• Naushad was born on 25 December 1919. He passed away on 5 May 2006.
• Naushad has three sons and six daughters and his residence – facing the sea and called Ashiana – is located on Carter Road, Bandra West, Mumbai 400050. Carter Road, as a musical landmark, came to be renamed as Sangeet Samrat Naushad Ali Marg during his second death anniversary (on 5 May 2008).
• In a working lifetime stretching from 1940 to 2005 – the longest for a music director in Hindustani cinema – Naushad composed for a total of 72 films. Of these, 70 were Hindi films (five of them, however, remained unreleased); one of the 72 films was a Bhojpuri movie and one was a Malayalam film. His five unreleased films do not count in his final tally, which thus gets amended from 72 films to 67 films: 65 Hindi, one Bhojpuri and one Malayalam. (See Appendix 4 for the list of his films.) Naushad’s sole Bhojpuri movie was Shiv Bhakti Films’ Paan Khaye Saiyyan Hamaar (1982). It had a total of five songs: two solos by Asha Bhosle and two solos by Manna Dey plus one duet by Asha Bhosle and Mahendra Kapoor. Naushad also composed for one Malayalam film: M. A. K. Productions’ Dhvanee (1989). It had eight songs (six of them seeing K. J. Yesudas going solo) plus one solo by P. Susheela and one duet by P. Susheela and Yesudas.
• His five unreleased Hindi films are:
1. Habba Khatoon (one solo by Mohammed Rafi);
2. Chanakya Aur Chandragupta (one solo by Lata Mangeshkar);
3. K. B. Lall’s Phir Baaje Shehnai (one duet by Lata Mangeshkar and Mahendra Kapoor);
4. Pukar (one solo by Mukesh and one duet by Asha Bhosle and Mukesh); and
5. Karu (one solo by Sunil Kaushik and one chorus-accompanied number by Devki Pandit plus two chorus-acccompanied numbers, both by Devki Pandit and Kumar Sanu).
• His nine songs from the above five unreleased films have not been taken into consideration while reckoning his total tally (given later), since no disc records/cassettes/CDs were issued of those songs.
• Apart from the five films unreleased named above, Naushad had extensive discussions with certain producers on scoring the music for such projects as:
1. Baiju (remake of Baiju Bawra, 1952);
2. Asoka The Great;
3. Tansen; and
4. Sahebzadi Anarkali (the concept of Anarkali returning from Iran to challenge the locus standi of Noorjehan as the queen of the Mughal Emperor Jehangir); the name of Runa Laila – that remarkable multilingual performer from Bangladesh, originally a citizen of Pakistan – was in the air, for a while, as a surprise singing-star choice for this role, given her mastery over Urdu as the language that was compulsory in her school days. Naushad’s personal verdict on her singing the Sahebzadi Anarkali theme: ‘Runa mein woh baat hai’. (Runa has it in her.)
The four film proposals cited above did not go beyond the paperwork stage.
• In his 65 Hindi films released, Naushad composed a total of 636 songs – 373 solos; 115 duets; 148 chorus and mixed numbers. The ‘chorus and mixed’ category is made up of songs unfolding in the credits as, say (1) Lata and chorus; or (2) Lata, Rafi and chorus; or (3) Lata, Rafi, Shamshad Begum and chorus; or (4) just Lata, Rafi and Shamshad Begum; or (5) a song rendered by four, or more, named voices – accompanied, or not accompanied, by a chorus. Any song by the same singer(s), extending on the disc record to two parts, has been treated as one Naushad song.
• From Naushad’s total of 636 songs in Hindi films, Lata Mangeshkar has rendered 167 songs and Mohammed Rafi has put over 149 songs – as the two performers rating the highest in his Hindi movie repertoire. Included in those 636 songs is Naushad’s maiden number in films (disc record number N25755), this solo by singing-star Leela Chitnis, Bataa de koee kaun gali more Shyam, turning out to be his only composition for Chitra Productions’ Manibhai Vyas-directed Kanchan (1941). However, the movie that released even earlier than Kanchan was Mohan Bhavnani’s Prem Nagar (1940). Prem Nagar thus becomes Naushad’s first film. His last film was Akbar Khan’s Taj Mahal: An Eternal Love Story (2005).
• Maybe Naushad scored for just 30 films in 30 years from 1951 to 1980. By way of contrast, he composed for no fewer than four films, in a single year, twice – first in 1944 and then in 1949. In 1944, he composed a total of 39 songs for Geet; Jeevan; Rattan; and Pahele Aap; and then, in 1949, he composed a total of 46 songs for Dillagi; Andaz; Chandni Raat; and Dulari. Progressively, in his quest for perfection, Naushad concentrated upon quality music, never taking on more than two films at a time. There were occasions when he had only one film in hand. That is why you discover gaps in his later career.
