I remember listening to एक तेरा सहारा from Minerva Movietone's Shama (1946) first on dad's 78 r.p.m. disc and later on as we tuned in to Radio Ceylon, that venerable storehouse of our popular music. For a long time this was the oldest song by Shamshad Begum that I was familiar with, and Master Ghulam Haider was but a name that one often heard on the radio. I would delve sporadically into his work much later after having viewed Filmistan's Shaheed and paid attention to its great tracks.
Their story was quite commonplace, yet unique:a chance introduction to an established music director, a promise to her strict father that she would never face the motion picture camera and would sing only with her face covered by the traditional burqa. Quaint by today's standards, but for the rest of our mortal lives we will listen to her in awe as her voice transports us to a different era of film making and playback singing. One has no hesitation in saying that along with her peers Noor Jahan, Amirbai Karnataki , Zohrabai Ambalawali and Khursheed, Shamshad Begum represented a coterie of female singers that tried to instill the Hindustani gayiki patterns composers often demanded of them.
She sang for the Master a host of songs, from Khazanchi (1941) onwards to Humayun (1946) and others this writer knows very little about. Ergo, my special soft corner for the Shama number, notwithstanding its intrinsic merits. Master Ghulam Haider would move to Pakistan after the Partition (he would breathe his last in 1953) but she never forgot him. As late as 1971 at one of her rare public appearances Shamshad praised his work and named एक तेरा सहारा as one of the best songs of her career.....Despite the dramatic overtones as was the wont then, this is probably the song (penned jointly by Ehsan Rizvi and one Shamim) that our elders remember her by. Bear with it, it's beautifully sung. It was picturised on Mehtab, Mrs. Sohrab Modi and celluloid's Jhansi Ki Rani (1953).
If Master Ghulam Haider introduced Shamshad Begum to us listeners it was left largely to the late Naushad Ali to mould her and give shape to her career. One cannot talk about Shamshad and not bring him into the picture: each has given so much to the other. We heard her sing for him first in A.R. Kardar's Shahjahan in 1946 (jab usne gesu bikhraye and jawani ke damanko rangeen banale penned by Majrooh Sultanpuri, in his advent into films). Both songs became immensely popular for the subtle sensuality of the lyric, the exotic tuning (yes, Naushad-saab was not all just raaga!) and Shamshad's vibrant vocals. In the same year she went on to record a duet with Zorabai Ambalawali for Mehboob Khan's blockbuster Anmol Ghadi. Tanvir Naqvi's duet udan khatole pe ud jaoon, main tere haath na aoon emerged a classic Naushadian composition and the sequence would become the precursor for bachpan ke din bhula na dena the more iconic duet Shamshad would sing with Lata for Filmkar's Deedar (1951) directed by Nitin Bose, some five years later.
There was no stopping her after that. To say that Naushad-saab took her under his wing would be saying the least. From 1946 until the end of the decade and beyond he would mentor her, bring out the best in her. In 1947, she went on to record for Kardar's Dard the very moving chorus hum dard ka afsana duniya ko suna denge, har dilmein muhabbatki ek aag laga denge and yeh afsana nahin zalim mere dilki haqeeqat hai written by the eloquent Shakeel Badayuni in his debut as lyricist in films.
Move forward to 1948 a seminal year for Shamshad in which we saw her give of her best in two movies both heartbreakers, musically speaking: Mehboob Khan's Anokhi Ada and Wadia Movietone's Mela. In the first, Naushad teamed her with the then emerging Mukesh as also the already established Surendranath. Her duet with the former, bhool gaye kyun deke sahara, lootnewale chain hamara, especially, remains a landmark and a vital component in every private collection, while kyun unhein dil diya haye yeh kya kiya, shishe ko pattharse takra diya, with the latter is well remembered. She also sang two solos in the film: nazar mil gai, hai kiski nazarse picturized on Naseem Bano, Saira's mom and herself an accomplished singer. More captivating, however, is this other solo with its gentle longings....I know not what the cover of Mr. Premchand's fine book is doing here....it adds to my subject, though.
Mela, as a film directed by S.U. Sunny in his debut as director, moved audiences but very touching indeed were those songs picturized on the up and coming Dilip Kumar and Nargis. The immortal dharti ko aakash pukare was done both as a duet and as a solo that plays in Shamshad's voice as the credits roll at the top. The three other duets were mera dil todnewale mere dilki dua lena, main bhanwara tu hai phool yeh din mat bhool jawani laut ke aye naa, and this very eloquent composition in a rustic setting: the simplicity of an Indian village created by its music, and the fields swaying in the breeze after the rains!
