However, she did continue singing till mid 70вЂ™s but not regularly. She could not perhaps came out of that shock and slowly drifted away of her active career in films. Ramchandra composed first westernized song of Hindi Film Music, Aana Meri Jaan Sunday ke Sunday for the film Albela (1951), it was Shamshad Begum who had the privilege this duet with Anna himself.ДЄs it is said, every rising sun sets, career of Shamshad Begum also slowly too a down turn after sudden passing of her husband in 1955. While Shamshad Begum did playback with almost all top male playback singers of her time such as G.M.Durrani, Khan Mastana, Talat Mehmood etc., she also sang with then newcomers like Mukesh, Kishore Kumar, Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar.

When we used to record duet of Lata and Shamshad, we kept Lata few inches away from microphone and Shamshad few feet away. One can imagine how loving her father would be to send his daughter to sing for films from Lahore to Bombay in 1942-43. He convinced her father to come to Bombay and sing for his film Taqdeer (1943). However the real credit of getting her to Bombay and sing for hindi films goes to Mehboob Khan. Shamshad Begum remained grateful to him all her life. Her singing skills were honed by Master Ghulam Haider who took her first audition in Lahore based music company Jenaphone.

It was her uncle who encouraged her to pursue singing knowing her gifted talent. Story of Shamshad Begum getting into singing was no different than any other conservative muslim household in pre-independence era. Even Mohammad Rafi also was from the same school of singing. This open throat singing paved way for high scale playback singing which Mangeshkar Sisters popularized. Perhaps that was the reason singers like Zohrabai Ambalewali and Shamshad Begum had such buland awaaz or open throat. Legendary music director Naushad once remarked that in Punjabi culture, singers were trained in open voice and high pitch. Had Shamshad Begum followed the practices of profession in film industry, perhaps the titles and equations of playback singing would have been written differently than they are today. Amarnath, Ghulam Haidar, Husnalal Bhagatram, Naushad, S.D.Burman etc and who was a top playback singer of her time, stayed almost out of limelight in her career. Otherwise how could it happen that a singer who worked with the top composers of 30вЂ™s and 40вЂ™s like Pt. as Kabir said was the motto she followed all her life.

Best of shamshad begum songs