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By Zulqarnain Shahid - The Magazine MAG Pakistan, Karachi, Filmography and Memorable song list provided by Ummer Siddique
The hallmark of the musicians of early period in our cinema is their adaptability to all situations and all sorts of songs in the film. In this context, one must talk of one very gifted music director, A. Hameed. From a classic sixties music of Saheli to the modem-day rendition of club songs in Hasan Tariq's three beautiful movies, Mazi HaaI Mustaqbil, Seeta Maryam Margaret and Begum Jan, he proved himself capable of all the moods. A. Hameed was a brilliant tunesmith, who was chiselled in the furnace by the masters of their time. He began in the fifties and continued well into the eighties, which shows how versatile and talented he was. Even with new prodigies like Kamal Ahmed and Amjad Bobby coming into the fold, the demand for his kind of music did not end in the early eighties. The best proof of that fact is that Kamal precisely started off from where A. Hameed left off! Yes, if you analyze Kamal Ahmed's music, you'll find many similarities to A. Hameed. Kamal also began with classical musical values, with hit songs like Ga morey manwa gata ja ret, champa aur chambeli and Hum ne jo dekhe khwab tumharey, and went on to make brilliant club songs in the later years of his career. The only difference is that when A. Hameed came along, even a typical Evernew musician used to hear all sorts of music, right from Frank Sinatra to Kundan Lal Sehgal, from Bing Crossby to Naushad and Jhandey Khan, from Jazz and Old man river to Mohey chorr gaey balam and Chahey koee ghul machaey gaijyan hazaaar day, etc. So, the range of the new musician in the fifties was much vaster than the range that our musicians of the 2000s could boast of.
Hameed began his career from Jaffar Shah Bukhari's film, Anjam, in 1957. He had just wandered into Lollywood, and was fortunate he was noticed by such a stalwart of the cinema. Bukhari Sahab found him sufficiently convincing to give him another of his film, Bharosa, which was screened in 1958, and which gave us that unparalleled master of script and dialogues, called Riaz Shahid. With the commercial success of Bharosa, A. Hameed was able to stand on his own two feet. Bukhari Sahab then made him pet music man, and gave him another flick, Faisla, where A. Hameed was able to compose tunes for such incomparable voice as of lqbal Bano, one of them being Cha!ey jaee ho bedardi main roey mare hoon.
But, Hameed's true triumph, which registered his name for all times to come in the industry, was the screening of S. M. Yusuf's two golden movies, Raat Kai Rahi and Saheli. Who can forget the hit songs of Raat Kai Rahi, probably one of the most intriguing early detective films. It had such hits as Haey kiss se nazar takra gaee, Aag se na khelo babujee, Ae badlon ke rahi, Kya hua dil pe sitam, etc. You could say it was the geetmala of the Rushdi-Zubaida Khanum duets. In Saheli, on the other hand, it was classic film music of the sixties, which is the all-time favorite of Lata Mangeshkar. Its most popular song was, of course, Naseem Begum's biggest hit, Hum bhool gayey har baat magar tera pyar naheen bhoolay. Those days, films were largely constructed around homely issues, and A. Hameed, literally, reached the apex of typical `family' melodies. Other songs from this film were Hum ne jo phool chuney dil mein chubhey jatey hain, Mukhrre pe sehra daley aa ja o aaneywaley and of course, that eternal sad duet by Saleem Raza and Naseem Begum, Kaheen do dil jo mil jatey. It is interesting to note that in this classy geetrnala, Madam Noor Jahan was conspicuous by her absence. Naseem Begum, Kausar Parveen, and Saleem Raza have sung most songs.
From this day onwards, A. Hameed himself became a fan of Naseem Begum, and gave her priority over any other female singer. He again gave her exemplary hits in Aulad, with songs like Tum milay pyar mila (with Munir Hussain), Naam le le ke tera hum to jiyay jaeinge and that beautiful song for women, Tum quom kee maa ho socha zara/ Aurat se hamein yeh kehna hai! Do you hear such beautiful and meaningful numbers anywhere today? It's a sad reflection on our music today.
