Jaddan Bai

Jaddanbai Hussain (1 April 1892 – 8 April 1949; known professionally as Jaddanbai) was an Indian singer, music composer, dancer, actress, filmmaker, and one of the pioneers of Indian cinema. She along with Bibbo and Saraswati Devi were one of the first female music composers in Indian cinema. She was the mother of Akhtar Hussain, Anwar Hussain, and the well-known Hindi actress Nargis, and maternal grandmother of Priya Dutt and Sanjay Dutt.

Early life and career

Jaddanbai was born around 1892 to Mia Jaan and Daleepabai in a Punjabi family. Miyan Jaan died when she was five. Jaddanbai moved to the city and became a singer but had difficulty due to her lack of formal training. She later approached Shrimant Ganpat Rao (Bhaiya Saheb Scindia) of Calcutta and became his student. Shrimant Ganpat Rao died in 1920 while she was still a student, so she completed her training under Ustad Moinuddin Khan. Later she also trained with Ustad Chaddu Khan Saheb and Ustad Laab Khan Saheb.

Her music became popular and she became an even more famous tawaif than her mother. She began recording ghazals with the Columbia Gramophone Company. She started participating in music sessions and was invited by the rulers of many princely states such as Rampur, Bikaner, Gwalior, Jammu and Kashmir, Indore, and Jodhpur to perform mehfils. She had also rendered songs and ghazals at various radio stations nationwide.

She later began acting when the Play Art Photo Tone Company of Lahore approached her for a role in their movie ''Raja Gopichand'' in 1933. She played the role of the mother of the title character. Later she worked for a Karachi based film company, in ''Insaan ya Shaitan''.

She worked in two more movies, ''Prem Pariksha'' and ''Seva Sadan'', before starting her own production company called Sangeet Films. The company produced '' Talashe Haq'' in 1935, in which she acted and composed the music. She also introduced her daughter Nargis as a child artist. In 1936 she acted in, directed, and wrote the music for ''Madam Fashion'', in which she introduced Suraiya.

Personal life

Her first marriage was to a wealthy Gujarati Hindu businessman Narottamdas Khatri ("Bachhubhai" or "Bachi Babu"). Khatri converted to Islam upon marriage and together they had a son, Akhtar Hussain.

Her second marriage was to harmonium master Ustaad Irshad Meer Khan, a frequent collaborator, with whom she had her second son, actor Anwar Hussain.

Her third marriage was to Mohanchand Uttamchand ("Mohan Babu"), a wealthy Brahmin from Rawalpindi who converted to Islam and adopted the name Abdul Rashid. Film actress Nargis (née Fatima Rashid) was their daughter.

Despite being a nominal Muslim and her husband formally converting to Islam, Jaddanbai and her family practiced aspects of Hinduism, fluctuating between a Hindu and Muslim identity. Jaddanbai was sometimes known by the alias "Jayadevi," a Hindu name, even in some official documents. She is the mother-in-law of Sunil Dutt and maternal grandmother of Priya and Sanjay Dutt.

Filmography (as director)

* ''Madam Fashion'' (1936)
* ''Hriday Manthan'' (1936)
* ''Moti Ka Haar'' (1937)
* '' Jeevan Swapna'' (1937)

See also

* Tawaif
* Nautch

References

External links

*

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1892 births
1949 deaths
Neighbourhoods in Prayagraj
Indian women classical singers
Indian film actresses
Indian women film producers
Film producers from Uttar Pradesh
Artists from Varanasi
Hindi film score composers
20th-century Indian composers
20th-century Indian actresses
20th-century Indian women singers
Women musicians from Uttar Pradesh
20th-century Indian singers
Actresses from Varanasi
Musicians from Varanasi
Indian women playback singers
Businesswomen from Uttar Pradesh
20th-century Indian businesswomen
20th-century Indian businesspeople
20th-century Indian women composers
Sanjay Dutt
Indian courtesans