Nashad

Nashad (11 July 1923 – 14 January 1981) was a film composer and music director of Indian and Pakistani film industry.

Shaukat Ali was born in Delhi, British India, on 11 July 1923.

He received his early academic education in a local high school in Delhi.

His father, Ghulam Hussain Khan, was a tabla player.

So Shaukat Ali Nashad and his father first worked with the music composer Ghulam Haider.

He also learned to play the flute.

He composed music for Hindi films in the 1940s and 1950s, credited on-screen under the names Nashad and then later migrated to Pakistan in 1964.

Then he moved to Bombay in the early 1940s.

He composed under several names before finally settling for Nashad.

He made his music debut under the name Shaukat Dehalvi in the 1947 action film Dildaar.

The director was Shiv Raj, and it had lyrics by C.M. Muneer.

The cast consisted of Sagina, Yashonat, Dev Radha and Deepak.

He composed as Shaukat Ali for the 1948 film Jeene Do.

Made under the banner of J. Hind Chitra, its director was A. F. Keeka and K. A. Majeed, and the cast included Monica Devi, Panalal, Harish, Ratan Piya, Laila Gupta and Shanta Kanwar.

He used his real name Shaukat Ali to compose for the 1948 film Payal.

In 1948, he also composed songs for film Toote Taare (1948) as Shaukat Dehalvi.

Released under the banner of Sheikh Mukhtar's film production unit called "Omar Khayyam films", the director was Harish, and the cast included Shamim Banu and Motilal.

In this film, he composed Mughal Empereor Bahadur Shah Zafar's famous ghazal "Na Kisi Ki Aankh Ka Noor Hoon" which became very popular throughout India and Pakistan.

In 1949, he composed music for actor-director Yakub's film, Aiye.

The film starred Yaqub and Sulochna Chatterji.

In 1949, Nashad using the name Shaukat Ali Haideri composed songs for the film "Dada".

The director was Harish, and it was released under the banner of "Omar Khayyam films", the cast included Sheikh Mukhtar, Begum Para, Munawwar Sultana, Shyam, Murad, Mukri, and Gullu.

It was released in Jubilee cinema, Karachi.

He was also known as Shaukat Dehalvi for some time.

Film director Nakshab Jarchavi changed Shaukat Ali's name to Nashad for his film Naghma (1953).

In 1953, film director, Nakshab Jarachavi, had Shaukat Ali change his name to Nashad, which he retained for the rest of his life.

The story behind the name change has been written in the book "Naushad: Zarra Jo Aaftaab Bana" (Penguin).

The film director initially approached Naushad Ali for composing the music for his film.

When Naushad Ali refused, the irate director Nakshab Jarchavi then had Shaukat Ali change his name to Nashad, to make it sound like Naushad.

Nashad then composed for Jarchavi's 1953 film Naghma, starring Nadira and Ashok Kumar.

In August 1955, Nashad talked at length in an interview as to how composing film songs for Indian Film Industry was done back in those days.

He said that when he was hired as a film music composer, his 'first job' usually was to sit with the film director and determine the musical situations in the upcoming film.

After these discussions and back-and-forth suggestions, he would start composing the melodies to match with the mood of those situations in the film.

Once the tune of the film song is agreed upon, then the lyricist writes the words of the approved tune.

In this interview, Nashad described just one method of composing film melodies.

As we know, people in the film industry sometimes also use just the opposite method of composing film songs – for example in Pakistan, the eminent poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz had written his famous nazm, Mujh Se Pehli Si Mohabbat Mere Mehboob Na Maang without having the foggiest idea that it would be later used in a 1962 Pakistani film Qaidi and then would go on to become hugely popular among the public.

Of course some of the credit should also go to the music director Rasheed Attre and his son Wajahat Attre who worked very hard to come up with the final song composition (per Wajahat Attre's interview years later) and no doubt the singer Noor Jehan.

Nashad's films in India include:

He migrated to Pakistan and debuted as a composer in the 1964 film Maikhana, directed by Nakhshab Jarachavi, its scriptwriter was Agha Nasir.

Nashad had worked with Master Ghulam Haider, Nisar Bazmi, Naushad early in his film career as their assistant to learn from them.