• The number of female voices employed by Naushad in films, during his 65-year career, is 49 and the number of male voices is 48.
• From the 43 songwriters that he used in 65 years, the highest number of songs came to be penned by:
1. Shakeel Badayuni: 316 songs from 30 films.
2. Dina Nath Madhok: 89 songs from 11 films.
3. Majrooh Sultanpuri: 64 songs from 10 films.
• Did Naushad himself ever pen a film song tuned by him? Yes, he did give lyrical expression – in the never-released Karu – to Maine sochaa thhaa ki pee kar chaeen dil ko aayega, rendered by Devki Pandit, Kumar Sanu and chorus. The song was never heard by the public as it was not released.
• Thus, in his 67 films in all languages (excluding five films remaining unreleased in Hindi), he composed a total of 649 songs (636 songs in 65 Hindi films; five songs in one Bhojpuri film; plus eight songs in one Malayalam film).
• There were certain Naushad films dubbed straight from Hindi into Tamil; they are:
1. Mehboob Productions’ Aan (1952) – retaining that title in Tamil, it had 10 songs as listed by Naushad.
2. Sunny Art Productions’ Uran Khatola (1955) was titled Vaana Ratham (1956) in Tamil; it had eight songs as listed by Naushad.
3. K. Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam (1960) was titled Akbar (1961) in Tamil. Naushad said that it was planned that nine of his twelve songs from the movie (as it stood after the Mughal-e-Azam golden jubilee) would be retained in the Tamil edition; but only five of them came to be listed. (Take heed of the fact that Mughal-e-Azam, when first released on 5 August 1960, had 10 songs; two songs were added as the film celebrated its golden jubilee at the 1100-capacity Maratha Mandir in Central Bombay.)
• Here it needs to be noted that Lata Mangeshkar singing for the Tamil Aan (1952) and the Tamil Vaana Ratham (1956) was a happening for the whole of Southern India to celebrate. Lata’s five numbers that simply captivated the South are now listed.
• From Aan:
1. Izanden unnai (Tujhe kho diyaa).
2. Inru yendan nenjil (Aaj mere man mein).
From Vaana Ratham:
3. Yennai kanday povai (Mera salaam le jaa).
4. Enthan kannaalan (More saiyyan ji).
5. En ullam vittu odathe (Hamare dil se na jaana).
• Having said that, the fact remains that the songs in the Tamil Aan, Vaana Ratham and Akbar carry the same tunes as the original ones by Naushad in Hindi. The Tamil singers have merely dubbed into the oral gaps left by elimination of the original voices. Since Naushad himself cannot be credited twice for the same tune, these Tamil songs do not form a part of the composer’s tally.
• Naushad also composed the music for certain Doordarshan National Network TV serials, such as:
1. Sanjay Khan’s The Sword of Tipu Sultan (1989) – 60 episodes: six songs. (Naushad’s main effort here – as in the TV serials listed below – was in the realm of background music, something at which he was the absolute master.)
2. Akbar Khan’s Akbar The Great (1994) – 52 episodes: 11 songs.
3. Mumbai Doordarshan’s Aarohee TV programme in the 1990s – 11 songs.
4. There was a TV serial, Neelam Mahajan Singh’s Sargam, left incomplete, after recording two songs.
Naushad thus composed a total of 28 songs in three completed TV offerings.
• Under the label of Bengali Modern Songs, the Gramophone Company of India Limited, in 1988, released an album titled Prem Ke Aamaar Pronaam Diye Jaaye, all eight songs featured in it being rendered by Haimanti Shukla (a Hindustani classical-oriented performer who sang, for the most part, in Bengali films). Prem Ke Aamaar Pronaam Diye Jaaye remained the only private vocalized album standing in the name of Naushad right up to 1997.
