G M Durrani

Early life

Ghulam Mustafa Durrani was born in Peshawar, British India in 1919. He was a Pathan (Pashtuns) and belonged to the Mohammad Zai Durrani Kabila. His was from a conservative family where even tea was not taken. Milk and lassi were the drinks of choice. When he used to go to those shops and some songs used to be heard, he used to hum along with them. Everyone used to say this boy should go to Bombay (Mumbai) as his voice was very good. The thought of becoming an actor entered his mind as well. He soon ran out of money to make ends meet.

Family

His mother expired when he was very young. Father was educated and of artistic mind but very strict, and the only ally at the home was his loving grandmother. But she could also not protect him from his father’s anger.

Marriage

The famous actress Jyoti who sang with him was impressed by the handsome pathan (G. M. Durrani) with the wonderful voice. Her real name was Sitara Begum. They fell in love and both got married soon. Jyoti was the younger sister of actress Wahidan who acted in many movies including Alibaba. Wahidan's daughter Nimmi was to become a big actress in the 1950s too.

In Peshawar

The last job Durrani did in Peshawar was of at a painter’s shop where an artist always used to hum the tunes of the songs composed by highly respected Composer and Actor Rafiq Ghaznavi. He also started imitating those songs and got appreciation from the colleagues which inspired him. Durrani started practising Rafiq Ghaznavi’s songs and assumed him as his master. During this time, his father took him to another job at his uncle’s motor-part shop. But the artist within didn’t stayed long there and Durrani ran away from the home to Lahore with only 22 rupees in his pocket.

In Lahore

In Lahore, Durrani did odd jobs along with singing on radio. This brought him fame and passion for radio singing which took him to Delhi first then to Bombay. He came to Bombay (now Mumbai) on 14 April 1935. In Mumbai, he got somehow job at Mumbai Radio Station and from here he got recognition. Filmwallahs started calling him to sing.

In Mumbai

His singing career started from AIR (Akashvani (radio broadcaster)). Durrani was discovered by film producer Sohrab Modi. Modi gave him his first chance around 1935-36 in the movie Said-e-Havas, a historical under the music director, classical musician Bundu Khan popularly known as "Taan-Talwar" Bundu Khan. It was a ghazal whose words went something like this:-

The English Translation of this Ghazal:-

"The happy-go-lucky people imbibe liquor for euphoria but I drink because my first morsel of food had a drop of liquor in it."

In Delhi

When Durrani came to Bombay playback system was not there and one had to act on screen. He didn't like running around trees and refused to work further. He faced a lot of difficulties and could not return as people would call him a "Kanjar". Minerva was to close down soon too. He soon joined the Delhi Radio Station of AIR (Akashvani (radio broadcaster)).

Durrani was working at the Delhi Radio Station where he got acquainted with poet Behzad Lakhnavi whose many ghazals had been sung by Mallika-e-Ghazal (Queen of Ghazals) Begum Akhtar.

Shifted to Mumbai

He later shifted to the Mumbai Radio Station where he met a big personality at the time, whom he considered one of his ustad (master), Station Director of Bombay station of AIR (Akashvani (radio broadcaster)), Baba-e-Nasharayat (Father of Broadcasting) Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari who helped the radio station come up a lot. Durrani called Ustad to Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari for honour. (Z. A. Bukhari, was the Station Director of Delhi station and Bombay station of AIR (Akashvani (radio broadcaster)). After the Partition of India and creation of Pakistan, Bukhari was made first director-general of Radio Pakistan (Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation) and later, he served as general manager of PTV (Pakistan Television Corporation)).

G. M. Durrani's salary which was fixed at Rs 40 per month was soon fixed. Here he was working as a Drama Artist. He was soon counted as one of the best drama artist on the radio those days. Over a period of three years his salary had gone up to Rs 70 per month. But fate would soon call him back to films.

Later 1939-40, when the concept of playback singing started he was the first to lend his voice for a film titled Bahurani. The film was made by Sagar Movietone and its music director was Rafiq Ghaznavi. Durrani was then working as a full-time Singer in AIR (Akashvani (radio broadcaster)). Those were British days and they were not allowed to do any private recordings. But Ghaznavi insisted. Durrani laid down some conditions, like; the recording should be fixed on a Sunday night so that no outsiders would be allowed to enter the studio. Secondly, he said that his name shouldn't appear in credit titles or on discs. The song was a duet with Miss Rose, an Anglo-Indian, who didn't have much experience as a singer. He was paid Rs.75 for the song as against his salary of Rs.70 a month at AIR (Akashvani (radio broadcaster)). He then chucked up his job on 31 December 1940 and decided to concentrate fully on his film career.

Thereafter he sang for, among others, noted music directors like Khawaja Khurshid Anwar, friend Naushad, Shankar Rao Vyas and A. R. Qureshi (Better known as Alla Rakha, Pandit Ravi Shanker's famous tabla accompanist) for films like Mirza Ghalib, Humlog, Magroor, Shama, Namaste, Sabak and scores of others. He became very popular. Many singers started their careers with him and he inspired many others too.

He was the idol of Mohammed Rafi who imitated him in the initial days. Now what could be a better tribute to singer than that, that the symbol of divinity in the Indian Music Industry, Mohammad Rafi, followed him. In fact, in 1944 Rafi recorded what he considered his first Hindi language song for the film Gaon ki Gori (1944) for Shyam Sunder, "aji dil ho kaaboo mein to dildaar ki aisi taisi" with G. M. Durrani and chorus.

