Begum Akhtar

11 May

Still the undisputed queen of the sung Urdu ghazal and a figure of great and deep love for Agha Shahid Ali:

And below, in Satyajit Ray’s 1958 Jalsaghar (The Music Room), though here I need to own up to my ignorance and admit that I’m not sure if she’s singing a ghazal or thumri or some other genre.  It’s also extremely annoying and, to say the least, odd, that Ray would disrespect her performance so much by pasting most of it over by cutaways of the audience and especially the film’s idiot nouveau-riche neighbor who doesn’t even know what he’s listening to:

Begum Akhtar in Jalsaghar : (not allowed to embed it, logic of which I never understood…)

Here’s a photo anyway and more info: Begum Akhtar

 

Comment: nikobakos@gmail.com

2 Responses to “Begum Akhtar”

  1. Niranjan (@niranjan715)'s avatar
    Niranjan (@niranjan715) May 13, 2014 at 4:51 am #

    This is one famous ghazal from Begum’s archive. http://youtu.be/x8ebmnBJ5cA

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    […] Across much of the globe, ghazals continue as a musical phenomenon. To give you a taste of the sung ghazal, here is the undisputed Indian queen of the traditional form, Begum Akhtar.  […]

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