Mujeeb Aalam

Mujeeb Aalam
Background information
Born	(1948-09-04)September 4, 1948 Kanpur, India
Died	June 2, 2004(2004-06-02) (aged 55) Karachi, Pakistan
Genres	Playback singing, ghazal
Occupation(s)	Playback Singer
Instruments	Vocalist
Years active	1964–2004

Mujeeb Aalam (September 4, 1948 – June 2, 2004) was a Pakistani playback singer who had a short film career. His singing style was a mixture of Mehdi Hassan and Ahmad Rushdi's style.^[1] He sang dozen of hit songs in late 1960s and remained popular with cinema viewers. However, he lost his popularity in mid-1970s as more versatile singers like Akhlaq Ahmed and A Nayyar entered Pakistan film industry.^[2]

Career

Mujeeb Aalam was born in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India in an Urdu speaking family. Unfortunately, he got a short film career and was ignored by film musicians from the mid-1970s. Mujeeb Alam lived in the long shadow of highly successful Pakistani singers in the mid-sixties. However, soon he made his own distinct way into the world of music. Essentially he was a very humorous person. He loved to exchange jokes and made friends easily.^[3]

Alam’s songs were picturised on film artists like Nadeem, Waheed Murad, and Muhammad Ali. Some of his famous songs were “Main teray ajnabi shehr main”, “Main tera shehr chhor jaon ga”, “Main khushi se kion na gaoon, mera dil bhi gaa raha hai”, and “Woh naqab rukh ulat kar meray samnay na aain”. The song which earned him real fame was “Woh meray samnay tasweer banay baithay hain” for film Chakori in 1967. Mujeeb Alam won the Nigar Award for the song. He also sang songs in Bangla, Punjabi and Pushto languages, and has almost 12 audio albums to his credit. He also won a Nigar Award for a song about love for the mother, ‘Aye maan teri soorat kay Aagay’ in film Qulli.^[4]

Death

Mujeeb Aalam was retired from films since 1979. He used to participate in private shows and musical programmes which were broadcast from Pakistan television and other channels. Mujeeb resided in Block J, North Nazimabad, Karachi, for quite some time. On Wednesday June 2, 2004, according to her daughter he left his home at 11:15pm and as they were about to approach Super Highway when Aalam complained of chest pain and he felt difficulty in breathing. He stopped the car, picked up a bottle of water but fell on the steering". She further said that her father was taken to a private hospital near Sohrab Goth where he was pronounced dead. He was 55 years old.^[5][6]

References