Ghulam Ahmed Chishti

Early life

Ghulam Ahmed Chishti was born in 1905 in a small village in Jalandhar. Early in his childhood, Chishti became fond of music and would sing na`ats at his school. He was later noticed by Agha Hashar Kashmiri when Chishti came to Lahore. Kashmiri was a well-renowned writer and his works were praised throughout the Indian subcontinent and would occasionally compose songs for theatres.

Kashmiri hired Chishti to assist him with his work and offered him a salary of 50-rupees- per month. Under Kashmiri's influence, Chishti began learning the intricacies of the music industry and trained with him. Upon Kashmiri's death, Chishti joined a recording company and began composing on his own. Amongst his first records were those for Jaddanbai and Amirbai Karnataki in British India before 1947.

Composing for films in India

Chishti is responsible for bringing Noor Jehan to the Lahore stage when she was 9-years-old in 1935. Noor Jehan since then had continued working with Chishti after his later migration to Lahore, Pakistan. He started his career composing music for the films with Deen-o-Dunya in 1936. Once he got recognised, he was offered to compose music for L. R. Shori's film Sohni Mahival in 1938. It should be noted here that there was an earlier movie 'Sohni Mahiwal (1933) also. Later the Censor Board banned his composition for the song Aik Shehr Ki Londiya from the film Shukriya in 1944 bestowing much needed attention upon the composer. He became known for his compositions both in Urdu and Punjabi languages. Baba Chishti also had given some music lessons to the now well-known Indian film musician Khayyam, when Khayyam was still young and briefly had come over to Lahore.

Migration to Pakistan

However, for Chishti's career, things were to take a drastic turn for the better, after the independence of Pakistan in 1947. He decided on migrating to Pakistan in 1949 where the film industry was reeling in its infancy. The new industry was at the mercy of learned musicians and filmmakers and lacked funds to compete with the imported Indian films. Chishti offered his services as a musician to the Pakistani film industry.

Due to shortage of talent in the music industry, it is reported that Chishti had to compose music for three films at the same time in 1949. His initial compositions for Sachai, Mundri and Pheray (1949) were simultaneously produced. Upon its initial screening, Pheray (1949) became a blockbuster hit and earned plaudits for the composer. It is reported that the six songs in the film were written, composed and recorded in a single day. Later in 1955, Punjabi film Pattan (1955) came along and became a musical super-hit film for Baba Chishti. Pattan (1955) really boosted his career and he became a well-sought-after music director by the film producers after the box-office success of this film. Baba Chishti was the music director for Pakistan's many early successful films - for example, Pakistan's first Silver Jubilee film Pheray (1949), later Chishti composed music for 2 Golden Jubilee films - Sassi (1954) and Noukar (1955) and then super-hit films like Dulla Bhatti (1956) and Yakke Wali (1957).

Chishti's discoveries

Ghulam Ahmed Chishti first introduced into the Pakistani film world the following film playback singers...

Chishti's super-hit film songs

Awards

Ghulam Ahmed Chishti was awarded the Pride of Performance Award for Arts in 1989 by the President of Pakistan.

Later life and death

Chishti was a very simple, affable and kind person. Due to his popularity and venerability, he was called Baba Ji (father figure) in the film industry. He died at the age of 89 due to a heart attack on 25 December 1994 in Lahore. He wished his grandson, Mohammad Ali, a very healthy life before he died.