She sang four solos for her mentor in Mela, pardes balam tum jaoge, taqdeer bani bankar bigdi, gham ka fasana kisko sunaein and mohan ki muraliya baaje, all of which have remained lingering classics.
As with Mukesh, so with Mohammad Rafi: Naushad paired Shamshad Begum this time with Rafi-saab in Kardar's Chandni Raat (1949) and we have three unspeakably delightful duets in their joint voices. All of them, chheen ke dil kyun pher leen aankhen, khabar kya thi ke gham khana padega and the maddeningly overpowering kaise baje dilka sitar, thes lagi toot gaye taar.....move their listeners even today...
1949 saw also the advent of Lata Mangeshkar in a very big way with Mehboob Khan's Andaz in which Naushad gave her two classic solos in uthaye jaa unke sitam and tod diya dil mera tune are bewafa. Shamshad herself ended up singing for Cuckoo in the duet, darna mohabbat karle, with Lata who sang for Nargis in that iconic film.
As though to make amends for this lapse in fortunes, along came 1950 and with it, S.U.Sunny's Babul. This film in which Dilip Kumar wooed (and lost) two lady loves, Munawwar Sultana and Nargis, boasted some of the best tracks that Naushad had heretofore created and Shamshad dominated in the rendering of them, whether in solo or duet, including the always stirring bidai number chhod babulka ghar mohe peeke nagar aaj jaana pada. Every track became a hit immersed as it was in rustic simplicity and charm. However, I have yet to be at an occasion among friends where there is not pin drop silence as the Latin-based tinkle of Naushad-saab's piano comes on, lead-in for the first of three Shamshad-Talat Mehmood duets in the film, milte hi aankhen dil hua diwana kisika, afsana mera ban gaya afsana kisika. It is always an expected cliche, as the song ends, for someone (including this guy!) to sigh "काश यह गाना मैंने गाया होता …" .
Something very ethereal about the joint voices dovetailing each other. This was, probably, the greatest singing lesson ever and Dilip and Munawwar could not not have been in love (or fallen into its pitfall!) as the song progressed. One of the 10 best all time duets indeed! Shakeel-saab outdid himself with this one. His हँसते ही न आजाएँ कहीं आंखोंमें आँसू , भरते ही छलक जाये न पैमाना किसीका......never fails to move no matter how many times one has listened to Talat and Shamshad articulate the line down the years.
One cannot ignore Shamshad's solo from the same film picturised on Nargis: the always tantalizing jadoo bhare nainomein dole jiya teri qasam. It deserves a harkback: some delightful vocals here, if not the imagery in the film which, inexplicably, carries a badly edited version . The '78' is more exhaustive.
Lata however, was gaining ground with the maestro and with Deedar (1951) she began to edge out Shamshad. She was clearly emerging Naushad's favourite. But the composer had fine numbers for Shamshad in this film and she gave voice to two of his best duets: one with Lata, the glorious bachpan ke din bhula na dena, and the other with G.M. Durrani (who was himself on the way out at that point), a delightful repartee between Nargis & Ashok Kumar, nazar phero na humse, hum hain tumpar marnewalon mein, hamara naam bhi likh do muhabbat karnewalon mein! But the piece-de-resistance was Shamshad's full-throated rendering of Shakeel's pensive chamanmein rehke viraana mera dil hota jata hai, khushimein aaj kal kuchh gham bhi shamil hota jata hai. Once again, Naushad's piano comes in at the top with a few isolated notes, as though giving time to the character to gather her thoughts before she breaks into song.
If for nothing else the film Jadoo (1951) will always be remembered for Naushad's pulsating music as also for Nalini Jaywant's vampish performance as the femme fatale. Based loosely on the Glenn Ford-Rita Hayworth starrer The Loves of Carmen (1948), the gypsy theme demanded a Latin base in tracks for at least two of the situations and Naushad once again proved his versatility by going off on a different tangent. In turn, Shamshad proved her own artistry in the two near-flamenco numbers the master composed for her viz. roop ki dushman papi duniya and...
