IN 1967, I was a member of Government College, Lahore’s music team that used to compete in inter-collegiate music contests that were organised by various colleges and universities. Both the University Law College and the University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Lahore, were quite active in holding such contests in which the competition used to be tough.

The famed National College of Arts (NCA) was represented in such contests, among others, by Nayyara Noor, who passed away on Aug 20. Even back then, she had a mesmerising effect on the audience with her mellifluous voice and amazing singing. In one such contest held at the UET, Nayyara bagged the first prize hands down. Dr Nazir Ahmad, who was principal of the Government College and a great connoisseur of music, was a judge in the competition and was full of praise for Nayyara.

Later, I would meet Nayyara at the radio music school in Lahore, where GA Farooq of Kirana Gharana of music, would teach us the basics of classical singing. As an amateur singer, she used to sing songs of veteran singers with great aplomb, especially the ghazals sung by Begum Akhtar. In a largely attended music programme, held at the UET in 1971, Nayyara asked me to play harmonium with her on stage, which I did, and she sang Begum Akhtar’s Chha rahi kaali ghata and received a rapturous applause from the audience.

Nayyara made a mark for herself on the television and later in films, with a voice different from the other leading female singers, who would emulate the style of Madam Noor Jehan. She would sing in a sweet voice that had a mysterious sadness about it, which together gave a haunting impact to her renderings.

It was the launching of the audio album ‘Nayyara sings Faiz’, jointly produced by Faiz’s son-in-law Shoaib Hashmi and EMI company as a birthday gift for the great poet in 1976, that marked a turning point in Nayyara’s career after which she was taken seriously by music lovers as an accomplished singer. Faiz was Nayyara’s favourite poet and she got recognized by singing his ghazal, Hum ke thehre ajnabi itni madaraton ke baad. However, her most famous ghazal remains Ae jazba-e-dil gar mein chaahun, har cheez muqabil aa ja’aye by Behzad Lakhnavi, whcih she sand for PTV programme Sukhanwar in 1972.

In addition to singing many songs for television and recording companies, Nayyara rendered 62 songs for films as playback singer. The most famous among them is Roothe ho tum, tumko kaise mana’aun piya, composed by Robin Ghosh to the lyrics of Tasleem Fazli, for the movie Aina. M. Ashraf’s composition Tera saya jahan bhi ho sajna was another popular song. It was penned by Kaleem Usmani for the 1973 film Gharana.

Unassuming, Nayyara was the recipient of the President’s Pride of Performance medal, which she fully deserved after extending such devotion and commitment to her chosen field. She would wear simple clothes, and believed that it was her voice and singing that mattered, and not her appearance. She was a showbiz personality of great character who had nothing to do with the ‘show’ part of the ‘business’.

Parvez Rahim
Karachi

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2022