Renowned and influential female singer Mehnaz Begum was remembered on her 8th death anniversary with rich tributes paid to her successful singing career by all electronic and Radio channels here on Tuesday.
Know her more: Legendary singer Mehnaz Begum
Mehnaz Begum was born at Mahmudabad, Uttar Pradesh, India in 1958. Her family migrated to Pakistan in the late 1950s. She received her initial training in music from her mother Kajjan Begum who was also a singer.
She started her career as a playback singer in the early 1970s.
Saleem Gilani, the director general of Radio Pakistan, Karachi first spotted her doing a concert at her college and helped her.
Mehdi Hassan and his elder brother Pandit Ghulam Qadir trained her at this radio station for about a month. Her melodious voice, musical training and control over her voice made her popular among the Pakistani film music directors, electronic channels reported.
She sang a variety of genres but specialized in ghazal, thumri, dadra, khayal, drupad and reciting salam, noha and marsiya. She was the daughter of celebrated sub-continental singer Kajjan Begum and the famous government officer Abdullah Abdullah Tasnim, but when she realized fame, she changed her name to simply Mehnaz or Mehnaz Begum. She also sang ghazals and light classical music for Pakistani television shows.
She has won the Nigar Award for Best Female Playback Singer 13 times and in 2011. She was also awarded Lifetime Achievement Award by Lux Style Awards.
The talented singer sang many hit and evergreen chart busters like Mujhe dil se na Bhulana from film ‘Aina’, Kyun Roi Shehnai from ‘Haider Ali’ and Do Piyase Dil Ek Huay from ‘Bandish’. Surrayya Bhopali was among the first films that Mehnaz sang for and Zeba Bakhtiar’s Babu was her last film as a playback singer.
Her loss was a huge one to the Pakistani classical industry. The lady who was among the legends of Ghazal singing will always be remembered for her rendition of ghazal ‘Ab ke tajdeed-i-wafa ka nahin imkaan’.
She died on January 19, 2013 at a Bahrain hospital
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