• Then, in 1998, came Navras Records’ Aathwan Sur – The Other Side of Naushad (the composer as a poet being The Other Side). This album was based upon selections from Aathwan Sur by Naushad Ali, a 305-page collection (in Urdu) of the composer’s own verse – ghazals, nazms et al – penned as situations developed in the life of the nation (published by Bazm-e-fiqr-o-fann, 9 Arun Nivas, 472 S. V. P. Road, Borivli West, Mumbai 400103, March 1992, Rs 200). The Aathwan Sur album marked Naushad homing in on Ananthasubramani Hariharan as a ghazal exponent. That iconic performer was joined, in parts, by Preeti Uttam, daughter of violinist-composer Uttam Singh, who was Naushad’s active assistant from the mid-1970s. All eight tracks of Aathwan Sur – The Other Side of Naushad were tuned by the composer himself and they unfolded as:
1. Mujh ko muaf keejiye.
2. Ghataa chhayi thi saawan khul ke barsaa.
3. Saawan ke jab baadal chhaaye.
4. Peene waale bekhudi se kaam le.
5. Tanhaa khud se baat karoon.
6. Aabaadiyon mein dusht ka manzar bhi aayega.
7. Kabhi meri yaad unko aati to hogi.
8. Aaj ki baat kal pe kyun taalo.
• If these eight numbers are to be reckoned in his overall tally, Naushad’s lifetime compositions come to total 693 (636 + 5 + 8 + 28 + 8 + 8) – as put together from 65 released Hindi films; one Bhojpuri film; one Malayalam film; three TV offerings; plus two private albums of eight songs each, the first in Bengali, the second in chaste Urdu. This was some achievement for one who never felt like going to school, one who rarely attended classes.
• There have been six documentaries covering his life and times:
1. Naushad Ka Sangeet (in Hindi).
2. Sangeet Ka Baadshah (in Hindi).
3. Naushad Ali: a 1975 half-hour documentary in Hindi produced by the Television Centre, Bombay, under the Doordarshan head.
4. Movie Mahal Naushad: presented (as a series from 1987 to 1989) by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom.
5. Naushad Ali – The Melody Continues: a 39-minute 2007 Hindi biographical film, in colour, directed by Buddhadeb Dasgupta and produced by the Films Division of the Government of India.
6. Naushad Ali (Indian Musician): a 24-minute documentary made by the ETV2 channel in its famous Margadarshi Archival Series – with the commentary spoken in the Telugu language.
• Naushad was the first music director to bring about a total change in the method of recording. Earlier, there was no separation of the singer’s voice and the orchestra. For the first time, he used a scientific method of recording all the different components separately – in order to achieve greater clarity and sound effect. The process began as Naushad visited London in July 1952 to re-record the background music of Mehboob’s Aan. Here he realized how dated our recording technique was compared to the West. Unlike him, other composers in India did not make it a point to maintain the notation of each piece that they composed. His music could be easily played in London from such notation.
• Naushad was perhaps the first music director to accord due importance to background music as a device to convey, to the audience, the mood of the situation and the psychology of the character, helping to read the innermost thoughts where speech is absent. Naushad has emphasized how scoring background music is a task far more demanding than that of recording songs, the latter being, after all, a job carried out ‘one song at a time’. He claimed to be the first music director to have employed a 100-piece orchestra in the background music of Aan (1952). His skill in this specialized craft was recognized by EMI’s (Electric and Musical Industries’) release of Naushad: Background Music From Films, 1970 ODEON/EMI, D/MOCE 4016 – orchestral selections from Ram Aur Shyam (1967) and from three of his 1968 films: Aadmi, Sunghursh and Saathi. Also released, a couple of years later, was Song of the Waves: Music by Naushad; Daisy Records, LP DSY 3603 (California, USA; 1972); chosen pieces from his background score for Pakeezah (1972) – pieces identified on the dustjacket, for better Western comprehension, as Morning in Banaras; Peacock Dance; Chikara; Dream Ride; Memories; The Messenger of Love; Broken Heart; Separation; Frustration; Reunion; Love Theme; Morning of Hope; and Song of the Waves.
• This composer stressed on how the chorus specially devised by him for the 1955 Lata Mangeshkar-led Uran Khatola song number, More saiyyan ji utrenge paar ho, was without an ‘interlude orchestra’. The chorus, he said, was given such an effect, such a modulation, that it proved to be a good enough substitute for the interlude music.
• He played a stellar role in promoting the careers of Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi. He also had a key part to play in encouraging fresh voices like those of Suraiya, Uma Devi (Tun Tun), Shyam Kumar, Hridaynath Mangeshkar, Mahendra Kapoor, Shanti Mathur, A. Hariharan and Preeti Uttam. In later years, the opportunities that he created for Suman Kalyanpur to perform under his baton acted as a major fillip to her singing career.
• He was the first music director in the subcontinent to have been the subject of research at the university level. Ms Mala Sinha, for her thesis on Naushad, was awarded a PhD by the Dayalbagh University, Agra. Naushad personally rang up each crucial mediaperson to ensure that Ms Mala Sinha was duly facilitated in the task that she had undertaken. This was certainly the first music director to grasp how much the media was going to mean in promoting his music.