G.A. Chishti, an awami composer

Ghulam Ahmad Chishti, the composer with scores of popular films to his credit, is no more in our midst. He was a celebrity of the sub-continental cinema, whose name stands out with distinction among two generations of composers, for the lilt and cadence of his songs, and a fetching folk-orientation of his style. Although he was not born in Lahore, he spent about 60 years of his life (in two phases) in this city, contributing to the refinement of its melodic culture.
Beginning his career as a composer from Lahore in the early 1940s, Chishti also worked in Calcutta and Bombay before returning to this city shortly after partition of the sub-continent. The first film for which he composed music was 'Sohni Mainwaal' in which famous actor Hira Lal enacted the role of Mainwaal against Almas, whose portrayal of Sohni was widely appreciated.
His subsequent films included Pardesi Dhola (Punjabi), which was shot at Calcutta'.
Shukria was the name of his first Urdu movie (also produced in Calcutta) which was followed by Manchali. Popular songs of these films (which still ring a bell for senior denizens) were Hamari gali aanaa, achha jee and Jug hai gurriyion ka khel, recorded in the voice of Nazar Mohyuddin (a Lahore born singing actor later known as Amer in Bollywood).
Some critics look upon G.A. Chishti as Pakistan's most prolific and popular composer. This may sound like excessive enthusiasm to those who admire quality and not quantity. Nevertheless, there is little doubt that very few among his contemporaries had the limelight of cinema goers' interest and admiration flashed upon them the way Chishti had.
He was one of the senior most among contemporary composers. Only Anil Biswas and Naushad Ali came close to him in terms of longevity of association with the art of composition.
G.A. Chishti was born in a small village near the city of Jallandhar in East Punjab, about the turn of the 20th century. His original plan was to pursue a career in government service but he finally decided to opt for music as his vocation. First, he associated himself with Columbia Gramophone Recording Company in Lahore around 1935.
For a couple of years, he earned his living working for Columbia. Meanwhile, he set into motion his career as a composer with provocative innovations and experiments with folk melodies that electrified the world of popular film music. From apprenticeship to maturity, his career sparkled with creative inventiveness.
Since 1934, after bidding goodbye to the Punjab Irrigation Department, where he was employed in a lowly position, Chishti devoted his time and energies to the refinement of music as an emotive force. Although his most significant compositions were almost always elementary in technique, style, approach and idiom, yet they stood out for their abundant sonic appeal to listeners of all hues, particularly the simple and unsophisticated rural folks.
The simplicity of his compositional style had been his major asset, which went a long way in taking his name to every nook and cranny in the country.
Mindful of the distinctive characteristics of his compositions, several connoisseurs branded him as an orthodox composer, whose indebtedness to the styles of old masters like Jhandhey Khan and others of the theatre era was starkly evident in his early tunes.
In this context, one is reminded of his compositions Hanstay hain sitarey (Nur Jehan for Columbia Recording Company) and Chabbee deeyaan chunniaan, a chorus led by Umrozia Begum for the film Sohni Mainwaal. Later, more popular and, at times, comic elements were introduced by him for folktale extents (in Punjabi films) but even there adherence to an orthodox style persisted.
In 1934, Chishti shifted to Lahore. It was here that he made his acquaintance with Agha Hashar Kashmiri, the renowned playwright of the theatre era. Their association lasted for several months during production of Beesham Pritigia into a film, which did not make to the silver screen.
Baba Chishti, as he was known before his death, did not quite remember the dates of certain events. He thought he joined Columbia Gramophone Company in 1935. His contemporaries were Bhai Lal Muhammad, Master Jhandey Khan, Master Ghulam Haider and Pundit Amar Nath.
On his return to Lahore in 1947, Chishti was engaged by producer-director-actor Nazir to score music for his Punjabi film Phairey. The movie was completed in a record time of two months and Chishti demonstrated his creative prowess and stamina by writing lyrics, composing and recording six songs in just one day. The film was an instant success, as its songs became uproariously popular.
Of the 2,000 plus songs, which Chishti claimed to have composed for the movies and gramophone companies, a majority won public acclaim. Besides his Punjabi songs, a number of his compositions for Urdu films also won kudos. For years, people used to hum and whistle his lullabies, Chanda ki nagri say aa ja and Raaj Dullarey, Mairi akheon kay tarey.
It was later alleged by music buffs that one of these tunes was pirated from an Indian film. Late Baba Chishti claimed that he did so at the behest of the producer.
Before his death in 1997, Baba G.A. Chishti moaned over the fact that the Lahore based Pakistan film industry, for whose development he had spent so many precious years of life, had neglected him completely. The radio and television also did not provide him many opportunities to compose songs for these mediums. Octogenarian Chishti used to claim that he was capable of producing creative work with the same agility and speed as was the hallmark of his career.
Author of many popular Punjabi film songs, which earned him the approbation of being an awami composer, the grand old man of sub-continental cinema died in Lahore almost unnoticed and unsung. Only a handful of people from filmdom participated in his funeral rites.