It is ironic that many popular film personalities like Shaukat Hussain Rizvi, Master Ghulam Haider, Timir Baran or well-known writers who also wrote for films like Imtiaz Ali Taj and Saadat Hasan Manto were not able to continue with their outstanding work after they either stayed back in the area that became Pakistan or migrated here principally from Bombay or Calcutta.

Perhaps, the challenges were great -- the environment was not that conducive or that rebuilding from scratch in adversity was too uphill a task for them. Except for a few successes, Ferozuddin Ahmed was not able to continue with the graph of popularity that he established as a film composer with ‘Jugnu’.

Known to the world as Feroze Nizami, he was born in a family endowed with great talent. His brother Nazar Muhammad was an elegant opening batsman who scored the first century for the country in test cricket and his other brother Siraj was much into mysticism and wrote about it.

Soon after 1947, Alhamra was set up in Lahore. But it took a while for the body to get rolling. It was decided that there should also be music classes at the Alhamra as there was no institution for the transfer of musical knowledge to the next generation.

Feroze Nizami was chosen for this difficult assignment -- and he accepted the challenge in circumstances not that ideal.

With his assistant Khalid Anwar, Nizami continued to do so for many years.

Feroze Nizami was a man of many parts -- a writer, a homeopath practitioner, a classical vocalist and a versatile composer. He had studied homeopathy extensively. He wrote a number of books and articles on the melodic arts. His book titled, ‘Israr-e-Mauseeqi’ was mainly intended to make the knowledge of classical music accessible to the beginners. His books in English ‘ABC of Music’ and ‘History and Development of Music’ were some of the first writings on the subject in the newly-independent country which was struggling to come to terms with its independent stature and attempting to reconcile with a heritage which it shared with its much larger neighbour, India.

The musicological approach in the colonial era was greatly strengthened by the need for India to establish its cultural credentials in terms of antiquity and excellence. The driving force behind the thrust for independence was hugely informed by an ancient land and civilisation wanting its inalienable right to full freedom.

The work done by Hindu musicologists in reconstructing the cultural past in this light appeared to be authentic but for Muslim musicologists, who went along toeing this line, it became apparent with the partition of the subcontinent that they were thrown off the kilter. Their contribution, which was immense in the last thousand years of the cultural history of the Indian subcontinent, was sidelined, considered non-essential and not necessary but only accidental -- by politicians and academics pushing for their case for political freedom based on some rarefied notion of cultural purity.

Many, early on, felt the dire need to readjust and realign the political and cultural centres. It was left to the likes of Feroze Nizami to start the debate about the role of music and the contribution of the Muslims to the theory and practice of music. But, due to the growing hostility, an exclusionist reading of cultural history and political exceptionalism, these intellectuals started being initially defensive and then downright apologetic. The work done in Pakistan in the field of culture, particularly the performing arts, has primarily been on a wish to survive and not discriminated against. Feroze Nizami as indeed Khurshid Anwar as scholars had much more to offer than mere justifications of the immense role played by the Muslims in the music of the subcontinent.

But, the practice of music in Pakistan has flourished despite the debate, the discrimination and rejection; both Feroze Nizami and Khurshid Anwar excelled and were appreciated.

Feroze Nizami was outstanding in the art of composition winning laurels from the public in both India and Pakistan. He became a frontline composer among a galaxy of melody-makers in undivided India in the 1940s.

Born at Lahore in 1910, he did his bachelors, received his music education from Ustad Abdul Waheed Khan, the prominent exponent of the Kirana Gharana and was influenced by the styles of the exponents of Delhiwale Ustad Sardar Khan and that of the Rampur Gharana. In the mid-1950s, he formally became the shagird of Delhiwale Ustad Sardar Khan as well.

Within a short span of time, due to his tremendous ability, he was able to establish himself as one of the foremost composers of the Bombay film industry. There he scored music for Vishwas, Badi Baat, Umang, Uspaar, Piya Milan, Sharbati Ankhein, Amar Raj, Nek Parveen, Patola (Punjabi), Pati Seva (with Gulshan Sufi), Rangeen Kahani and Jugnu.

He was declared the best music director for the year 1947 for his enchanting melodies in Jugnu. Some of its melodies are just as fresh even today -- ‘Aaj ki raat saaz-e-dil-e-purdard na chheid’, ‘Yahan badla wafa ka bewafai ke siwa kya hai’, ‘Tum bhi bhula do mein bhe bhula doon’, and ‘Hamein to shaam-e-gham mein katni hai zindagi apni’.

The films for which he scored music in Pakistan were Hamari Basti (1950), Chan Wey (1951), Dupatta (1952), Sharare (1955), Sohni (1955), Intikhab (1955), Kismet (1956), Sola Anne (1959), Raaz (1959), Zanjir (1960), Manzil (1960), Mongol (1961), Saukan (1965), Gulshan , Sangeet, Zar Zan Zamin (1974).

Some of the songs were ‘Sub jug soe ham jaagein’ (Dupatta), ‘Chandini raat mein’ (Dupatta), ‘Jigar ki aag sei’ (Dupatta), ‘Chan diya totia wey dillan diya khhotia’ (Chan Wey), ‘Changa banaya ee sanu khidauna’ (Chan Wey), ‘Rotte hein cham cham nain’ (‘Sola Anne’), ‘Tere mukhre da kala kala til wey’ (Chan Wey).

Feroze Nizami also nurtured the talent of many composers, vocalists and instrumentalists. In Bombay S.N. Tripathy, one of the busiest music directors, was Feroze Nizami’s assistant. While in Pakistan, the list of assistants include Salim Iqbal; a successful duo of music directors of the early 1960s who did more or less 30 odd films, Master Manzoor Hussain and Master Altaf, the noted pianist.

The credit of establishing the versatile playback singer Mohammad Rafi should also be given to Feroze Nizami. Muhammad Rafi rendered the first-ever song of his career as a playback singer in Gul Zaman’s Punjabi film Gul Baloch. This song was composed and recorded by Shyam Sunder in 1941 but Muhammad Rafi remained unrecognised until the release of Feroze Nizami’s film Jugnu in 1947. He also sang kheyal under the non de plume "Gaik" because as a radio employee he could not do so under his own name.

He died in November of 1975.