And, an unspoken musical tradition taken for granted dictates that one never mentions Jadoo without mentioning Dulari (1951) and vice versa. Their tracks just go hand in hand. The latter was another tale involving the gypsies and a kidnapped child growing up amongst them, with Geeta Bali and Madhubala sharing stellar honours. It was another amorphous Kardar vehicle in which the Naushad-Shakeel tandem played a big role with at least two of their tracks rendered by Shamshad Begum. My personal favourite in the entire film....
It was with Sri Prakash Pictures' Baiju Bawra (1952) that Naushad began to shy away from Shamshad and come under Lata's spell (who didn't!). She sang the mukhda and the first antara in 'door koi gaye dhun yeh sunaye', a duet otherwise dominated by Lata, with Rafi's ho-ji-ho in the background. During that same year she sang a solo (aag lagi tan-manmein and main rani hoon raja ki), a 'holi' song (khelo rung hamare sung and a chorus with Lata (gao tarane manke) in Mehboob's ruritanian Aan, based to an extent on The Prisoner of Zenda. Dilip & Nadira, victor and vanquished: the looks say it all! Just listen to Naushad's rousing chorus and Shamshad's gay, sonorous singing....
There was also the touching bidai song pi ke ghar aaj pyari dulhaniya chali and the gay, rustic choruses of Mehboob's Mother India (1957), in which she made her presence felt one more time, along with the rarely-heard 'holi' lament. It is a pity that this 'personal other side' of the festival was never made into a disc. The qawwali in K. Asif's Mughal-e-Azam (1960) ended her association with her mentor.
*****
An Aside: It will always remain a muted complaint with me that Naushad did not give Shamshad Begum, allah bachaye navjavanonse that chorus from Mere Mehboob (1963). It was tailor-made for her, one would think, a suitably old-fashioned tarz. It would have made a fine swan song to their relationship. As for Shakeel's lyric.....I would have loved to hear Shamshad articulate soz-e-muhabbat kya hai itna na jane koi at the top of the final antara.
******
Long years ago, people, in 1962 to be exact I was at a movie house and a documentary was being shown before the main feature. A part of what I heard on the voiceover (could have been Zul Vellani, he was prominent in that period) has always stayed with me, verbatim. I had promised myself then that someday I would use those words in the right context.
I did several test papers at school in Hindi after that but never got a chance to use those words. The shot was that of a double decker tram turning into the B.E.S.T. depot at Dadar (Bombay) for the last time before it was withdrawn as a means of transport on the city's street. As the camera trailed behind it I heard the words "जाओ रानी याद करेंगे ......"
Now before any of my readers jumps down my throat for drawing a bad parallel, I must defend myself by saying that the humble tram that ran the streets of Bombay had a charm as nothing since. It was quaint and it was eloquent despite the racket it made. As it came down the Grant Road bridge in those early years, it actually lulled me to sleep on many a disturbed night as I listened in the dark! Often, I gladly missed my school bus home, for a chance to hitch a ride on that double decker #10 which plied between Mazgaon and Gowalia Tank in Bombay.
Perhaps I have not vindicated myself enough by saying this, but Shamshad Begum and her voice have held the same place within us as have so many other facets of the erstwhile Bombay that move us today, as we watch the occasional black and white classic. After all, what is film music if not a relating link between your heart and your ambiance! Our music directors borrowed sights and sounds from the streets of Bombay and other cities and coalesced them into the tracks on the 78s that we have treasured. Listening to a song on the radio in your living room and listening to the same song at the corner paanwala's stall creates individual moods of experience to be stored away.
R.I.P., बेगम साहिबा .
*****
Finally, due to the tremendous quality of Shamshad Begum's work with Naushad Ali I have devoted this first installment of my blog to what they did together. There were other composers that she sang for: my second installment will feature their output. Also, I am aware that for every song that I have mentioned in the preceding article, I have not given space to others which have been equally recognized in their time and are hummed even today. That would have stretched this writeup into infinity!
I need to acknowledge here one more time Shemaroo and others who regularly upload quality music on You Tube. If I have used them it is not for any monetary benefit but to keep alive, in my own way, the music we all love.
