There have not been many like Begum Akhtar, and history has not been very kind to those who have succeeded. Often the details of their life, their personal and professional hardships are brushed under the carpet. But sooner or later, someone writes or speaks about them in all its richness, and we get to bask in their reflected glory.
Begum Akhtar’s life can be divided into two phases — one in which she was known as Akhtari Bai, and the second, when she took on the now-famous name of Begum Akhtar. Prior to her wedding with barrister Ishtiaq Ahmed Abbasi, Akhtari Bai, although famous, had to face numerous obstacles despite possessing a unique and stunning voice that complimented her good looks. She, like many other courtesans of the time, encountered censure and hid her true identity, as a performer from a marginalised group of society. Born to Mushtari, who was also a courtesan, in present-day Uttar Pradesh, Akhtari Bai had a keen ear for music, and is said to have given her first public performance at the tender age of 15. She was also called by the East India Film Company to act in a film titled Ek Din Ka Badshah, and went on to feature in around 8-9 movies in the 1930s-40s, including Mehboob Khan’s Roti, whose six songs she composed and sang herself.
Akhtari also worked with the All India Radio, and as she grew older, her voice became deeper, containing all the pain and beauty of the world as she saw it. Her lovely ghazals (she reportedly has 400 songs to her credit), were primarily composed and sung by her. From “Diwana Banana Hai” to “Mere Humnafas,” Begum Akhtar often crooned about love, troubles and its enchantment. In “Mere Humnafas,” she says at one point:
Mere Humnafas
Mere Humnawa
Mujhe dost ban ke
Daghaa na de
Mujhe dar hai ay mere charagar
Ye chiraagh tu hee bujhaa na de
‘My sweet friend, my dear companion, do not betray me after becoming my friend. I fear that you, my lightgiver and my healer, you alone will one day extinguish the light of our bond.’ In all but four lines, Begum Akhtar succinctly conveys everything that needs to be said about the relationship, its anxieties and anticipation.
As years went by, Begum Akhtar began performing at larger spaces, entertaining huge crowd with her skills and grace. According to Akhtar’s disciple, Rita Ganguly, Begum Akhtar smoked as well as drank. “She gave up drinking for two years after coming back from Haj, but started again,” Rita had told Telegraph in an earlier interview. Fond of ‘simple arhar dal’ and a devotee of Lord Krishna, Akhtar led a life of loneliness, revealed Ganguly. Born in pre-independent India, in 1914, Akhtar passed away in 1974, nearly three decades after India got its independence. As a woman who lived her young life under the British rule, and away from its shackles in her latter years as an adult, Begum’s personality and what we know of her captures the nuances of being an Indian woman — a woman who toiled for success that she deservedly got. But Begum also represents that desi woman of today who, despite her talent and gifts, often has to bow down to society’s several pressures, one of which is to get married. In her case, it was apparently to hide her origins in order to get more work, and in modern Indian households, because ‘log kya kahenge.’