Celebration of an iconic cultural figure

   Presented by- Miss Anjali Shaukeen

Miss anjali shaukeen came in our college and she presented a workshop based on celebrating of an iconic culture figure on 10th october,2015. She started her presentation with Begam Akhtar. First she gave an introduction of begam Akhtar, well known Indian singer of ghazal. Miss shaukeen also showed a video related to Begam Akhtar in her presentation. She told and explained various important facts about her.

                                                   

             .                                                              Begum Akhtar

                                               (07 OCTOBER 1914 – 30 OCTOBER 1974)

•Original name was Akhtari Bai Faizabadi

• Well known Indian singer of Ghazal, Dadra and Thumri genres of Hindustani classical music.

•Awards and Recognitions :

1.The Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for vocal music in 1972.

2.Padma Shri Award in 1968.

3.Padma Bhushan Award in1975 by the Government of India.

4.Given the title of Mallika-e-Ghazal (Queen of Ghazals).

                                                                

                                               Career

•Begum Akhtar was influenced by the music of Chandra Bai. She got training under Ustad 
Imdad Khan who was great Sarangi exponent.

•She became the disciple of Ustad Jhande Khan.

•She gave first public performance at the age of fifteen.

•The famous poetess, Sarojini Naidu, appreciated her singing during a concert which was 
organized in the aid of 

victims of the 1934 Nepal-Bihar earthquake.

•She was amongst the early female singers to give public concert, and break away from 
singing in Mehfils or private gatherings.

•Begum Akhtar’s good looks and sensitive voice made her an ideal candidate for a film career 
in her early years.

• She was approached by the famous Producer-Director Mehboob Khan, as a result of which 
she acted in Roti which was released in 1942.

•East India Film Company of Calcutta also approached her to act in “King for a Day” and Nal 
Damayanti in 1933.

•She sang her songs herself in all her films.

•She got married in 1945 and due to her husband’s restrictions, she could not sing for almost 
five years and subsequently, she fell ill and after as a remedy, she returned to music and sang
three Ghazals & a Dadra at All India Radio Station.

•She has nearly four hundred songs to her credit and was a regular performer on All India 
Radio.

•She usually composed her own Ghazals and most of her compositions were raag based. 

 Then she told about Habib Tanvir. He was a pioneer of  Indian comtemparory theatre, He had 

national and international award in sangeet natak academy award(1969), padmashree(1983), 

Kalidas Samman(1990),Sangeet Natak academy fellowship(1996). Padmabhushan(2002). Miss 

Anjali Shaukeen also showed a video and audio of Habib Tanvir.

                                                

                                       Habib Tanvir
            (01 SEPTEMBER 1923 – 08 JUNE 2009)
•He was a pioneer of Indian contemporary theatre and was one of the most popular Indian 
Urdu, Hindi playwrights, a theatre director , poet and actor.
•National and International Awards :
1.Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1969.
2.Padma Shri in 1983.
3.Kalidas Samman in 1990.
4.Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in 1996.
5.The Padma Bhushan in 2002.
•His play ‘Charandas Chor’ won him the Award at Edinburgh International Drama Festival in
1982, and in 2007, it was included in the Hindustan times’ list of ‘India’s 60 best works since
Independence.
•He joined All India Radio (AIR) Bombay as a Producer, there he wrote songs for Urdu, Hindi
films and even acted in a few of them.
•He also joined the Progressive Writers’ Association (PWA) and became an integral part of 
Indian people’s Theatre Association (IPTA) as an actor.
•He worked with children’s Theatre, where he authored many plays . In 1954, he produced 
his first significant play ‘Agra Bazar’. For his play he brought together local residents and folk
artistes from Okhla village in Delhi and students of Jamia Millia Islamia. The play was not
staged in a confined space, rather a bazaar, a market place.
•He often worked with non-professionally trained actors and brought dialect of folk theatre
to the stage.
•In 1955, Habib moved to England. There, he trained in Acting at Royal Academy of Dramatic 
Arts (RADA) and in Direction at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (1956). 
•He returned to India in 1958 and produced ‘Mitti ki Gaadi’ a post-London play and worked 
with six folk actors from Chattisgarh. 
•He founded a theatre company ‘Naya Theatre’ in 1959.
•He is father of Actress and Music Composer ‘Nageen Tanvir’.
•He was a Member of Parliament for six years(1972-1978).
                              
                     Habib has also acted in many films :
•Rahi (1952)
•Gandhi (1982)
•Hero Hiralal (1988)
•Charandas Chor (1975) (lyrics and script)
•Black & White (2008)
•The Rising : Ballet of Mangal Pandey
[Bahadur Shah Zafar (as Tanveer Habib)]

After this she said about Saadatt Hassan Manto. He was a pakistani screen writer and 

play writer. His first story was TAMASHA based on the jalliawala bagh massacre at 

Amritsar.

                                        

                Saadat Hassan Manto
(11 MAY 1912 – 18 JANUARY 1955)

•Pakistani screenwriter and playwright.

•Authored short stories in south Asian history.

•Contributed in the form of 22 short stories, one novel, 5 series of radio 
plays, 2 collections of personal sketches.

•Awarded Nishan-e-Imtiaz award by the Government of Pakistan.

•Government of Pakistan issued a postage stamp honoring him. This postage 
stamp reads “Saadat Hasan Manto - Men of Letters”.

•Manto chronicled the chaos that prevailed, during and after the partition of 
India in 1947.
•His first story was “Tamasha”, based on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre at 
Amritsar.

•His works reflected an innate sense of human impotency towards darkness.

•He touched all parts of human existence and social taboos.

•He highlighted the subversive sexual slavery of the women of his times.

•He often commented, “If you find my stories dirty, the society you are living 
in is dirty. With my stories, I only expose the truth”.

•He was associated with Indian Progressive Writers’ Association (IPWA), 
where he met writer Ali Sardar Jafri.

•His story, “ Inqlaab Pasand”, was published in Aligarh magazine in March 
1935.

•He worked in All India Radio in 1941 where he published Four Radio Plays :

1.Aao (come)

2.Manto ke Drame (Manto’s Dramas)

3.Janaze (Funerals)

4.Teen Auraten (Three Women) 

•His famous short stories are Dhuan (Smoke), Manto ke Afsane, Afsane aur 
Drame, Bu.

•He also worked with film industry and contributed in screenwriting of films 
like Aatth Din, Chal  Chal Re Naujawan & Mirza Ghalib.

•Manto and his family were among the millions of Muslims who left present-
day India for the  Muslim-majority nation of Pakistan.

•Nandita Das who is award wining film actress for Fire, 1947 : Earth, also 
directed a film based on renowned novelist, playwright, screenplay writer 
and short story writer Saadat Hasan Manto.

•As an Iconoclast, Manto faced trial six times on obscenity charges for his 
short stories – thrice  in pre-1947 British India and thrice post-partition in 
the newly created Pakistan.

When she was presenting the three icons that she was explaining every line 

that she wrote in her presentation and she used video and audios in 

presentation as it could more clear to all the students. Miss Shaukeen 

presented the icons very nicely and every students was listening her carefully.