Move forward to 1948 a seminal year for Shamshad in which we saw her give of her best in two movies both heartbreakers, musically speaking: Mehboob Khan's Anokhi Ada and Wadia Movietone's Mela. In the first, Naushad teamed her with the then emerging Mukesh as also the already established Surendranath. Her duet with the former, bhool gaye kyun deke sahara, lootnewale chain hamara, especially, remains a landmark and a vital component in every private collection, while kyun unhein dil diya haye yeh kya kiya, shishe ko pattharse takra diya, with the latter is well remembered. She also sang two solos in the film: nazar mil gai, hai kiski nazarse picturized on Naseem Bano, Saira's mom and herself an accomplished singer. More captivating, however, is this other solo with its gentle longings....I know not what the cover of Mr. Premchand's fine book is doing here....it adds to my subject, though.
Mela, as a film directed by S.U. Sunny in his debut as director, moved audiences but very touching indeed were those songs picturized on the up and coming Dilip Kumar and Nargis. The immortal dharti ko aakash pukare was done both as a duet and as a solo that plays in Shamshad's voice as the credits roll at the top. The three other duets were mera dil todnewale mere dilki dua lena, main bhanwara tu hai phool yeh din mat bhool jawani laut ke aye naa, and this very eloquent composition in a rustic setting: the simplicity of an Indian village created by its music, and the fields swaying in the breeze after the rains!
She sang four solos for her mentor in Mela, pardes balam tum jaoge, taqdeer bani bankar bigdi, gham ka fasana kisko sunaein and mohan ki muraliya baaje, all of which have remained lingering classics.
As with Mukesh, so with Mohammad Rafi: Naushad paired Shamshad Begum this time with Rafi-saab in Kardar's Chandni Raat (1949) and we have three unspeakably delightful duets in their joint voices. All of them, chheen ke dil kyun pher leen aankhen, khabar kya thi ke gham khana padega and the maddeningly overpowering kaise baje dilka sitar, thes lagi toot gaye taar.....move their listeners even today...
1949 saw also the advent of Lata Mangeshkar in a very big way with Mehboob Khan's Andaz in which Naushad gave her two classic solos in uthaye jaa unke sitam and tod diya dil mera tune are bewafa. Shamshad herself ended up singing for Cuckoo in the duet, darna mohabbat karle, with Lata who sang for Nargis in that iconic film.
As though to make amends for this lapse in fortunes, along came 1950 and with it, S.U.Sunny's Babul. This film in which Dilip Kumar wooed (and lost) two lady loves, Munawwar Sultana and Nargis, boasted some of the best tracks that Naushad had heretofore created and Shamshad dominated in the rendering of them, whether in solo or duet, including the always stirring bidai number chhod babulka ghar mohe peeke nagar aaj jaana pada. Every track became a hit immersed as it was in rustic simplicity and charm. However, I have yet to be at an occasion among friends where there is not pin drop silence as the Latin-based tinkle of Naushad-saab's piano comes on, lead-in for the first of three Shamshad-Talat Mehmood duets in the film, milte hi aankhen dil hua diwana kisika, afsana mera ban gaya afsana kisika. It is always an expected cliche, as the song ends, for someone (including this guy!) to sigh "काश यह गाना मैंने गाया होता …" .
Something very ethereal about the joint voices dovetailing each other. This was, probably, the greatest singing lesson ever and Dilip and Munawwar could not not have been in love (or fallen into its pitfall!) as the song progressed. One of the 10 best all time duets indeed! Shakeel-saab outdid himself with this one. His हँसते ही न आजाएँ कहीं आंखोंमें आँसू , भरते ही छलक जाये न पैमाना किसीका......never fails to move no matter how many times one has listened to Talat and Shamshad articulate the line down the years.
One cannot ignore Shamshad's solo from the same film picturised on Nargis: the always tantalizing jadoo bhare nainomein dole jiya teri qasam. It deserves a harkback: some delightful vocals here, if not the imagery in the film which, inexplicably, carries a badly edited version . The '78' is more exhaustive.
Lata however, was gaining ground with the maestro and with Deedar (1951) she began to edge out Shamshad. She was clearly emerging Naushad's favourite. But the composer had fine numbers for Shamshad in this film and she gave voice to two of his best duets: one with Lata, the glorious bachpan ke din bhula na dena, and the other with G.M. Durrani (who was himself on the way out at that point), a delightful repartee between Nargis & Ashok Kumar, nazar phero na humse, hum hain tumpar marnewalon mein, hamara naam bhi likh do muhabbat karnewalon mein! But the piece-de-resistance was Shamshad's full-throated rendering of Shakeel's pensive chamanmein rehke viraana mera dil hota jata hai, khushimein aaj kal kuchh gham bhi shamil hota jata hai. Once again, Naushad's piano comes in at the top with a few isolated notes, as though giving time to the character to gather her thoughts before she breaks into song.
