Noor Jehan

Noor Jehan was born in the village Kot Murad Khan, near Kasur, Punjab,Pakistan on Sept. 21, 1926. Her birth name was Allah Wasai. At the age of 6, she appeared on stage in the city of Calcutta for stage director Dewan Sardari Lal as Baby Noor Jehan. In 1935, she sang on stage for the famous musician Ghulam Ahmad Chishti in Calcutta.Pancholi Studio owner Dalsukh Pancholi gave her first big break in Lahore in his film Gul-E-Bakavli (1939).Her first big hit came with the film Khandan (1942) and Zeenat (1945). Then she married producer-director of this film Shaukat Hussain Rizvi. In 1947, when the British divided old India into India and Pakistan, Noor Jehan (I) and her husband Shaukat Hussain Rizvi migrated to Lahore,Pakistan to make their films in Pakistan. Noor Jehan continued to act and sing as a playback singer in Pakistani films until 1961.In 1961,she wanted to focus on raising her children and spend more time with them,so she gave up acting in films and just continued her singing as a film playback singer until 1993.Due to advanced age and bad health,she quit her singing on the advice of her doctors. She died in Karachi,Pakistan on Dec.23,2000 at age 74, where she was living under the care of her daughter and son-in-law.She was known as a music icon in both Old Undivided British India and Pakistan among the public due to her thousands of hit film songs that she left behind.