MALIKA-E-GHAZAL---PADAMSHRI BEGUM AKHTAR : 

Born as Akhtari on October 7th,1910 at Faizabad in a family of lovers of music and shifted to Lucknow when she was young. Her first teacher was Ustad Imdada Khan, a sarangi player. She continued her apprenticeship with Ustad Shakhawat Hussain, a reputed sarod player who recommended her to become a desciple of Ustad Ata Muhhamed Khan.Akhtari Bai now known as Begum Akhtar, an expert in Ghazal, Dadras and Thumri very soon reached the heights of fame and popularity.    During recitals whenever she reached a high note her voice would crack, but strangely enough this was considered by connoiseurs as the highlight of her recital. The audience would wait eagerly for that delicious crack in her voice.   In order to become a successful   ghazal singer it is very necessary to select a lyric which is easy to understand, and has meaningful verses, with flashes of playful poetic imagination. Having come across such a piece of poetry the singer has to put across musically in a suitable tune with a complete understanding of the poetry, in perfect diction and in an expressively emotional style. Begum Akhtar possessed all the qualities that are so vital for a good ghazal singer. The notes which she produced were so limpid, so hauntingly sweet, that the audience was immediately captivated. She had the uncanny knack of choosing the right kind of ghazal and adorning it in a befitting tune; she would render it so endearingly that her every note would grip the hearts of the audience. At 30, she cut her first disc for the Gramophone Record Company, one of the sister concerns of H.M.V.    She commenced as courtesan Akhtari Bai, and then withdrew from singing for several years after marrying a respected barrister, to be reincarnated in her later years as Begum Akhtar (d. 1974), a singer of the concert-hall rather than  private courtesan performance. Was awarded Padamshri and Sangeet Academy Award. After teaching for some time at Bhatkhande Music College she died on October22, 1974. A two rupees stamp and first cover was released by Post & Telegraph Department, Government of India in her honour.

Begum Akhtar Live - Bombay - 1953

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Indian Music: Selective Discographies

Begum Akhtar

(1914-74)

  Megaphone [Red Label] Swadeshi records – Miss Akhtari Bai (Fyzabad)

Begum Akhtar-The Story of my Ammi
by Shanti Hiranand     

Indiaclub.com Editorial Begum Akhtar, b circa, 1914- d, 1974, a legend in her own lifetime, is one such person on whom there is no available biography. A pioneer in the field of Indian light Classical music, she helped popularize the traditional form of thumari and ghazal gayaki and took it to the Concert level all over India and abroad. Unfortunately, despite her talents, an entire generation of Indians has grown up listening to only gossip connected with Begum Akhtar’s life; be it the controversy surrounding the Nawab of Rampur or her other alleged affairs. This is what Shanti Hiranand has attempted in her memoirs. It is a book that will hopefully provide a salve to all those open wounds surrounding Begum Akhtar’s persona. Shantiji has examined her beloved Ammi with the objective philosophical gaze of a woman and has shown us a side of Begum Akhtar that was hitherto hidden in the dusty corridors of House No 1, Havelock Road, Lucknow. It is interesting how these two women from seemingly diverse backgrounds could come to such an exalted level of understanding between themselves, in times that were not very conducive to such social interactions. Shantiji belonged to an upper middle-class business family. She had a liberal education and was used to a certain space and freedom to pursue her own passions, while Begum Akhtar lived within the cloistered environs of a typical feudal home in those days. On the one hand Shantiji was an austere Gandhian and Begum Akhtar was a person of deep indulgences. It is amazing that even Shantiji’s parents never stood in her way; they never stopped her from being with her Ammi. On the contrary on occasions it was Shantiji’s mother who encouraged her to follow her Guru right until the end.

Stamp brought by Indian govt. on Begum Akhtar.

BEGUM AKHTAR Begum Akhtar was a renowned Ghazal singer who had reached legendary heights of musical excellence. She was popularly known as Malika-I-Ghazal, Queen of Ghazals. She enthralled the audience by her singing for nearly three decades from 1940.

She was singing beautifully, and then came what was - for me - the piece-de-resistance. In the middle of the 'maktaa', she fumbled with the words: "wahii hai zi.ndagii lekin" became "wahii hai zi.ndagii apanii". She immediately realised her mistake, and her face lit up with an incandescent smile as she laughed at herself, and immediately corrected the line. That image of her smiling and shaking her head at her mistake is imprinted on my mind forever, an image I will treasure for life.

Every year, on 30 October, I sit in front of the TV set, tuned into Doordarshan and hoping (lately against hope) that they will again play a recording of hers.