Singing for talkies
Vocalists who established the contours of film-singing in the first decade and a half…
By Sarwat Ali
Talkies brought forth music as a major form of film expression and singers who had sung on the sets live became hot property in those early films. Probably only K.C. Dey and K.L. Saigal helped develop the film song to an autonomous status. In the beginning, Suraiya did playback for others but, once established, only sang for herself till she retired from singing and acting in 1963. Only Noor Jehan from the middle of the 1930s stayed at the top while many others faded away with the advent of the playback singing without making the successful transition that called for a more specialised effort on part of the vocalists.

When former army chief General (Retd) Mirza Aslam Beg recently alleged that the US military authorities flew the wanted South Waziristan-based Pakistani Taliban commanders in helicopters to Afghanistan, he was echoing the views of many Pakistanis who not only are suspicious of the American designs in the region but are also firm believers in conspiracy theories.

The idea looks preposterous that Washington would protect Pakistani militants who have often joined hands with the Afghan Taliban to attack the US-led Nato forces in Afghanistan and are accused of harbouring elements of al-Qaeda, which America considers the biggest threat to its security and whose leader Osama bin Laden was designated after 9/11 as the public enemy number one of the US. But so strong is the anti-US sentiment in Pakistan and such is the cynicism among so many Pakistanis that they tend to believe in everything negative about America. The US could be accused of so many other things concerning Pakistan, but this cannot be true that it is both fighting and protecting the militants.

The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) head Hakimullah Mahsud and his lieutenants haven't fled to Afghanistan. They are very much in Pakistan, perhaps not in South Waziristan, but in another tribal area such as North Waziristan, Orakzai or Kurram agencies. The Americans didn't fly them to safety across the border and they too won't run away to Afghanistan as that would mean almost the end of their fight against the Pakistani state and security forces. Their escape to Afghanistan would demoralize the Taliban foot-soldiers not only in South Waziristan, but also elsewhere in the tribal areas and districts of the NWFP and beyond.

There have been no recent sightings of Hakimullah Mahsud and other top TTP commanders. But he and the TTP spokesman Azam Tariq have spoken to reporters in recent weeks and this shows that they had access to telephone. This means they cannot be in the Mahsud tribal territory in South Waziristan which was attacked by Pakistan's armed forces in a major ground offensive on October 17 and where the phone lines are no longer working. In fact, the government also ensured that the mobile phones went dead in Tank and Dera Ismail Khan after the military action was launched to disrupt the militants' communication links. Hakimullah's cousin Qari Hussain, another ranking TTP commander and the mentor of suicide bombers, also talked to a few reporters recently by phone. This meant that he too was no longer in the Mahsud tribal territory that is under attack by the military and where the major Taliban strongholds have already fallen.

There has been speculation that only Waliur Rahman, the TTP commander for South Waziristan, along with his fighters is still in the Mahsud tribal territory and commanding the Taliban fighters organising attacks against the security forces. This is understandable because Waliur Rahman was made the head of the TTP in South Waziristan, its birthplace and most important stronghold, at the time when Hakimullah Mahsud was designated as the new leader of the organisation in place of Baitullah Mahsud. In fact, it was mentioned then that Waliur Rahman had offered the job of TTP head to Hakimullah Mahsud after Baitullah Mahsud's death in a US drone attack on August 5 and preferred taking over as the commander for South Waziristan. This was a smart move because the TTP drew most of its strength from South Waziristan and, therefore, Hakimullah Mahsud too would have to depend on Waliur Rahman for sustenance and reinforcements despite being the head of the outlawed organisation.

If this sequence of events is true, then Waliur Rahman would be expected to defend his base and wage a guerilla war against the security forces in South Waziristan. It is going to be a risky job as the troops are large in numbers, supported by the air force, well-equipped and in control of most of the towns and villages in the Mahsud tribal area.

As for the whereabouts of Hakimullah Mahsud, Qari Hussain and other TTP commanders, they could have taken refuge in North Waziristan where non-TTP commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur is in control. They cannot possibly be in the Wana area of South Waziristan where Maulvi Nazeer and militants from the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe operate because these non-TTP militants would not want to destabilise their own towns and villages and again make their territory a battlefield. Hakimullah Mahsud and some of his commanders could have easily shifted to Orakzai Agency where he was based until Baitullah Mahsud's death as the commander for three tribal areas – Orakzai, Kurram and Khyber. The Orakzai Agency is still a TTP stronghold where militants from Waziristan, Khyber, Orakzai and Darra Adamkhel operate and which serves as nerve-centre for planning attacks including suicide bombings in urban centres.