If for nothing else the film Jadoo (1951) will always be remembered for Naushad's pulsating music as also for Nalini Jaywant's vampish performance as the femme fatale. Based loosely on the Glenn Ford-Rita Hayworth starrer The Loves of Carmen (1948), the gypsy theme demanded a Latin base in tracks for at least two of the situations and Naushad once again proved his versatility by going off on a different tangent. In turn, Shamshad proved her own artistry in the two near-flamenco numbers the master composed for her viz. roop ki dushman papi duniya and...
And, an unspoken musical tradition taken for granted dictates that one never mentions Jadoo without mentioning Dulari (1951) and vice versa. Their tracks just go hand in hand. The latter was another tale involving the gypsies and a kidnapped child growing up amongst them, with Geeta Bali and Madhubala sharing stellar honours. It was another amorphous Kardar vehicle in which the Naushad-Shakeel tandem played a big role with at least two of their tracks rendered by Shamshad Begum. My personal favourite in the entire film....
It was with Sri Prakash Pictures' Baiju Bawra (1952) that Naushad began to shy away from Shamshad and come under Lata's spell (who didn't!). She sang the mukhda and the first antara in 'door koi gaye dhun yeh sunaye', a duet otherwise dominated by Lata, with Rafi's ho-ji-ho in the background. During that same year she sang a solo (aag lagi tan-manmein and main rani hoon raja ki), a 'holi' song (khelo rung hamare sung and a chorus with Lata (gao tarane manke) in Mehboob's ruritanian Aan, based to an extent on The Prisoner of Zenda. Dilip & Nadira, victor and vanquished: the looks say it all! Just listen to Naushad's rousing chorus and Shamshad's gay, sonorous singing....
There was also the touching bidai song pi ke ghar aaj pyari dulhaniya chali and the gay, rustic choruses of Mehboob's Mother India (1957), in which she made her presence felt one more time, along with the rarely-heard 'holi' lament. It is a pity that this 'personal other side' of the festival was never made into a disc. The qawwali in K. Asif's Mughal-e-Azam (1960) ended her association with her mentor.
*****
An Aside: It will always remain a muted complaint with me that Naushad did not give Shamshad Begum, allah bachaye navjavanonse that chorus from Mere Mehboob (1963). It was tailor-made for her, one would think, a suitably old-fashioned tarz. It would have made a fine swan song to their relationship. As for Shakeel's lyric.....I would have loved to hear Shamshad articulate soz-e-muhabbat kya hai itna na jane koi at the top of the final antara.
******
Long years ago, people, in 1962 to be exact I was at a movie house and a documentary was being shown before the main feature. A part of what I heard on the voiceover (could have been Zul Vellani, he was prominent in that period) has always stayed with me, verbatim. I had promised myself then that someday I would use those words in the right context.
I did several test papers at school in Hindi after that but never got a chance to use those words. The shot was that of a double decker tram turning into the B.E.S.T. depot at Dadar (Bombay) for the last time before it was withdrawn as a means of transport on the city's street. As the camera trailed behind it I heard the words "जाओ रानी याद करेंगे ......"
Now before any of my readers jumps down my throat for drawing a bad parallel, I must defend myself by saying that the humble tram that ran the streets of Bombay had a charm as nothing since. It was quaint and it was eloquent despite the racket it made. As it came down the Grant Road bridge in those early years, it actually lulled me to sleep on many a disturbed night as I listened in the dark! Often, I gladly missed my school bus home, for a chance to hitch a ride on that double decker #10 which plied between Mazgaon and Gowalia Tank in Bombay.
Perhaps I have not vindicated myself enough by saying this, but Shamshad Begum and her voice have held the same place within us as have so many other facets of the erstwhile Bombay that move us today, as we watch the occasional black and white classic. After all, what is film music if not a relating link between your heart and your ambiance! Our music directors borrowed sights and sounds from the streets of Bombay and other cities and coalesced them into the tracks on the 78s that we have treasured. Listening to a song on the radio in your living room and listening to the same song at the corner paanwala's stall creates individual moods of experience to be stored away.
R.I.P., बेगम साहिबा .
