Inayat Hussain Bhatti

Early life history

Bhatti was born in Gujrat on 12 January 1928 in a Punjabi Rajput family.

In December 1948, he came to Lahore with the intention to study law and initially stayed at MAO College Lahore hostel in Lahore. A few months after his arrival in Lahore, he did his first performance on stage in the YMCA Hall, Lahore. After his YMCA auditorium performance, Bhatti accompanied Ijaz Gilani to Radio Pakistan, Lahore, where he met and became a formal pupil of Master Niaz Hussain Shami, a composer then working for Radio Pakistan in Lahore. It was his association with and training under Master Niaz Hussain Shami, which facilitated Bhatti Sahib's participation in regular radio programs as a singer. He sometimes used to accept character roles in plays broadcast by the Lahore station of Radio Pakistan. Rafi Peer, a play- writer, asked him to be the 'hero' in his play Akhhian (Eyes).

Bhatti was introduced to composer Ghulam Ahmed Chishti by Master Shami in 1949, who offered him an opportunity to record a few songs in producer-director Nazir Ahmed Khan's film Pheray (1949). Bhatti became an almost overnight celebrity . Producer-director Nazir offered Bhatti Sahib the leading role in his Punjabi film Heer (1955) against Swaran Lata.

He was the first superstar playback singer of Pakistan after its independence in 1947. His career spanned almost five decades. In 1997, he suffered an attack of paralysis, which impaired his speech and kept him bed-ridden for most of the time thereafter. A few days before his death, the 71-year-old artiste was taken to his native home Gujrat, where on 31 May 1999, He died and was buried next to his parents.

Career in folk theater

During the 1960s, Bhatti also took to folk theatre acting and singing, and toured the rural hinterland of the Punjab along with his theatre group, where he performed his songs and recitation of the works of the great Sufi poets such as 'Waris Shah, Bulleh Shah, Mian Muhammad Bakhsh, Sultan Bahoo and Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai'.

During the 1960s and early 1970s both Bhatti and (late) Alam Lohar dominated the folk theatre genre in Punjab, both were also great friends.

In 1996 Bhatti was invited to attend a Cultural Mela in Mohali, India, by the then Minister of East Punjab, Mr. Harnek Singh Gharun, the Indian National Congress leader.

Career in films

Bhatti was the only male artist in Pakistan film industry who achieved super stardom both as an actor and a singer simultaneously. His first venture, as a film producer was the film Waris Shah (1962), based upon the life and works of the great Sufi poet of Punjab. His second film as a producer Moonh Zor (1965) was also not successful, but then in 1967 his third film Chann Makhna (1968) in which he played the lead role, proved to be a block buster at the box office and received the Nigar Award as the best picture of 1968. This was followed by a string of hit movies such as Sajjan Pyara (1968), Jind Jan (1969), Duniya Matlab Di (1970), Ishq Diwana (1971), and Zulam Da Badla (1972) which transformed Bhatti into a superstar actor of the Punjabi movies. He also produced, directed and acted in three Saraiki language films simultaneously. The themes of all movies produced by him, were based on some social malady of the Punjabi culture. For this reason, these films were popular with the audience and have become true classical Punjabi films.

During his film career, spanning almost five decades, he produced 30 films under the banner of Bhatti Pictures and acted in more than three hundred films. He rendered his voice for approximately 500 films, recording more than 2500 film and non-film songs in Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi and Saraiki languages. One of his naat in Arabic is regularly broadcast on Radio Pakistan Lahore, during the holy month of Ramadan since the last four decades. Bhatti's patriotic song 'Allah-O-Akbar' from the film Genghis Khan (1958) has become a signature tune for the Pakistan Army. The music for this song was composed by veteran music director Rasheed Attre. His contribution to Pakistani melodic culture, especially its folk varieties, had been widely acknowledged. Late Bhatti, who also made significant contributions to the development and promotion of theatre and the Pakistani cinema in its infancy, is remembered fondly by the large number of people specially in the rural areas of Pakistan. A number of his songs recorded for Pakistani films are still recalled with a great deal of nostalgia by the senior music buffs in Pakistan.

Brief chronology of his songs

His music directors include: Ghulam Ahmed Chishti, Master Inayat Hussain, Ghulam Haider (composer), Asghar Ali, Mohammad Hussain, Rasheed Attre, Safdar Hussain, Gul Haider, Mehnu, Tufail Farooqi, Akhtar Hussain, Rehman Verma, Aashiq Hussain, Qadir Faridi, Rafiq Ali, Shad Amrohi, Taalib Hussain, Kamal Ahmed, Salim Iqbal, Tasadduq Hussain, Mohammad Ali Shabbir, Wazir Ali, M Ashraf, Ustad Tafu, Bhagg Gee, Master Abdullah, Nazir Ali, Bakshi Wazir and Wajahat Attre.