Some of the TTP commanders and fighters are also reported to have gone to Kurram Agency and the decision by the Pakistan military to send jet-fighters and gunship helicopters to bomb targets in Central Kurram was apparently taken following intelligence reports about concentration of militants in that area. Bombing raids, as we have seen in the past military operations, can cause some damage to the militants and destroy certain Taliban hideouts, but this isn't an effective way to eliminate commanders and put them out of business. The use of airpower also causes civilian deaths, losses to properties of common people and displacement, all contributing factors to militancy.

The escape of Hakimullah Mahsud and his top commanders isn't surprising. In fact, it isn't the first time that leading militants have escaped despite a big military operation and months of aerial bombardment. This happened in Swat and rest of Malakand division and also in Bajaur, Mohmand and Darra Adamkhel. The Swat Taliban head Maulana Fazlullah remains at large along some of his leading commanders such as Sirajuddin, Ibne Amin, Omar Rahman alias Fateh, Ghaznavi, Qari Mushtaq, etc. Maulana Fazlullah recently claimed that he had safely crossed over to Afghanistan, a claim that appears to be untrue. In fact, he could be in one of the tribal areas with strong TTP presence. Also, the Afghan Taliban would not want to antagonise the Pakistan government by hosting him somewhere in Afghanistan.

The top militant commander in Bajaur, Faqir Muhammad, who is also the TTP deputy head, has also been able to avoid capture or death even though his lieutenant and the TTP central spokesman Maulvi Omar was captured by pro-government tribal militia in Mohmand Agency and handed over to the security forces. The TTP commander for Mohmand Agency, Omar Khalid alias Abdul Wali, too has escaped capture until now. Tariq Afridi, the TTP commander for Darra Adamkhel and now also Khyber Agency, is also at large. Blamed for most of the bombings in Peshawar and Kohat, he is now considered as one of the most dangerous TTP commanders.

In case of South Waziristan, the security forces had besieged the Mahsud tribal territory for several weeks, blocked the three main roads leading into that area, backed two factions of militants that were anti-TTP and neutralised both Maulvi Nazeer and Hafiz Gul Bahadur by renewing friendly contacts with them promising that previous peace accords with their groups would remain intact. Still all top TTP commanders until now have survived and also evaded capture. The security forces' inability to obtain timely intelligence and get the wanted militant commanders has been visible in almost all military operations. The five important Swat Taliban commanders including Muslim Khan and Mahmood Khan were nabbed as a result of a sting operation by the military. The Swat Taliban accused the military of inviting the five men for peace talks and then arresting them.

Top al-Qaeda and Afghan Taliban leaders too have survived and evaded capture despite the fact that the US has announced huge monetary rewards for their arrest and spent millions of dollars, used modern technology and bombed numerous places to get them. Osama bin Laden, his deputy Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri and other al-Qaeda figures are all believed to be alive and in the region but remain untraceable. The same is true in case of Afghan Taliban leader Mulla Mohammad Omar and some of his top lieutenants.

The military campaigns in Afghanistan and Pakistan would be considered incomplete and the US and its allies as well as the Pakistani security forces would be unable to claim a convincing victory unless they kill or capture the top wanted militants.

"I once met a Spanish author who said that his perfect writing circumstances would be a single, peaceful house. In the house would be a room, with a desk, in which absolute, monastic calm would reign. But in this room would be a door, and it would lead to a nightclub." --Graham Swift

Not the nightclub maybe, but the night is definitely depicted through a formation of jet fighters stuck on a board. These toys and the surface are painted blue. Suddenly dark shadows of birds, eagles or vultures, start appearing on it. Moving image of flying birds is managed through a video projection on the board.

With its dark shades and two flying entities, 'Made in China', the work of Imran Mudassar effectively represents the situation of our society.

This video installation -- originally made during his participation in the Vasl Residency in Karachi and initially displayed at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi -- is being shown again but with a not-so-slight change. Here, in Mudassar's recent exhibition at Drawing Room Gallery in Lahore, the surface of toy planes is superimposed with another video of people walking in the city.

