Nisar Bazmi (1 December 1924 – 22 March 2007) was a composer and music director of Indian and

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

film industry. Nisar Bazmi was known as one of the accomplished musician of South Asia. He also introduced new singers like Alamgir and

Mehnaz Begum Mehnaz Begum (, 1958 – 19 January 2013) was a Pakistani TV, radio, and film singer. She was well known as a film playback singer in the 1970s and 1980s. She was the recipient of several Nigar Awards.Laxmikant–Pyarelal Laxmikant–Pyarelal were an Indian composer duo, consisting of Laxmikant Shantaram Kudalkar (1937–1998) and Pyarelal Ramprasad Sharma (born 1940). In their career span stretching from 1963 to 1998, they composed music for about 750 movies, wo ...

were musicians with Bazmi in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

before partition. However, he is primarily remembered for his compositions in the voice of playback singer

Ahmed Rushdi Ahmed Rushdi (; 24 April 1934 – 11 April 1983) was a versatile Pakistani playback singer and was "an important contributor to the Cinema of Pakistan#The Golden Era (1959–1977), golden age of Pakistani film music". Regarded as one of the gr ...

Early life and career

Syed Nisar Ahmed, was the son of ''Syed Qudrat Ali''. He was born in 1924 in

Jalgaon Jalgaon () is a city in the state of Maharashtra, India. The city is located in North Maharashtra in the subregion of Khandesh, and serves as the administrative headquarters of its namesake district, the Jalgaon district. In the subregion of ...

Khandesh Khandesh is a geographic region in Maharashtra, India. It was made up of present Jalgaon, Dhule and Nandurbar districts. It also said that Burhanpur District of Madhya Pradesh was also its part. The region have seen many geographical ch ...

area of

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

state, India. He did not belong to an artistic family. In fact, his family was extremely poor. He had to join Yasin Khan's Qawwali Group, a noted Qawwal in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

at that time, as 'humnawa' (companion) at age 11. He possessed no prior musical background. In the late 1930s, a prominent Indian musician of Bombay, Khan Saheb Aman Ali Khan was convinced by Nisar Bazmi's musical interest and taught him music for four years. Equipped with artistic know-how, young Nisar Bazmi, who was just 13 at the time, quickly mastered the various ragas and the musical instruments. In 1939, the

All India Radio All India Radio (AIR), also known as Akashvani (), is India's state-owned public broadcasting, public radio broadcaster. Founded in 1936, it operates under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India), Ministry of Information and Broa ...

hired him as an artist. In 1944, he composed some songs for a drama, "Nadir Shah Durrani", which was broadcast from the Bombay Radio Station. The songs were sung by

Rafiq Ghaznavi Rafiq Ghaznavi (1907 – 4 March 1974) was a British Indian and later a Pakistani musician and actor in pre-partition Indian cinema and later Pakistani cinema. Early life and education Rafiq Ghaznavi's ancestors were from Ghazni, Af ...

and

Amirbai Karnataki Amirbai Karnataki ( – 3 March 1965) was a famous actress/singer and playback singer of the early Hindi cinema and was famous as ''Kannada Kokila''. Mahatma Gandhi was an ardent fan of her song '' Vaishnav Jan To''. Early life Amirbai Karn ...

. After this initial success, Nisar Bazmi "started earning 50 rupees a month - a respectable salary in those days."

In India

Nisar Bazmi composed music for film "Jamana Paar", which was released in 1946. At this time, he also changed his name to Nisar Bazmi. He composed music for forty films in India. Twenty eight films were released during his stay in India. The rest of the movies were released in India after he emigrated to Pakistan.

In Pakistan

Nisar Bazmi came to visit his relatives in Pakistan in 1962. Here he met veteran film producer Fazal Ahmed Karim Fazli who invited him to compose music for Pakistani films. "Mr Bazmi accepted the offer and decided to settle in Pakistan." His first song in Pakistan was "Mohabbat mei tere sar ki qasam" (singers, Ahmed Rushdi, Noor Jahan) for the 1964 film "Aisa bhi hota hai". He also composed many songs for

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, Naheed Akhtar Faisal Nadeem, Khursheed Nurali (Sheerazi), and Saleem Shahzaad. He had trained many of the modern composers. His closest student/assistant was Badar uz Zaman, the famous classical singer and composer, who remained associated with him for 18 years. Nisar Bazmi received many Nigar Awards for his achievements and composed music for 140 films in all during his career.

Music and popular film songs of Nisar Bazmi

* "Mohabbat Mein Tere Sar Ki Qasam Aisa Bhi Hota Hai" was his first big hit film song in

Awards and recognition

Pride of Performance The Pride of Performance (), officially known as the Presidential Pride of Performance, is an award bestowed by the Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Pakistan to recognize people with "notable achievements in the field of art, science, literature, sp ...

Award in 1994 by the

President of Pakistan The president of Pakistan () is the head of state of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The president is the nominal head of the executive and the supreme commander of the Pakistan Armed Forces.

Nigar Award The Nigar Awards () were presented in an annual award show to recognize outstanding achievement in Pakistani cinema, after having been revived in 2017 following a 15-year absence. The honors are awarded by Nigar Magazine founded in 1948. The ...

- Nisar Bazmi won 'Best Music Director' award five times for different films

Death and legacy

Nisar Bazmi died on 22 March 2007 in

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

and was buried the next day near his residence in North Karachi. A major Pakistani English-language newspaper commented after his death, "In the death of Nisar Bazmi, students of music in Pakistan have lost an opportunity to benefit from the experience of a virtuoso who scored 140 films in all."

"Nisar Bazmi was a thorough professional and a man of rare imagination. He used to study the storyline and the setting of a film before composing the music for a song."

References

External links

*
Nisar Bazmi Filmography on Complete Index To World Film (CITWF) website - Archived
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bazmi, Nisar 1924 births 2007 deaths Nigar Award winners Indian emigrants to Pakistan Pakistani film score composers 20th-century Pakistani male singers 20th-century Pakistani singers People from Jalgaon Muhajir people Recipients of the Pride of Performance Musicians from Karachi 20th-century Indian male singers 20th-century Indian singers All India Radio people Hindi film score composers