Soon, S. M. Yusuf made another big hit, titled Aashiana, which had all its songs romantic hits of the time, of course, including Oho barrey sangdil ho/ barrey na samaj ho/ tumhein pyar karma sikhana parrega. Other hits from this film are Dekha jo unhein dil ne/ Chupke se kaha haey and Ja re bedardi too ne kaheen ka hamein na chorra. A. Hameed breathed his last in the mid-nineties, with his last few movies being Naya Andaz (De rahee hai maza berukhi aap kee and Zidd na kar iss qadar jaan-e-jaan), Mazi Haal Mustaqbil(Zindagi too ne har qadam pe mujhe aik sapna naya dikhaya hai), Sangdil (Yeh aap kee mehfil hai) and Love In London (Gulon pe rang aa gaya).
Filmography
(as music director)
Memorable Songs
Aag sai na khelo babuji - Zubaida Khanum - Raat Kai Rahi
Hum nai jo phool chuney - Naseem Begum & chorus - Saheli
Kahin do dil - Naseem Begum, Salim Raza - Saheli
Tum quom ki maa ho socho zara - Naseem Begum - Aulad
Oho barrey sangdil ho - Mala, Ahmed Rushdi - Aashiana
O re sanam tumko kaisey - Noor Jehan - Tauba
Meri gurrya ka hai jalwa - Ahmed Rushdi - Eid Mubarak
Nawazish karam shukriya meherbani - Mehdi Hassan - Main Woh Nahin
Chitthi jara saiyyan jee ke naam - Noor Jehan - Dosti
Zulm rahey aur aman bhi ho - Mehdi Hassan - Yeh Aman
Kis naam sai pukaroun - Noor Jehan - Gharnata
Kal bhi tumsai pyar tha - Masood Rana, Runa Laila - Khuwab Aur Zindagi
Tauba tuba tauba is larkey ko - Mala - Shikar
Hazaar baar mana kiya meri gali - Samar Iqbal - Izzat
Likh di humnai aaj ki shaam - Nahid Akhtar - Nek Parveen
Tha yaqeen ke aaein gee yeh raatan - Nahid Akhtar - Suraiya Bhopali
Kahey baithey ho - Mehnaz, Nahid Akhtar & chorus - Suraiya Bhopali
Ae dost teri aankh jo num hai - Ghulam Abbas - Begum Jaan
Garam gulabi shaam hai - Nahid Akhtar - Bharosa
Mere dil sai zindagi bhar - Mehdi Hassan - Dil Ke Dagh
To meray pyar ka geet hai - Mehdi Hassan - Awaaz
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1957
Anjaam (U) Pa
1958
Bharosa (U) Pa
1959
Faisla (U) Pa
1960
Saheli (U) Pa, Raat Kai Rahi (U) Pa
1962
Aulad (U) Pa
1963
Nateeja (U) Pa
1964
Tauba (U) Pa, Paigham (U) Pa, Aashiana (U) Pa
1965
Sanam (U) Pa, Eid Mubarak (U) Pa
1966
Ghar Ki Laaj (U) Pa, Haunehar (U) Pa
1967
Main Woh Nahin (U) Pa, Suhagan (U) Pa
1968
Behan Bhai (U) Pa, Shareek-e-Hayat (U) Pa, Dil Diya Dard Liya (U) Pa
1969
Door Ki Awaaz (U) Pa, Bahu Rani (U) Pa
1970
Gul Bakawali (P) Pa
1971
Dosti (U) Pa, Gharnata (U) Pa, Wehshi (U) Pa
1972
Punno Di Sassi (P) Pa, Zindagi Aik Safar Hai (U) Pa, Angaarey (U) Pa
1973
Aan (P) Pa, Khuwab Aur Zindagi (U) Pa, Zakhmi (U) Pa, Nadya Kai Paar (U) Pa
1974
Samaaj (U) Pa, Lottery (P) Pa, Shikaar (U) Pa, Jawab Do (U) Pa, Teray Jahay Putt Jamman Mawan (P) Pa, Haqeeqat (U) Pa, Bahisht (U) Pa [with Rashid Attre]
1975
Izzat (U) Pa, Muashra (U) Pa, Professor (U) Pa, Haiwan (U) Pa, Naik Parveen (U) Pa
1976
Sohni Mahiwal (P) Pa, Suraiya Bhopali (U) Pa, Shera Te Bubra (P) Pa, Zaroorat (U) Pa
1977
Begum Jaan (U) Pa, Bharosa (U) Pa, Kalu (U) Pa
1978
Dil Kai Daagh (U) Pa [with M. Ashraf]