Now, city scene and fighter planes may seem like an appropriate visual combination that offers a developed version of the earlier piece, but in reality this was not the case. Talking to the artist, one learns why the imagery was altered. It turns out that he did so because he lost his original CD -- of birds looming low. Therefore, he decided to shoot another one, focusing on the urban setting, to recreate his work at his solo exhibition in Lahore.

Even after this odd occurrence -- missing of a component of an artwork that illustrates the worth of art here -- Mudassar has managed to reproduce his video work for the Lahore show. Somehow, the latest version lacks the subtlety and symbolism that distinguished the Karachi piece. He attempts to compensate for this loss by exhibiting a large body of drawings and a few paintings. In majority of these works on paper and canvas, man's body, either full or in parts, is exposed to a piece of armour or weaponry. Occasionally human being is portrayed inside the armour, or captured with it in such a scheme that the armour or jet planes, instead of shielding and defending the body, look more like invading objects.

The interaction of human beings with armour -- its replica in metal -- is drawn in its various possibilities and remains the main motif in the art of Imran Mudassar. The presence of armour obviously indicates violence, current and growing in our midst. Interestingly, this imagery was conceived during Imran's visit to Kabul (not far from Peshawar) where the artist witnessed havoc of war and effects of destruction. At the time when Mudassar was thinking about these works with reference to Afghan tragedy, he could not have imagined that one day the same images will become more relevant to the situation close to home.

Although, in several works, human figure (self-portrait of the artist) is juxtaposed with outlines of jet fighters or tanks or is surrounded with flies, the armour dominates his aesthetics. Rendered with an impressive level of skill, these works suggest an unusual scenario, different from the normal views of war, weapons and terror. This is mainly because in the present conditions one associates a singular political position with artists -- that of denouncing violence in our culture. But artists may have diverse and odd opinions because this is in the nature of art -- to find unique meanings in the agreed-upon versions and accepted narratives.

Art, like literature, dares to differ from the state's dictates as well as from the views of ordinary public. This quality of art turns it into a dangerous, dissentient and devious endeavour, transgressing from official story and popular sentiments. Hence, in most cases, its outcome comes across as a shock -- both for government and citizens (there are many examples of books, paintings, films, which were banned by the state and were equally denounced by the general population).

In that sense, Imran Mudassar moves away from the simple and one-dimensional aspect of his subject matter. Besides rejecting the growing violence in our surroundings, his humans wearing armour reveal a different content. The relationship between man and armour is not necessarily of danger and destruction; it also suggests a fascination with these objects. The body, in several of his works, longs to enter into the armour, while pointed jets may allude to the desire of power and conquests (political, social and sexual).

In many pieces, both the body and metal armour appear to be two sides of a self, occasionally crowded with flies, drawn in clusters (perhaps defying the influence of Atif Khan, his teacher in the printmaking course at NCA).

This aspect of his work -- in which the artist has convincingly captured our love-hate relationship with violence, of rejecting it externally and relishing it internally -- makes it uncanny and reflects our inner self. Analysed honestly, even in the most intense moments in our lives -- of happiness, bliss, grief -- there are always undercurrents of parallel thoughts and views. Majority of people are reluctant to admit these contradictions. It is only art which, in the words of Graham Swift, opens up a completely different venue, physically and metaphorically. The work of Imran Mudassar also presents that possibility.

Talkies brought forth music as a major form of film expression and singers who had sung on the sets live became hot property in those early films. Probably only K.C. Dey and K.L. Saigal helped develop the film song to an autonomous status. In the beginning, Suraiya did playback for others but, once established, only sang for herself till she retired from singing and acting in 1963. Only Noor Jehan from the middle of the 1930s stayed at the top while many others faded away with the advent of the playback singing without making the successful transition that called for a more specialised effort on part of the vocalists.

