Rasheed Attre

Early life and career

Great composer of the Indo-Pak subcontinent, Abdur Rasheed, who is widely known as Rasheed Attre, was born in Amritsar, Punjab, India, in 1919. His father, Khushi Mohammad, was also highly acclaimed singer-musician in his time. Young Rasheed acquired his initial music lessons from Khan Sahib Ashfaq Husain. Brilliant enough in the field of learning music, Rasheed soon mastered the musical instruments in general and tabla, in particular.

In the early 1940s, Rasheed decided to consolidate his efforts towards composition and started his music career from Mahishori pictures, Lahore, for whom he composed two songs for the film Pagli. The rest of (Pagli)'s songs were composed by Ustaad Jhanday Khan.

For the first time in 1942, Rasheed independently composed songs for Indira Puri picture production,in the film Mamta (Director: Hafiz Jee, lead actor:Kalawati)

Rasheed Attre made an altogether different music tunes and it was all the more evident in the Naueek Chitar Pat's 1944 movie, Pana (Director: Najam Naqvi, lead actress: Geeta Nizami, formerly known as Mohani, lead actor: P.J. Raj.

Attre collaborated with the musician Ameer Ali to compose film Pana songs, which was an instant hit, largely due to its powerful lyrics and superb music. Rasheed Attre also composed songs for Naueek Chitar Pat's production, film Kamra No.9

In fact, before Kamra No.9, Rasheed and his co-musician, Pandit Amar Nath, had immortalized the songs for the Pancholi Art Pictures production, Shireen Farhaad (released in 1945,director: Paro Hala Dutt, starring: Raagni, Jayant, whose real name was Zakaria Khan and who was the father of famous Indian actor Amjad Khan.

Music lovers feel that Attre has a special resonance today, when they think of the mid 1940s, when Attre became the first music director to compose songs for the Bombay talkies' first Muslim social film Nateeja (1947), whose superhit ghazal ‘Kahan mein aur kahan deen-e-haram ki kashmakash, Nakhshab, kis kay naqsh-e- pa per rakh diya ghabra kay sar mein nay' is popular to date. (Nateeja (1947) starring:

Shamim Banu, Yaqoob, Khaleel, Randheer, Jalo bai, Majeed, director: Najam Naqvi)

Wistful magic of Rasheed was quite forceful in Roop Kumar Shori 's film Paaro cast: Geeta Nizami or Mohni and Randheer.

Afterwards, he came out with magnificent music for film director Shahid Lateef's movie, Shikayat (1948). The first Pakistani film for which Rasheed Attre lent his music was director Masood Pervez's Beli (1950).

Three years after Beli, Rasheed was in-charge of music for director Nazir Ahmed Khan's punjabi film, Shehri Babu (1953), whose evergreen songs still are popular in Pakistan in 2015. Attre's music for director W.Z. Ahmed's 1954 family-friendly film Roohi (1954) was a big failure.

Rasheed Attre's music is all very praise-worthy in director Nazir Ahmed Khan's film Khatoon, which was popular for its thumri. Attre's composition exhibits an astonishing range and power in director Anwar Kamal Pasha's superhit film Sarfarosh (1956). In 1956, Rasheed was also given the responsibility of composing songs for director Anwar Kamal Pasha's golden jubilee punjabi film Chann Mahi (1956) (lyrics: Tufail Hoshiarpuri, starring: Bahar, Aslam Pervaiz). Attre was, indeed, a powerhouse of a musician and a case in point is director W.Z. Ahmed's all-time favorite film, Waada (1957), which happened to be a movie from a more idealistic time. At the height of his fame, Attre came up with his magical composition for film director Anwar Kamal Pasha's semi- historical movie, Anarkali (1958). To be precise, it was a joint venture of 2 film music composers Rasheed Attre and Master Inayat Hussain.

Some of his musical gems

Awards and recognition

His Death

Rasheed Attre died on December 18, 1967, at the age of 48.