| In Memoriam - Nisar Bazmi Bows Out |
| Written by Administrator | |||
 The undisputed king of Lollywood music in the 1960s and the ’70s, the musician Nisar Bazmi breathed his last on March 22, 2007, after a career that spanned six deacdes.
Born Syed Nisar Ahmed in Bombay, India, in 1924 to a religious family, he had to change his last name to Bazmi after he got a job in All India Radio as a musician in 1939. He was offered his first film as a musician, Jamna Paar, in 1946 after all the songs he composed for the radio drama,Nadir Shah Durrani, became hits. It was followed by Saiqa (1968), a Shamim Ara production, which got Bazmi sahib his first Nigar Award while Ali Zeb Productions’ Aag further polished his credentials as Pakistan’s best composer with Beetay dinoon ki yaadon ko, Yun zindagi ki rah mein, Mousam haseen hai, Liye aankhon mein ghuroor and Kuch kuch mujh se. His notable works beyond 1980 were A.H. Siddiqui’s Khushnaseeb (1984) for which Alamgir sang three songs for Nadeem after a long gap, Iqbal Kashmiri’s Hum Aik Hain (1986) which got him his fifth and last Nigar Award and Feroze’s Mohabbat Ho To Aisi Ho (1989) which was Mohammad Ali and Zeba’s last film together, the pair with whom Bazmi sahib worked extensively. Partly due to the trend of going abroad to record Bollywood vocalists for Lollywood, and partly due to the negligence of our producers, Nisar Bazmi was forced into premature retirement. 
     He had the distinction of working with the greatest film directors of Pakistan, from starmakers Hasan Tariq (Anjuman, Tehzeeb, Umrao Jan Ada, Pyaasa, Laila Majnoon) to S. Suleman (Bewafa, Aag, Mohabbat, Jaise Jante Nahin, Intezar, Very Good Dunya, Very Bad Loag), the talented Raza Mir (Aasra, Anila,Laakhon Mein Aik, Naagmani) and Laeeq Akhtar (Saiqa, Naureen, Mulaqat, Mastani Mehbooba), the genius of Pervez Malik (Anmol, Pehchan, Talash, Dushman), Ali Sufyan Afaqi (Aas, Namak Haraam, Jagir, Aag Aur Aansoo), Farid Ahmed (Andaleeb), Shaiwan Rizvi (Meri Zindagi Hai Naghma) and Sharif Nayyar (Naz). Be it Ahmed Rushdi, Noor Jehan, Mehdi Hasan, Ustad Amanat Ali Khan, Masood Rana, Mala, Nayyara Noor, Runa Laila, Alamgir, Naheed Akhtar, Saleem Shehzad, Tahira Syed, Tasawwur Khanum, Mujeeb Alam, Ikhlaq Ahmed, Ghulam Abbas, Asad Amanat Ali Khan, Anwar Rafi, Shazia Manzoor or Zille Huma, Bazmi sahib made the best singers croon for him. He introduced film star Nadeem as a singer in the unreleased Sehra much before he became an actor, and also gave Lollywood a nightingale in the form of Mehnaz, a singer with a difference such as Alamgir and many others. He eased out of the film industry in the ’80s and completely left it in the ’90s, but not after bagging the Nigar award for the best composer five times for Saiqa (1968), Anjuman (1970), Meri Zindagi Hai Naghma (1972), Khaak Aur Khoon (1979) and Hum Aik Hain (1986). He composed songs for nearly 100 films (70-plus in Pakistan) in his entire career which began with Jamna Paar in 1946 and ended with Very Good Duniya, Very Bad Loag in 1998. He never regretted his decision to migrate to Pakistan and believed that he had received more from this country than he had given to it. His death, a month after that of his contemporary M. Ashraf, has left a vacuum that will always remain so.
By Omair Alvi
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