Noorjehan was a star much before the advent of Lata Mangeshkar. Her voice had a timbre that was strong and yet managedd elicate murkis.
She made a debut as a child singer when she was just seven. At 14 she turned to acting. Khandaan (1942) became a hit, and she migrated to Bombay, the mecca of film production in the sub-continent. She soon married Shaukat Hussain Rizvi, the director of Khandaan.
She sang a popular qawwali in Zeenat, but her real big hit was Mehboob Khan’s blockbuster Anmol Ghadi (1946). This film features songs like Aawaz de kahan hai and Jawan hai mohabbat, set to music by Naushad. She was to sing the first of these songs when she visited India four decades later.
Melody Queen of yesteryears, Noorjehan enthralled the cinegoers with her mellifluous voice for over six decades. She was known as the ’Mallika-e-Tarannum’ in the Indian subcontinent Noorjehan also made her mark as an accomplished actress.
Born in the Kasur area of undivided Punjab, Noorjehan was fascinated by singing from her very childhood. She started her career as child singer at the age of five years. She perfected classical singing under Ghulam Mohammed Khan however it was Ghulam Haider who taught her the nuances of film singing.
She entered films as a child artiste in small roles before being seen prominently in the Punjabi film, "Gul-e-Bakavali" (1939). She was noticed in a big way in "Khandaan" in 1942 where her song ’Tu kaunsi badli mein mere chand hai aajaa’ became a hit. This was also her first film as a heroine in Lahore.
Noorjehan shifted to Mumbai around this time and soon established herself as a singing star. Her lucious voice coupled with a vibrant personality ensured her a rightful place in Hindi cinema’s hall of fame. She worked in "Lal Haveli"; "Humjoli"; "Badi Maa"; "Mirza Saheba"; "Anmol Ghadi"; "Dost"; "Dil"; "Zeenat"; "Gaon ki Gori"; "Bhaijan" and "Nadaan".
Noorjehan’s melodious voice to Naushad’s compositions in "Anmol Ghadi" like the immortal, ’Awaz De Kahan Hai’ ’Jawan Hai Mohabbat Haseen Hai Zamana’; ’Mere bachpan ke sathi mujhe bhool na jaana’ and ’Aaja meri barbad mohabbat ke’ have kept these songs fresh in the memory of discerning audiences. Her songs from "Gaon ki Gori", ’Bulbule Mat ro yahan’ and ’Umange dil ki dhadkan’ from "Jugnoo" also became popular. These were composed by Mir Saab and Feroze Nizam respectively. Noorjehan gave film music a new singing style that was dramatically different from the ’heavy voices’ of the day like Zohrabai Ambalewali and Amirbai Karnatki.
After partition in 1947, Noorjehan migrated to Pakistan and started her career afresh in Lahore. There, she acted in a number of films including, "Dupatta"; "Gulnaar"; "Chanway"; "Lakhte-e-Jigar"; "Intezar"; "Nooran"; "Chhoo-Manter"; "Neenad"; "Anarkali"; "Koel"; "Pardesan" and "Ghalib". She had the credit of being Pakistan’s first woman film director. She directed ’Chanway’ in 1951.
The country broke up in 1947, and Noorjehan chose to migrate to Pakistan. That year, her film with Dilip Kumar, Jugnu, became a super hit. She had been in competition with Suraiya, another actress who could sing beautifully.
In Pakistan, she started acting again, and became that country’s first woman director when she made Chan We. It was produced by her husband Rizvi. Sometime later, Noorjehan divorced him and married a 25-year-old actor, Ejaz Hussain. Her second marriage marked the end of her acting career, but she continued singing till the ’70s.
General Musharraf visited her house in February, 2000 to enquire about her health. Noorjehan is survived by a son and four daughters from her two marriages.
Later she abandoned acting and concentrated on singing. She had sung around 20, 000 songs in Punjabi, Urdu and Hindustani films in India and Pakistan. Of late, she had been leading a retired life.
This legendary singer passed away in Karachi on December 23, 2000. She was 75.