*****
Finally, due to the tremendous quality of Shamshad Begum's work with Naushad Ali I have devoted this first installment of my blog to what they did together. There were other composers that she sang for: my second installment will feature their output. Also, I am aware that for every song that I have mentioned in the preceding article, I have not given space to others which have been equally recognized in their time and are hummed even today. That would have stretched this writeup into infinity!
I need to acknowledge here one more time Shemaroo and others who regularly upload quality music on You Tube. If I have used them it is not for any monetary benefit but to keep alive, in my own way, the music we all love.
Part II - Shamshad Begum (Contd:)
ReplyDeleteMusic composers of the Lahore Brigade, who all had landed plum assignments with various studios in Bombay, were chief patrons of Shamshad during her early career in the city but by mid 40s, the established ones from other studios too found her voice and her versatility too good to resist. Naushad was among the first of those and gave Shamshad a couple of bubbly songs in Shahjehan. The rest, Khemchand Prakash, S.D.Burman, Gyan Dutt and Bulo C. Rani followed soon. Even Anil Biswas, who was not particularly enamoured of her voice in the beginning, eventually couldn't keep her away and gave her a string of pearls in Veena in 1948; जवानी न आती न दिल हम लगाते, पंछी और परदेसी दोनों नहीं किसी के मीत, ओ निर्मोही बंसी वाले and यही था अगर वादा from this movie can be counted among Shamshad's best. Your compilation of her songs under the batons of various music directors is so comprehensive that there is not much left for me to add except to point out that there were several hidden gems in her early career that somehow didn't receive the recognition, they richly deserved. हुस्न की ये मेहरबानी फिर कहाँ (Pagli), तुम किस लिए आते नहीं क्या हम तुम्हे भाते नहीं (Bairam Khan), नैना भर आये नीर (Humayun) and झलक दिखाकर छुपी चांदनी (Poonji), were all memorable compositions, many of them by her mentor Ghulam Haider, which are not heard anymore. Its a pity that whenever there is a mention of इन्ही लोगों ने ले लीना दुपट्टा मेरा, people can only recall Lata's rendering in Pakeezah and the original composed by Pandit Gobindram and sung by Shamshad in Himmat (1941) doesn't find any mention.
As mentioned earlier, her versatility was amazing and in my programme in Muscat, I covered several facets of Shamshad's singing that included her bidaai geet हमारे अंगना बाजे शहनाई (Shehnai), चली पी को मिलन (Ziddi - my personal favourite), apart from the well known छोड़ बाबुल का घर and पी के घर आज प्यारी दुल्हनिया चली, her fast paced dance numbers that she sang specially for Cuckoo, पी आये आकर चल भी दिए (Bazaar), बोगी बोगी बोगी यों यों यों (Humlog) and of course, एक दो तीन आजा मौसम है रंगीन, her peppy numbers from Chandni Chowk (कभी चार बजे कभी पांच बजे) and Rail Ka Dibba (ला दे मोहे बालमा आसमानी चूड़ियाँ), her immortal comedy duets with Chitalkar (आना मेरी जान Sunday के Sunday, मेरे पिया गए रंगून, ओ दिल वालो दिल का लगान, तबीयत साफ़ हो गयी), songs picturised upon male actors enacting female role on the screen (चली चली कैसी हवा ये चली and कजरा मोहब्बत वाला), her melancholy wistful singing (चमन में रह के वीराना, काहे जादू किया मुझको इतना बता and न तुम आये न नींद आई), in addition to her romantic solos and duets, many of which have been vividly described in your article. It is this versatility that ensured that while all the female singers of the pre-Lata, Geeta, Asha era completely faded away by early 50s, only Shamshad could withstand the challenge of this trio of hugely talented crooners, and created a space for herself which she continued to occupy till the end of the decade.
There is no doubt in my mind that Shamshad's position among the premier female playback singers will remain unchallenged forever. Whenever the connoisseurs of the vintage era will assemble to listen to songs of that golden period, there will always be a fair sprinkling of the songs sung by Shamshad. Among them will be several of her numbers that were highlighted in your blog article on her and in my response here. I can visualise that at such a gathering you will be eager to present S. D. Burman's immortal composition जाम थाम ले सोचते ही सोचते न बीते सारी रात from Shahenshah and I will be equally eager to return the compliment with Sajjad Hussain's immortal tune वो आयेंगे वो आयेंगे, सुना है वो आयेंगे from Khel and both of us will end up applauding each other's Shamshad selection, वाह वाह, वाह वाह, क्या बात है.
Ameen
Pradeep