great deal of pride and sense of
achievement. He believed that a formally educated person could
apply his mind more creatively and study music more methodically
than those who were not fortunate enough to receive good
education.
Feroze Nizami, Khawaja Khurshid Anwar, Saadat Hassan Manto and
Krishen Chander were all contemporaries, and pursued their
creative careers at the same time. About the mid-30s, Nizami
joined All India Radio as a programme producer. When he began his
work in the right earnest in Delhi, he found Khurshid Anwar,
another melodist from Lahore; Krishan Chander, a Poonch-born and
Lahore-educated short story-writer and Saadat Hassan Manto, the
stylist writer from Amritsar, already working for AIR. All four
of them resigned at the same time in protest against the out-of-
turn promotion of a colleague who was in-charge of the Speech
Section. How poor the world of cinema, especially music, would
have been, if they had chosen to stay with AIR?
After giving up his radio job, Feroze Nizami shifted to Bombay
where he became a freelance music director. Soon his talent
attracted attention and won recognition form better-known
producer directors, which resulted in the signing of several
contracts. He scored melodies for such memorable movies as
Vishwas, Bari Baat, Pia Millan, Umang, Us Paar, Amar Raaj, Nek
Parveen and Jugnu. For his uproariously popular compositions for
the film Jugnu, he was declared the best composer of the Sub-
continent for the year 1947. His songs - Aaj ki raat saaz-e-dil-
e-purdard naa cheir, yahan badla wafa ka; tum bhi bhula do,
hummein to shaam-e-ghum mein and several others (including the
one sung by the late Roshan Area Begum) still create nostalgic
spells on senior denizens who fondly cherish the memories good
old days when these were broadcast, by radio throughout the
length and breadth of the Sub-continent.
Nizami's widespread popularity about the mid-40s was well-
deserved. If he was not the greatest Muslim composer after Master
Jhandhey Khan, Master Ghulam Haider and Rafique Ghanzanvi, he was
certainly one of the greatest by the end of the year 1950. There
was no area of composition to which he did not contribute
significantly.
After division of the Sub-continent, Feroze Nizami returned to
his native city Lahore, where he was immediately signed by
Sibtain Fazli (for Dopatta) and Shaukat Hussain Rizvi (for
Channway). He composed songs for these two movies with the same
verve and feeling with which he invented melodies for Jugnu. His
compositions for the film Dopatta became instant hits, including
Chandni raatein and Tum zindagi ko gham ka fasana; for Channway
his songs, Mundia Sialkotia and Chan de aa totia, not to forget
Changa bana ee saanoon khilona, still sound as fresh as when
these were recorded in the late 40s and early 50s.
After that, Feroze Nizami shifted to Karachi where he also scored
music for several films (produced in the Eastern Studios). His
well-known movies produced in Lahore and Karachi, in addition to
Dopatta and Channway, included Intekhab, Kismat, Raaz, Sola
Aanay, Manzil, Ghulam and Saughat. A number of songs from these
movies also reached the lips of millions during the decade of the
60s. If my memory serves me right, his last film was Saukan (in
Punjabi) which was produced and directed by his son Arif Nizami.
Apart from his compositional talent, Feroze Nizami was also
acknowledged as a classical singer of much merit. He regularly
broadcast music from Radio Pakistan, Lahore, until his death on
November 15, 1975. He did not allow his deteriorating health and
old age to interfere in his melodic agenda. About mid-50s, Feroze
Nizami was invited by the chairman of (then) Pakistan Arts
Council to head its Music Academy, an assignment which afforded
him opportunities to impart his melodic knowledge to young
aspirants. This scribe remained associated with the late maestro
for several years at the Music Academy both as a friend and a
member of teaching faculty. He remained the head of the Academy
until his death in 1975.
From rhythms, melodies, instrumental colours and salient features
of Punjabi folk music and Kirana classical traditions, Feroze
Nizami acquired inspirational materials for many of his popular
compositions, some of which brought him early recognition and
fame. Interest in folk music of his native land (Punjab) came to
him early, even before his emergence as a composer. That was
manifest in his compositions for All India Radio. It remained a
continued and vital influence on him throughout his creative
career.
However, other influences, particularly of several different
strands of classical music, could also be easily discerned in his
music, especially in the films, Channway and Kismet. Close to the
end of his life, Feroze Nizami lost touch with excellence and had
to retire from music.
Nizami trained a number of musicians, who also created names for
themselves in the world of showbiz. More prominent among them
were the inimitable playback singer Muhammad Rafi, composer Ustad
Saleem Hussain (commonly known as Saleem Iqbal in the filmworld)
and Muhammad Ali, who is currently taking music classes at the
Music Academy of the Lahore Arts Council.
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian