The thing about the past is that it never comes back and yet never really leaves. Shamshad Begum for instance is a memory for those of us who grew up with her songs. She was born on April 14, 1919 and died on April 23, 2013. Though like many mascots of a certain era, she was remembered only when she passed away and it was time to pen a hurried tribute.
Her voice though cannot be forgotten. In a business, where it is tough for a woman to own her own voice in playback singing, Shamshad always sang like a bird perched on the highest branch of a flowering tree.
If Punjabi folk singer Surinder Kaur’s famous cry of daachi waleya was sweet and entreating, Shamshad’s rendition of the same melody reminded one of a plaintive koyal with a huuk (Kahe Koyal Shor Machaye Re). This voice had the texture of rough velvet, depth, lilt, honey, salt, pepper, silk and steel. She reminded you not of sound proof studios but golden fields swaying with the breeze, of monsoon clouds bursting open, of ocean surf and laughing brooks. She was the voice of abandon, joy, celebration, freedom, defiance and effortless strength.
And hers was the voice that became the song. Be it Kajra Mohabbatwala or Reshmi Salwar Kurta Jaali Ka or Teri Mehfil Mein Kismat Aazma or Leke Pehla Pehla Pyar. It was not about sur, this charisma. She was afterall untutored. It was simply that when Shamshad Begum sang, she knew no fear. And yet the dichotomy. The woman with the fearless voice clipped her cinematic ambitions and promised her father that she would never face the camera. Yet, hers was a life of choice rather than compromise. She married for love and continued to sing songs that many generations later would be remixed.
And even today, her voice brings it all back. The village fairs, the gaadiwala racing the sun, the dulhaniya about to join her beloved, the street singer, the folk dancer, the bar girl in Awara dancing to the tune of, Ek Do Teen..Aaja Mausam Hai Rangeen, the girl calling her piya in Rangoon, the majestic Nigar Sultana in Mughal-E-Azam who was willing to take her chances in life and love.
She took her chances too and ran away with them and whether we remembered her or not, she was always herself..the one and only, timelessly unique Shamshad Begum.