Music: Kamal Dasgupta

One of the most distinguished exponents of Kazi Nazrul Islam's music today in the sub-continent of Indo-Bangladesh is Feroza Begum - an artiste of rare calibre. Born in 1935 in Faridpur, Bangladesh in an enlightened Muslim family, Feroza showed signs of extraordinary musical talent when she was not even seven years old. Her father encouraged Feroza in her musical ventures, albeit surreptitiously because of the social prejudice still strong in those days against a Muslim girl learning to sing.

She was, however, lucky to meet Sri Chitta Roy, and the latter was persuaded to teach her Nazrul songs which had already begun to exert a great influence on her. When she was barely twelve, Feroza recorded her first song under the direction of Sri Roy. Within a short time she collected and learnt scores of Nazrul songs, unerringly detecting her forte.

Then she met the well-known music director Sri Kamal Das Gupta. Feroza’s contact with Sri Das Gupta (whom the poet Kazi Nazrul Islam had permitted to set tunes to his words), proved most fruitful. Feroza quickly matured, developed her unique personal style, and learnt to embellish the thematic contents of Nazrul's songs with an exquisite grace . The richness of her tone and the depth of her feelings enabled her to capture successfully the complex nuances of Nazrul's songs, which are so varied thematically and musically, comprising tender love lyrics, sad and sweet ghazals, devotional hymns, revolutionary as well as light, farcical and satirical songs. Today Feroza Begum is widely recognized as a skilful and authentic interpreter of Nazrul's songs.

Kabir Chowdhury
National Professor
Bangladesh

The Feroza Begum Archive: 273C5I23MQ111983
For listening pleasure only. No intention to infringe copyright.

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