Incidentally, the two contemporaries – Khursheed Anwar and Sajjad Hussain – were not only appreciative of each other’s work but had many similar traits as well. Both were highly temperamental, believed in purity of the indigenous music, could not tolerate any interference in their work and had generally a ‘who cares’ kind of attitude towards their career. As a result, both ended up doing much fewer films than the offers they actually received.
Khursheed Anwar was born in Mianwali. He belonged to a very respectable and enlightened family. Like other boys in the family he too excelled in academics. He completed his Masters in Philosophy with distinction, breaking all previous records at the Punjab University. On the insistence of his elders, but against his own wish, he sat for the Indian Civil Service (ICS) examination and once again came out with flying colours. However, due to his contempt for colonialism and his earlier association with freedom fighter Bhagat Singh and his group, he refused to appear for the viva voce.
Khursheed Anwar developed interest in music at a very early age. His father, Barrister Feroz Din was a patron of music and held regular music sessions at his house in which the giants of classical music of that era used to perform. One of khursheed Anwar’s uncles was an expert Sitaar player. It was actually this uncle who encouraged him to take proper music lessons from Ustaad Tawakkal Husain Khan.
Defying the family seniors and refusing to go for the Civil service, Khursheed Anwar joined the newly inaugurated Lahore Station of the all India radio (AIR). His talent was immediately recognized and the AIR authorities soon transferred him to Delhi as in charge of the classical music section. In Delhi Khursheed Anwar produced many a memorable classical and light classical music programme featuring stalwarts like Rassolan Bai, Malika Pukhraaj, Akhtari Bai Faizabadi (Begum Akhtar) and many other renowned singers of the time. But his mercurial temperament did not let him continue at AIR for long and he resigned fro his job. Around the same time producer A.R. Kardar offered him the music direction of his Punjabi film Kurmai. Accepting the assignment, Khursheed Anwar came to Bombay. The first song (Maahi we Maahi) he recorded was in the voice of Raj Kumari and for the second (Dil Enj Enj karda Aye) he chose G.M Durrani who was also at the time assisting him) as the singer. The music of Kurmai (1941) was well received by the cine goers and soon Khursheed Anwar was assigned to score music for ishaara (1943), starring Prithvi Raj Kapoor and Shobhana Samrath (Nautan’s mother) in the leading roles, and a very young Suraiyya in second lead. For this Sultan, a radio artiste at AIR Lucknow and recorded three numbers in her voice. One of the songs Shabnam Kyon Neer Bahaaye gained immense popularity. Ironically, it was the first and the last time that Gohar Sultan gave playback in a film. The success of Khursheed Anwar’s music in ishaara in 1943 not only proved his caliber as a master musician but also put league with such maestros as Anil Biswas, Khemchand Prakash, Naushad and the like. However, the rebel that he was, khursheed Anwar instead of enjoying the new success, fame and monetary gains, became very selective about the movies he signed. Throughout his career the emphasis was on quality, not on quantity. Following partition of the subcontinent, khursheed Anwar chose to remain in Bombay until 1952. Some of his notable films during the period were Pagdandi (1947), Parwaana (1947 – starring K.L. Saigal and Suraiyya) and Singhaar singing star Suraiyya and beauty queen Madhubala acted together for the first and last time in this film. For his musical score in Singhaar, khursheed Anwar was chosen for the award of best music director of the year. After completing the musical score of Nishaana in 1950, Khursheed Anwar returned to Lahore. But in 1952 he went back to Bombay on a short term visa to compose music for Neelam Pari, his last film in India.
In India, Khursheed Anwar composed music for 10 films, in two of which – Parakh and Yateem – he shared the honors with saraswati devi and dutta korgaonker, respectively. The second and more significant phase of khursheed sahib’s career began with intezaar in 1955, which not only created box office history in Pakistan but had a fairly successful run in India as well. It was also in intezaar that Khawaja sahib and singing star Noor Jehan worked together for the first time. Together they presented to the music lovers a feast of many memorable songs which are still fresh in the memory. In Pakistan khursheed Anwar scored music for 18 films (15 Urdu and 3 Punjabi). Some of his outstanding films of this period were Zehr-e-Ishq, Jhoomar, Koel, Ghunghat, Chingaari, Haveli and Heer Raanjha (Punjabi). He even directed a few films (Ghunghat, Chigaari, Humraaz) based on unusual subjects. One of them, ghunghat, can very easily be rated as one of the best films produced in Pakistan. Khursheed Anwar won the Nigar Public film Award trophy three times for his outstanding and exceedingly popular music in Zehr-e-Ishq (1958), Ghoonghat (1962) and Heer Raanjha (Punjabi – 1970).
The emphasis in khursheed anwar’s compositions was always on melody and purity of raags. There have been very few music directors who have used the indigenous instruments as effectively as he did. His orchestration was not just to embellish a song but to heighten the impact of his tunes and to highlight the emotions expressed in the lyrics. No one could use the meendh the way Khawaja sahib did. In some of his wistful numbers, his sailing flutes in the foreground and violins in the background convey to the listener the true feeling of a broken heart. Khawaja khursheed anwar’s knowledge of classical music knew no bounds. Besides popularizing this genre of music through his film compositions, his most significant contribution in this respect was his compilation of traditional compositions (bandish) of the great classical vocalists of the sub-continent. Titled Aahange-e-Khusravi the treasure, with an explanatory commentary by Khawaja sahib himself, was released by HMV (EMI) Pakistan, in the form of a set of LPs.
