Avaaz day kahan hai - Noor Jehan's 23rd death anniversary today
Entertainment
The 23rd death anniversary of legendary singer Noor Jehan is being observed today (Saturday)
LAHORE (Dunya News) - The 23rd death anniversary of legendary singer Malika-e-Tarannum Noor Jehan is being observed today (Saturday).
Noor Jehan was born on Sept 21, 1926 in Kasur. Her real name was Allah Wasai.
Noor Jehan started her singing career from Calcutta at the age of nine as a child star. She inherited music as she was born in a family related to music.
Noor Jehan, also known as Malika-e-Tarrannum (Queen of Melody), sang thousands of songs during her career. After partition, she moved from Bombay and started her film career in Pakistan as actress, singer and the first female film director with film ‘Chann Wey’ in 1951. Her last film ‘Ghalib’ was released in 1961.
She received many awards‚ including Pride of Performance and Tamgha-e-Imtiaz.
Malika-e-Tarrannum’s national patriotic songs during the 1965 Pak-India war are an important part of our national history. Noor Jehan died on Dec 23, 2000 in Karachi.
Khalid Hasan's tribute
In one of his articles, Khalid Hasan writes: "But Madam lives in her music, and this is not a cliché. She does indeed live. In America and Canada, there was time when you had to look far and wide for even the basic spices that go into Pakistani and Indian cooking. And neither love nor money could buy you music from our part of the world."
"I always found it difficult to imagine a world where there would be no Madam Nur Jehan, but the unthinkable came to pass as the year 2000 was drawing to a close. Nur Jehan is gone and never shall we see her like again, nor hear that voice, though it will live in the music she left us."
He said: "Madam Nur Jehan was a great woman and a great artist. And now the gods have made her immortal, like her music. She was the toast of India when Pakistan and India were one country. She chose to come to Pakistan because that was where her heart lay.
"The little town of Kasur where she was born always remained close to her, and Lahore was the city she loved. She was not, however, fated to be buried there. It is said that she had expressed the wish to be buried in Kasur but that was not to be either. Malika-e-Tarannum Nur Jehan stands dignified in death as in life, mourned by millions and remembered with love. She was truly blessed because the devotion that people feel for her is denied by God to all but the elect. Avaaz day kahan hai."
