I am grateful that Tom has finally started to put some of his recent projects on YouTube, because the way things were going, for both rational and irrational reasons, I never would have gotten around to downloading all of that stuff. So, although I have been having an extremely busy time lately, I have managed today to cut off the rest of the world so that I could start watching these movies. And finally, I’ve had a chance to see Patay Khan.
There have been a few times in the past when I loved the songs from a Noor Jehan film so much before I saw the actual film that I was worried that the film would disappoint me by comparison, but the film did not do so; it really came through for me. Certainly, that was true of Anmol Ghadi and Dupatta and mostly of Mirza Sahiban and Nooran, too. Unfortunately, it’s not true of this film, which doesn’t come close to the quality of some of the songs that it contains. Although, Noor Jehan does show much of the sweetness and charm that she showed in Mirza Shaiban… Which is kind of somewhat fitting since this film is also about a love affair that meets some conflict/resistance at some point – or two such love affairs, actually, as the other one involves the secondary character whom the film was named after for some reason; i.e., Patay Khan. But these affairs are not very compelling, to say the least. And then at some point, the character who is Noor Jehan’s lover (whose name I have already forgotten and am not that interested in looking up) ends up being the victim of some con scheme whereby he is taken by some western pimp sort of character to a place where he is seduced in an unconvincingly rapid fashion by a woman who is being referred to as the “princess.” (Meanwhile, I should not forget to mention that the pimp character, for some unexplained reason, calls himself Mr. Nevermind. That was sort of intriguing. Did Kurt Cobain see this film?) Anyway, in a way, this is like shades of Mirza Sahiban turning into shades of Shree 420…but it is little more than shades. I will say that after our “hero” disappears into this unconvincing seduction scenario, the film does start to get a little better. One reason is that Noor Jehan seeks the help of a Sufi wise man type who is by far the most interesting character. Close to four years ago, I posted two scenes involving her interactions with this character and said that the film looked very good. But I didn’t know at the time that those scenes made the film look good because they were from a part of the movie that was much better than the rest. [Note from sometime later: Unfortunately, I can’t link to those specific scenes anymore, because they’ve vanished from YouTube. But, of course, you’ll find them eventually if you sit through the film.]
But as I was saying above, Patay Khan does have some very good songs. And one of those songs, as I have also mentioned before, was actually unprecedented in certain ways… It was sung by Noor Jehan in two languages, for two different characters, depicting two completely different moods. And Noor Jehan does this in a beautiful, flawless, and utterly convincing manner. If only the film itself were as convincing and inspiring as the voice of Noor Jehan. But I guess we can give it a little credit, at least, for containing songs like this in the first place…
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P.S. I should add that I did enjoy the puppet show at the beginning. The show involves the scene of a beggar appealing to the more fortunate, and the show is also followed by some nice philosophical lines from Patay Khan (the character) comparing the puppet to the poor man who has to labor to make money for the rich (a subject close to my heart, as a few people out there know). This scene reminded me quite a bit of the opening of the Balraj Sahni-Vyjayanthimala starrer Kathputli, but Kathputli didn’t come out until two years later, so there is a chance that it actually copied this.
Dances on the Footpath 
Beautiful singing, but I will probably skip seeing the film. I really like Noor Jehan when she keeps her voice soft, sweet and in control. I think in later years most music directors had her belting it out (which is good in some songs) and also going more for that nasal component. (There is a word in Punjabi we used to describe that kind of singing, but there is no consonant in English that will represent it.=
The older films help to remind us of her amazing voice and singing ability.
That’s true, Bawa. I remember that you were telling me the same thing maybe four years ago, when I was first obsessing over Noor Jehan. :) Back then, I think you actually did provide a word, though I don’t remember what it was. I have found that when looking at some of the material from later years (1980s and 1990s), I’ve enjoyed her singing in TV clips and live show footage much more than in most of the film clips. (Though there are exceptions.) Could it be that the music directors of more recent decades actually prevented her from sounding as great as she could?
I’d been hoping, ever since Greta announced that Patay Khan had been subbed and uploaded on the Edu Productions page, that you’d review it, Richard. It doesn’t sound like much fun (besides the songs – that one you embedded was lovely, Noorjehan’s voice sounds so clear and sweet here). I think, like Bawa, I may just give this one a miss and content myself with listening to the songs.
I think she was definitely hampered by less imaginative film music directors in later years. On a lot of TV shows, she would be actually be singing some of her older repertoire, which was always so much better.
There was always some talk of creating a distinct Pakistani style as opposed to Indian style (difficult!) and this kind of singing seemed to be encouraged, but I do not know that for a fact. Just that her, Tassawar Khanum, Mehnaz, Nahid Akhtar, etc.all sang in this particular way when playback singing for films. Even Runa Laila sounds very different during her Pakistani film playback days.
I have been listening to a series of discussions on different Punjabi poets on the wichaar webcast site, and they are very interesting (unfortunately not subtitled). As sideline while discussing Munir Niazi’s Punjabi poetry, and his relatively limited film success despite some remarkable songs, the professor, who has met all these people personally, said casually while making another point, as if it were common knowledge, about the “special” friendship between Noor Jehan and Faiz. Munir Niazi having lost “his voice” (Naseem Begum) to an early death, whereas Faiz always had a champion in Noor Jehan. Unfortunately, these videos are not subtitled, a pity as they provide really intelligent discussion (even if I do not always agree with his interpretation).
Tahira Syed, talking in a homage to Noor Jehan, said what an intelligent and fascinating lady she was, and could keep people entertained with her talk for hours.
She says she was extremely well-read and her Punjabi and Urdu were really rich and faultless.
Tahira has a very different perspective on her, from knowing her as the mother of her very good school/college friend. But she says you wouldn’t want to spend time with other girls’ mothers, but Noor Jehan was so entertaining that they often ended up just spending time talking to her.
So many times when you hear modern singers, it feels like meaningless mumbling, looking at the way people like Noor Jehan took care to learn and understand the languages properly, and pronounced each and every word to give it so much weight and beauty.