ISBN 978-81-925489-2-0 - ramniranjan jhunjhunwala college

But for her conservative father putting his foot down and threatening to even end her singing, the young
woman might have even become a film star. When he refused to send her from Lahore to Bombay to sing for
Mehboob Khan’s Taqdeer, the veteran director went to her house and ticked off the father: “You’ve made
her a frog in a pond. Throw her into the ocean and she’ll learn to swim.”
The Golden Age of Indian Cinema
In 1950s Indian film industry positioned itself as a form of art. This period is rightly called the golden age of
Indian films (Wadhwani 14). As India is versatile country with a number of languages spoken, hence, films
were produced in major languages. Legendary singer, Shamshad Begum ji was the dominating singer in the
1940s and is one of the few artists today who were singing even in the 1930s. Her style of singing was
unique and was loved by millions all over the world. Her major output was in the forties with the mid-fifties
seeing a gradual decline in output. Her singing career started tapering off in mid-fifties with her singing her
last song probably around 1971 although some songs continued to release as late as 1981. She has been away
from the media/public arena since seventies.
On the male side, there was only one - unparalleled Saigal. On the female side, there were many voices -
Noor Jehan, Shamshad Begum, Kanan Devi, Suraiyya, AmirbaiKarnataki, Khursheed, Rajkumari and
ZohrabaiAmbalewali. For some reason, Noor Jehan's singing (except for a few songs) did not make a
significant impact on me.
Two voices which struck me most were those of Shamshad Begum and KananDevi.Shamshad Begum's voice
was relatively heavy but it had an inherent extreme sweetness about it. Her style of singing was unique and
no one has ever been able to clone her. She clarified that she stuck to her principle of following the music
director's instructions rather than attempting to develop her own “style”.
Objectives of research
To study how Ms. Begum began her singing career.
To study the trend of her music era.
To understand what made her bows out from music politics?
To inculcate awareness of the legendary singer in today’s youth their importance and their contribution to the
society.
Research methodology
Primary survey of 100 samples with the age group of 15 years to 25 years was collected through questioner
which was the tool for collecting the data.
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