Many vocalists were popular and they established the contours of film-singing in the first decade and a half. These singers are still remembered and their songs played and remixed for contemporary musical consumption. Incidentally, when the equipment had to be tested once it was set up at the Imperial Studio, no established vocalist wanted to become the sacrificial lamb. It was left to part time actors to be summoned for this trial. Omkar Dewaskar came forward and sang a thumri pyare rasiya bihari. Some 500 feet of film was shot but unfortunately it was not preserved. The first film song shot thus has been lost to history. However, Wazir Muhammed Khan was the first among the singing voices in Talkies and the song he sang in Alam Ara was dil dey khuda key nam par pyare. Recruited by Ardeshar Irani in the Imperial Company, he was a theatre actor who also did small roles in silent films.

One of the first singers was Shamshad Begum who was born in Lahore and at the age of 13 she sang Ghulam Haider's composition in Punjabi hath jora pakhiyan da for a gramophone company. The same company Jenophone had, in all, issued 200 songs sung by her. Her duets with Umrajiya Begum became popular. All these were non-film songs but she moved to Delhi to join the Imperial Theatre Company of Performing Arts and was selected to sing for Ghulam Haiders's Khazanchi released by Pancholi in 1941 -- sawan key nazare hain. In those days the song had to be sung twice, once for the film and then for the recording companies. She went to Bombay in 1942 and sang in Taqdeer. She also sang for Ramchander. She sang for all the major composers and probably it was Naushad who exploited the possibility of her strong voice the most.

Khurshid was also born in Lahore. She made her debut as an actress in Laila Majnun in 1931 but one of her early successful films was Mirza Saheban in 1934. She was appreciated and made the inevitable journey to Bombay and acted till Aapbeeti in 1948 before going back to the newly-born Pakistan. In all she was in 13 films and those she made in Bombay, Calcutta and Lahore. She joined Ranjit Movietone in 1940 and became a recognised star. Two of Khurshid's best remembered films -- Bhakta Surdas with music by Gyan Dutt and Tansen with music by Khemschand Prakash -- had K.L Saigal as her co-star. Her voice neither broad nor too thin was unaffected and sounded natural with a certain freshness.

Amirbai Karnataki was an actress in the 1940s though she is remembered more as a singer now. She had more body in her voice than Khurshid and reportedly sang about 250 songs in the decade of the 1940s. She sang for all the major composers and succeeded in scoring hits for them -- dheere dheere aa re baadal for Anil Biswas, milke bichar gayi akhiyan for Naushad, her din hai naye for S D Burman, gore gore o banke chore for C Ramchandra, aisi thi meri zindagi for Ghulam Mohammed. She also sang for Khemchand Prakash. She was also very expressive in semi-classical numbers like bol babanav ki thumri chanda des pia key. She was also good in what appeared to be casual vocalism in which music is not assertive but persuasive. She went into oblivion because of the advent of playback era.

Kananbala who came to be known as Kanandevi began as a child-artist in a silent film Jai Deb in 1926. As she grew up she began to sing for the Megaphone Gramophone Company. In 1937 she joined the New Theatres and when she left it in 1941 she acted and sang in nearly a dozen films based on the Sharatchandra highly regarded stories. Her voice and diction were clear and did not carry the impress of Bengal Bani in her Hindi songs. Whenever required, she dramatically dropped the voice in speech tone and was good at the use of meaningless syllables, uttered them with the proper tonal colour.

During the late 1930s, Zohrabai Ambalewali still in her teens began broadcasting songs from Delhi, Lahore and Peshawar radio stations. In 1938 she sang her first song under Anil Biswas in Gramophone Singer. Her big break came with Ratan. She reportedly sang about 1200 songs and in 1953 she retired from films. Her voice distinctive with a grainy musical quality prevalent in the early cinematic phase had more edges than polish. Due to many reasons, composers set her songs in quick tempo and hence to pronounce words clearly and articulate with alacrity became her primary responsibilities.

Rajkumari was from Benaras. She was groomed in singing the tappa. She used to sing in high pitch and without microphone in stage plays. She had a light flexible voice with traces of training. Her preference for limited orchestra on fixed form songs in folk and religious categories of Hindustani music pointed to her affinity to an earlier age of film music. She stood as a representative of an age when composers composed according to the singing voices. She also asserted that a certain correspondence was established between the singing voice and the actresses on which it was being picturised.

As Noor Jehan came to Pakistan, the post-1947 phase of film music was overrun by Lata Mangeshkar. She ruled like a queen for the next four decades and now lives in retirement -- probably the last living vocalist with experience of working in the 1940s.