Great composer of the Indo-Pak subcontinent, Abdur Rasheed, who is widely known as Rasheed Attre, was born in Amritsar, Punjab, India, in 1919. His father, Khushi Mohammad, was also a highly acclaimed singer-musician in his time.
Before partition, there were mostly 3 film centers: Lahore, Mumbai, and Kolkata, as Chennai and a few other centers were still in the developing phase.
In the early 1940s, Rasheed started his music career from Mahishori Pictures in Lahore, for whom he composed two songs for the film “Pagli.”
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Willum Skeener
For the first time in 1942, Rasheed independently composed songs for the film Mamta, directed by Hafiz Jee and starring Kalawati
In 1944, Rasheed collaborated with the musician Ameer Ali to compose music to the Najam Naqvi directed movie “Pana,” starring Geeta Nizami, popularly known as Mohani and P.J. Raj.
Rasheed Attre composed songs for Naueek Chitar Pat’s production, “Kamra No. 9..”
Rasheed and his co-musician, Pandit Amar Nath, had immortalized the songs for the Pancholi Art Pictures production, “Shireen Farhaad (1945),” directed by Paro Hala Dutt, starring Raagni, Jayant (father of famous Indian actor Amjad Khan)
Attre composed the songs for the Bombay talkies’ first Muslim social film Nateeja (1947) starring Shamim Banu, Yaqoob, Khaleel and directed by Najam Naqvi. Its superhit ghazal ‘Kahan mein aur kahan deen-e-haram ki kashmakash, Nakhshab, kis kay naqsh-e- pa per rakh diya ghabra kay sar mein nay’ is popular to date.
He also gave music to Roop Kumar Shori ‘s film Paaro staring Mohni and Randheer and film director Shahid Lateef’s movie, Shikayat (1948).
The first Pakistani film for which Rasheed Attre lent his music was director Masood Pervez’s Beli (1950).
In the beginning, Noor Jehan decided to sing only for those movies in which she also acted. Therefore, Rasheed Attre used Zubeda Khanum as a playback singer.
Munir Hussain was among the favourite singers of Attre, as Mehdi Hasan had not entered the Pakistani film scene. A song in Raag Bhageshri. “Qarar Lootney Walay,” in the movie “Saat Laakh,” gave a boost to Munir’s film career.
Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s nazm Nisar mein teri galiyon pay for the movie Shaheed, was another hit by Munir besides Dilla thehr ja for Mukhra, also sung separately by Zubeda Khanum.
Such was the strength of Attre’s compositions that two of his songs for the movie Wa’ada, sung by an unknown Sharafat Ali, are still listened to with interest after more than 60 years. They are; Jab teray shehr se guzarta hun and Bar bar barsein moray nain.
Faiz’s ghazal “Mujh se pehli si muhabbat,” from the movie “Qaidi,” is a hallmark in Noor Jehan’s career as a playback singer. This song has been popular all over the world since more than five decades.
