“Bahut gandh ho gayi thi (the scene had become dirty),” she says cryptically of her voluntary retirement. Instant fame, adulation, separation from loved ones and then a retreat from rivalry. Her lucent eyes mirror the changing notes in her life. Dressed in salwar kameez she moves with a walker. While her pictures shot in her heyday show her as a robust woman, today Shamshad Begum at 92 is frail and almost angelic. The romantic Saiyan dil mein aana re (Bahar), the teasing Kahin pe nigahen kahin pe nishana (CID), the pathos-dipped Chod babul ka ghar and even the Hinglish ditty Meri jaan Sunday ke Sunday (Shehnai) are all classics from songstress Shamshad Begum who ruled between the ’40s-’60s.
Excerpts from Shamshad Begum's last interview. Filmfare's Farhana Farook spoke to the legend. Shamshad Begum, one of the first playback singers in the Hindi film industry died at her Mumbai residence at the age of 94.
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