The great Kafi singer Zahida Parveen was born in Amritsar, Punjab, British India in 1925. Critics say that she was a ‘Peerni’ (saintly figure) by caste and not a ‘tawaif’ (red light area) singer. Her parents died at an early stage. She was raised by one of the two elder sisters namely Peeran Ditti (gift of Saints). Zahida Parveen was of short height and she was a dark complexioned lady. Because of these physical traits she was often referred to as the black nightingale; the latter title because of her expert singing. Initially she became a pupil of sarangi player Baba Taj from Kapurthalla on the recommendation of her elder sister. Then she came under the umbrella of Hussain Bakhsh Khan sarangi player from Amritsar. Her vocal chords had God-gifted quality to render with ease the most difficult ‘Taans” (faster embellishments) and ‘Meends’ (touching notes with a camber); an art she developed after long hours of ‘Riaz’ (practice). This is the reason that whenever difficult ‘Taans’ were needed to be rendered which was out of reach of an ordinary playback singer, Zahida was called to do that task in film songs.
Music composer BA Chishti recorded a qawwali released on two sides of a gramophone record for the film ‘Mundri’ along with Munawar Sultana, Iqbal Begum Lahore Wali and Iqbal Bano. She was also picked by Baba Ji for singing in the films ‘Pattan’, ‘Dulla Bhatti’, ‘Morni’ and ‘Yakke Waali’. In all these songs, she rendered the difficult portions. Prior to these recordings, she had already become a disciple of Ustad Ashiq Hussain of Patiala Gharana in 1948 in Lahore. She had started singing at Radio Pakistan. Her gramophone record for His Masters Voice (HMV) with the Kafi “Kya Haal Sunawan Dil Da” on one side and “Maindi Ajj Kal Akh Phurkaandi Aei” on the other became a hit. By now, she was considered as an expert in singing kafis of Khawaja Ghulam Fareed. This was a beginning to no end. Subsequently she recorded many more Kafis in Punjabi, Saraiki and Sindhi for HMV, radio and stage.
Apart from singing in Kheyal and thumri formats of classical vocalisation, Zahida was also superb in singing light classical music forms like geets and ghazals. Although the film ‘Begunah’ is famous for Naseem Begum’s entry through the song “Naino May Jal Bhar Aei”, a memorable classical duet “Kaisi Raat Rageeli Aai” by Zahida and Naseem Begum is a memorable composition. The same year, music composer Rasheed Attre used this duo for a song “Ab Tou Ji Bhar Ke Khanjar Chalaenge Hum” composed in Raag Darbari for the film ‘Jan-e-Bahar’. Both crooners seem to be on the top of crooning the difficult ‘Murkis’ with ease. Rasheed Attre had also recorded a song “Nain Se Nain Milae Rakhoni Ko” in the same raag for the film ‘Waada’ in the voice of Zahida and Ustad Fateh Ali Khan. This movie was mega hit venture mainly because of its music. In August 1958, director Riaz Ahmad’s movie ‘Darbaar’ with music by Rehman Verma was released with a classical music based song “Meri Preet Bari Anmol Sakhi” in Zahida’s voice in which various ‘Taans’ beautified this song. Another long forgotten song is “Razi Rehna O Sada Raazi Rehna” from Aslam Irani’s film ‘Bacha Jamoora’ with music by Rafiq Ali. In this song Zahida’s ‘Taans’ in the middle and in the end surprised many listeners. Another qawwali “Hum Ne Saudai Daikhe Hain” has difficult portions rendered by Zahida along with Zeenat Begum and Qadir Faridi in the latter’s music. This song was from an unreleased film ‘Rahi’ penned by Radio Pakistan’s voice Ishrat Rehmani.
Zahida’s minimal repertoire in films was because of the fact that she was over busy singing for radio and gramophone companies. Also she was least bothered to contact music composers of film industry. The other movies with her songs were ‘Anokhi Dastaan’, ‘Billo’, ‘Shehri Babu’, ‘Barkha’, ‘Baap Ka Baap’ and ‘Dil Ke Tukre’.
Zahida was also very particular about getting her daughter trained in a similar style. She made her a disciple of Ustad Akhtar Hussain Khan. In an interview, Shahida Parween agreed with the observation that where her music culminated, her mother’s started. Zahida died in 1975. Shahida also passed away on March 13, 2003 at 50 years age. I have had the privilege of singing many songs and classical recitals together with Shahida for radio and PTV.
Published in Daily Times, June 23rd, 2017.