Octogenarian Nisar Bazmi, who composed scores of mellifluous, hit songs for the listening pleasure of millions of music buffs in the sub-continent, died in Karachi on March 22, 2007. He was suffering from a plethora of ailments associated with old age at the time of his final showdown with Nature.
Born in 1925 in a village near Bombay (now Mumbai) as Syed Nisar Ahmed, he began his film career about the middle of the decade of 1940s by scoring music for a couple of dozens of movies, which in show-biz parlance are known as B class films. The motion picture for which he provided raiment to its songs for the first time was titled 'Jamna Paar'.
In Mumbai, his popularity did not hit the bull's eye and after scoring music reportedly for about 30 B class films he came to Lahore in the early 1960s where his creative genius found a congenial environment to blossom. The songs he recorded for his very first film in Lahore namely 'Aisa bhi hota hai' won wide public acclaim as their sonic enchantment sounded sweet on the ears of millions of music buffs in Pakistan. Thereafter, his name soared high on the popularity graph, as more songs composed by him became a guarantee for the success of movies at the box office.
During his career, the late composer proved that he had the technical skills for composing popular songs and that his style was elegant, his musical thought was touched by creative beauty and refinement characterised his output. Not many contemporary maestros composed music, which had such an unmistakable identity as that of Nisar Bazmi.
Unlike other tunesmiths, Bazmi spent much time in studying the demands of the situations in films before concentrating on his compositions, which, by and large, were set in the strands of classical ragas.
Several songs composed by him can be cited to substantiate the point. He had sound grooming in classical music, which facilitated him in inventing original tunes for songs. This fact was evident in a large number of his compositions such as 'Kaatay naan kattey re' recorded in the voice of Runa Laila and 'Chalo achha hua tum Bhool gaye' rendered by melody queen Noor Jehan and others recorded in voices of Mehdi Hasan and Ahmed Rushdi.
Here I am reminded of some of his extremely popular compositions of the likes of 'Aise bhi hain mehreban', 'Kuchh log rooth kar bhi' (Ahmed Rushdi), 'Dil Dharke' (Runa Laila), 'Ranjish hi sahi' (Mehdi Hasan), 'Bole re gurriya bole re' (Nayyara Noor), 'Hum chale to hamaray sung' (Alamgir).
A perceptive composer, who had his hand on the pulse of cine-goers, Nisar Bazmi was admired for his original compositions and the enduring impact they created on the listeners.
I first met the maestro at Radio Pakistan Lahore in 1981 when along with him and Master Inayat Husain I participated in an exercise aimed at short-listing numerous qawwal parties from a long and unmanageable list, which was given to us by the Regional Director of Radio Pakistan, Lahore.
During the course of listening the tapes, certain observations made by the late composer about the entire range of music impressed me much.
During our subsequent meetings I found in him a genuine composer of songs, who had the knack for assessing the basic needs of the scripts of different kinds of films and was cognisant of the moods and aspirations of the filmgoers, which he successfully and effectively reflected in his compositions.
During his long career, many compositions abundant evidence was available to the effect that Nisar Bazmi had the ability and skill to adopt both the eclectic as well as sophisticated styles of compositions.
Moreover, he displayed on a number of occasions in accordance with the demands of the scripts and situations in the films. In addition to composing scores of popular songs for the films, late Nisar Bazmi also showed his mettle when he was asked to invent tunes for patriotic songs aired by Pakistan Radio and Pakistan Television.
Furthermore, some of which like 'Yeh watan tumarah hai', 'Kheyal rakhna', 'Hum zinda qaum hain', and 'Aae rooh-e-Qauid' became more popularity than his hit film songs.
In the 1980s late composer went into exile not entirely on his own volition. It is known to many persons associated with film industry, especially the fraternity of musicians, that playback singer Noor Jehan took umbrage to an observation made by Nisar Bazami about the unsuitability of the range her voice for one of his compositions, which he wanted to record in the voice of another singer (Runa Laila?)
Annoyed by the 'audacity' of the composer, the reigning queen started a vilification campaign against Bazmi and allegedly goaded local musicians not to participate in the orchestra of the late composer. Disillusion and frustrated Bazmi not only said goodbye to his illustrious film career but also left Lahore to permanently settle in Karachi, where he died after 14 years.
The death of composer Nisar Bazmi has further impoverished the much- depleted melodic resources of Pakistan.
Although, for all practical purposes, he had disassociated himself from the world of entertainment for 14 years, one could still count on his abundant melodic resources and creative ingenuity when a need would arise at the national level.
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