Bashir Ahmad was born in Calcutta (Kolkata now) in 1940. He was crazy about music, and was accepted as a pupil by Ustad Vilayat Hussain at the age of 15. Later, he came to Bombay, and became a student of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. He got lots of encouragement from him. In 1960, Bashir Ahmad migrated to Dacca.[now Dhaka] In Dhaka, his mentor and brother-in-law, Ishrat Kalkatvi introduced him to Robin Ghosh. Ishrat was writing songs for film Talash, although eventually, Suroor Barabankvi contributed more songs to the film. Robin Ghosh was making tunes for the film, and he gave Bashir Ahmed a chance to prove himself. Bashir Ahmed sang some numbers for Talash, including soft romantic one, titled Kuch apni kahiyye kuch meri sunyey, yeh sham yeh tanhai youn chup to na rehiyye. Bashir sang another most famous song, Main rickshawalla matwala. He had two other songs in the film, both duets. Bashir was also a poet and a lyricist, with a pseudonym B.A Deep. Film-maker, Mustafiz, they contacted Bashir and asked him to write a song for his film, Saagar, which he did, titled Ja dekha pyar tera, and sang it too. Similarly in Robin Ghosh's another lilting offering, Karwan, in 1964, Bashir wrote and sang a memorable hit, Jab tum akele ho gay hum yaad aaein gay, which used to be played quite often during the sixties on Radio Pakistan. So, he wrote film songs, as B. A. Deep, and also continued to sing as Bashir Ahmed for films like Saagar, Karwan, Eindhan, Milan, Kangan and Darshan. He won approval from the West Pakistan at that time, for those songs in Darshan. The hits from the films were Yeh sama pyara pyara, yeh hawaein thandi thandi (singer Mala), (Yeh mausam yeh mast nazarey, pyar karo to in say karo), (Tumharay liyay iss dil mein itne mohabbat hay, itne mohabbat kon karaya ga kahaan pao gay kis dil main ho ge), (Din raat khayalon mein tujhay yaad karoon ga, par naam tera lay kay main aawaz nah doon ga), (Hum chaley chor kar teri mehfil sanam, dil kahin nah kahin to behal jaey ga), (Gulshan mein baharun mein too hai), and (Chun liya ik phool ku), with Madam Noor Jahan.

• published: 26 Aug 2013
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