Johnson Cherian.
Saturday’s Google Doodle, a vivid portrait of the ‘Queen of Ghazals” Begum Akhtar, celebrates her 103rd birth anniversary.
The singer, who passed away in 1974, was born in Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh in 1914, and was known for most her of singing career as Akhtari Bai Faizabadi, Kuldeep Kumar wrote in The Hindu. “She truly represented the refined composite culture of Faizabad that abuts the Hindu holy town of Ayodhya,” he wrote.
Akhtar was not only famous for her ghazals, but also for her proficiency in the dadra and thumri forms of classical music. Some of her famous ghazals include, Aye mohabbat tere anjaam pe rona aaya, Mere humnafas mere humnawa, Ghalib’s Dil hi toh hai na sang-o- kisht, Mir Taqi Mir’s Ulati ho gayi sabtadbeerein and Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s Aaye kuchh abr kuch sharaab aaye.
Apart from her singing, Akhtar also acted in several films, the most notable being Satyajit Ray’s Jalsaghar. She has received several awards, including the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for vocal music and, posthumously, the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan.
Veteran vocalist Shanti Hiranand, one of Akhtar’s famous disciples and a Padma Shri awardee herself says about the legend – “from the time Begum Akhtar came into my life, it was as if the truth of life began to appear to me, rather than the (mere) philosophy. It became majaazi (natural). This was her gift. I did not know where I am, what I am singing, how to sing, how to approach the music, which genre to go into. But I experienced this great attraction, and I just followed her, step by step. I never looked back. I became what she made of me.”
The singer was buried in her home Pasanda Bagh in Lucknow. Once thought lost to encroachers, Akhtar’s grave was restored in 2014, the centenary of her birth.