Beside his solo career as a playback singer, he is credited with singing hundreds of film duet songs with Noor Jehan and Malika Pukhraj to Mala, Irene Parveen, Zubaida Khanum, Munawar Sultana, Kousar Parveen, Naseem Begum, Naheed Niazi, Tassawar Khanum and Afshan. As a tribute to this legend, his numerous hit songs have been remixed by the new generation of Pakistani singers including Abrar-ul-Haq, Shazia Manzoor, Naseebo Lal, Arif Lohar and many others.

Filmography

His female co-stars include: Swaran Lata, Zeenat, Nigar Sultana, Bahar Begum, Meena Shorey, Shirin, Yasmeen, Sabira Sultana, Rani, Firdous, Saloni, Husna, Neelo and Khannum.

Television career

In the early 1970s, he did Bhatti Da Dayrah, a musical cum talk show every week for a year. In the 1990s, Bhatti compered a series of TV programmes entitled Ujala on the Sufi saints of Pakistan, and wrote its scripts. The series provided the viewers a look in his Sufistic leanings, and the lives and works of the Sufi poets. It earned its producer, Qaisar Ali Shah, the Ptv Award for best religious program.

As a columnist

For years his column 'Challenge' graced the Urdu newspaper Daily Pakistan. In this column he pointed out the maladies of Pakistani society without any fear.

Social work

In 1971 he built and donated a 'Complete Tuberculosis Treatment Ward' for poor and needy patients in Gulab Devi Hospital, Lahore in the name of his mother Barkat Bibi. Until his death in 1999, he supported it financially and with other services. He was against religious sectarianism and was respected by religious scholars of all shades; the Government of Punjab had, on numerous occasions, sought his help in creating religious harmony by way of appointing him as a member of Ittihad Bainul Muslimeen Organisation and a member of the Peace Committee.

Politics

Bhatti also dabbled in politics by joining Pakistan Peoples Party of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1975. He surprised everyone with his speeches and turned out to be an excellent orator, during the election campaigns of 1977 and 1988, he energetically campaigned for his party, often attending and addressing several different rallies in a single day. During the late 1980s, he was appointed 'secretary of party’s cultural wing', a position which he held for a year and then resigned because of his various other commitments. His contribution for Pakistan Peoples Party is fondly remembered and discussed by the senior party members and supporters.

In 1985 elections, during General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq’s regime, he contested for a seat in the National Assembly from NA 95, and lost by a narrow margin. Later in his life, he joined All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference of Sardar Muhammad Abdul Qayyum Khan, with whom he shared a cordial relationship. He was a protagonist of the development of Punjabi language and literature. In the 1970s, along with two other like minded personalities, Mr. Zia Shahid (now chief editor of daily newspaper, Khabrain), and Mr. Masood Khaderposh (a retired bureaucrat), he started the publication of a weekly magazine Kahani (story) for the endorsement of Punjabi language and literature. Bhatti Sahib was also the chairman of Punjab Workers Movement, founded in the 1980s for the same objectives. He was also an outstanding speaker on different themes of Islam, addressed hundreds of "majalis" and participated in Muharram congregations regularly.

Achievements

Bhatti's efforts did not go unrewarded, some of the honours bestowed by the Pakistani society at large are:

Awards and decorations

Pakistan Army

Shields of honour from

In India as a visitor He was equally popular across the border in East Punjab (India) and was bestowed with the following honours.

Inayat Hussain Bhatti has sung poetry of Sufi poets including Waris Shah, Bulleh Shah, Khawaja Ghulam Farid and Mian Muhammad Bakhsh.

Personal life

In 1953, Bhatti married Mohtarma Shahida Bano, the daughter of Ahmed Din Butt, a retired superintendent of the Indian Railways. This was Bhatti's second marriage. Mohtarma Shahida Banoo died on 12 March 1997.

Bhatti's children include three sons, three daughters, thirteen grandsons and six granddaughters. Bhatti's eldest son (from his first marriage) is Asmat Abbas Bhatti. His son, Nadeem Abbas Bhatti, is a film producer, and played a lead role in the movie Ishq Roug (1991) but then shifted his focus to film distribution. His youngest son Waseem Abbas is a film, TV and stage artist who is married to actress Saba Hameed. Waseem's stepdaughter Meesha Shafi and stepson Faris Shafi are both actors. Bhatti's another son Agha Sikandar and his sons Ali Sikandar and Agha Ali are also actors.

His grandson, Junaid Abbas Bhatti - the son of Asmat Abbas - is a member of the British nobility titled "The Baron of Ballencrieff".

Bhatti's younger brother, known by the stage name Kaifi, was an actor and director from the mid-1960s until the late 1990s. He was born Kifayat Hussain Bhatti (1943-13 March 2009). Both brothers were well-known film actors as well as film producers. They appeared together in more than 24 Pakistani movies- mostly movies made in the Punjabi language. As Kifayat liked to use his nickname of 'Kaifi' on film screens and on his movie credits, all Pakistani official film records and most international large websites list his records under his one word nickname 'Kaifi'.