Geeta Dutt also started her career in her break through movie Do Bhai with the song Aaj Preet Ka Naata toot gaya, a duet with G. M. Durrani for S. D. Burman.

Similarly, Haye Chorre Ki Jaat Badi Bewafa, a duet with G. M. Durrani, was Lata's first song for composer, Naushad.

Durrani has sung many songs during his career. His output later reduced. According to a story he was influenced not to sing for some time after his Hajj visit and Rafi then helped him get back to singing but by then his career was over. Music composer Khawaja Khurshid Anwar in his first film Kurmai (Punjabi-1941) took Durrani as his assistant and later gave him the film Angoori (1943) as music director.

Popularity

G. M. Durrani was very famous as radio drama artist of Delhi station and Mumbai station of AIR (Akashvani (radio broadcaster)).

In the period of K. L. Saigal – Surinder, Khan Mastana and G.M. Durrani were also famous. G. M. Durrani was one of the 40s famous playback singers. Durrani tried to make his own identity as a playback singer and not try to follow the K. L. Saigal type of singing. G. M. Durrani was a legendary Bollywood playback singer. His singing style was to inspire Rafi and others in the years to come. Later G. M. Durrani became a model to many playback singers who followed then. The soulful renditions of Durrani were to be reminded of by Talat's singing as well.

Mohammed Rafi was influenced most notably, by G. M. Durrani on whose style he based his singing. He sang with his idol in some of the songs such as "Humko Hanste Dekh Zamana Jalta Hai" (Hum Sab Chor Hain, 1956) and "Khabar Kisi Ko Nahiin, Woh Kidhar Dekhte" (Beqasoor, 1950).

G. M. Durrani considered his first famous song was ‘Duniya mein sab jode jode’ of the film "Sharda" (1942) composed by Naushad.

The song Neend Hamaari Khwaab Tumhaare Kitne Meethe Kitne Pyaare, that made him a real rage was however composed by Shyam Sundar for his movie Nai Kahani. This song sung most part by G. M. Durrani with some support by child-star Balakram was playing everywhere. When he sang, this song, the listeners went crazy. This timeless melody can never be forgotten by fans of Indian Cinema:-

Nearly 40 years later, when Tata Oil Mills did a program Mortal Men Immortal Melodies to celebrate fifty years of talkies in India, they invited him to re-render the song. Although many had forgotten him, his voice was still great and he got an applause for it.

As actor

As music director

The legendary Filmmaker, Writer, Director and Music composer Khawaja Khurshid Anwar took G. M. Durrani in his first film Kurmai (Punjabi-1941) as his assistant.

Durrani also assisting his friend Naushad for his movies around this time and big break for him was coming soon in the form of the movie Nai Duniya (1942).

G. M. Durrani composed the songs in these films:

Solo Songs

Songs with Amirbai Karnataki

Songs with Asha Bhosle

Songs with Bhupinder Singh (musician)

Songs with Faiyaz Mohammed

Songs with Geeta Dutt

Songs with Iqbal Begum

Songs with Kishore Kumar

Songs with Khan Mastana

Songs with Lata Mangeshkar

Songs with Mahendra Kapoor

Songs with Manju Das

Songs with Mohammed Rafi

Songs with Mukesh (singer)

Songs with Noor Jehan

Songs with P. Susheela

Songs with Parol Ghosh

Songs with Rajkumari Dubey

Songs with Sandhya Mukhopadhyay

Songs with Shamshad Begum

Songs with Sitara

Songs with Sudha Malhotra

Songs with Sulochana Kadam

Songs with Suraiya

Songs with Talat Mahmood

Songs with Trilok Kapoor

Songs with Uma Devi (Tun Tun)

Songs with Zeenat Begum

Songs with Zohrabai Ambalewali

Duet with other singers

Patriotic Songs

Hindu Devotional Songs

G. M. Durrani was one of the first Muslim singers to get to sing Hindu Devotionals.

Muslim Devotional Songs

Quraan Khani

Filmi qawwali

Filmi-ghazal

Punjabi Songs

In 40s and 50s G.M. Durrani was the senior Punjabi singer-actor from Mohammad Rafi. K.L. Saigal died on 18 January 1947. Then G. M. Durrani was the most senior Punjabi singer-actor. Durrani tried to make his own identity and style as a playback singer and not try to follow the K. L. Saigal type of singing. In future, all singers like Mohd. Rafi, Talat Mahmood, Manna Dey, Kishore Kumar etc. were influenced with Durrani. They followed the style of Durrani. Top singer Noor Jehan was expecting for duets with G. M. Durrani to be the other singers. Few songs are here:

Pashto Song

Short career

Manna Dey says on page 190-191 in Memories Come Alive:

Spirituality & Death

G. M. Durrani had become spiritually inclined because of which he slowly left the industry. In an interview with Ameen Sayani in 1978, He said that he got bored of the materialistic world (like bungalow, motors, cars and other luxurious items) of Bollywood Bombay Film Industry and started avoiding the film career and film personalities. He started keeping a beard so nobody would recognise him. He sold his all luxurious items and started giving away money from the bank to various Faqirs. Finally, He shifted to a small house and opened a general merchant shop after taking a loan.

In an interview in 1978 with Ameen Sayani, He had this couplet to say about how he felt about everything:

He died in Mumbai on 8 September 1988.

Some Famous Songs

Few of his famous songs are: