Ae Mohabbat: Reminiscing Begum Akhtar

Author: Rita Ganguly with Jyoti Sabharwal  
Publisher: Stellar Publishers  
Year: 2008  
Language: English
Binding: Hardcover 
Pages: 379  
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9788190455930  

Description

An intimate and richly detailed portrait of Begum Akhtar, the legendary “Mallika-e-Ghazal” whose voice and artistry transformed the world of ghazal, dadra and thumri.

Written by her cherished disciple, noted vocalist and scholar Rita Ganguly, this book traces Begum Akhtar’s remarkable journey from Akhtari Bai Faizabadi, born amid the fading aristocratic culture of Awadh, through the worlds of theatre in Calcutta and cinema in Bombay, to her emergence as one of the most revered voices in Indian music.

Drawing on years of close association and research, Ganguly presents Begum Akhtar not simply as a celebrated performer, but as a complex and deeply sensitive woman, artist, wife, mother, teacher and friend. Her personal struggles, relationships and extraordinary devotion to music unfold against a changing cultural landscape of courts and courtesans, the independence movement and the emergence of modern India.

The book also offers a fascinating window into the musical world that shaped Begum Akhtar and the evolution of her distinctive ghazal gayaki. Illustrated with 68 black-and-white photographs, Ae Mohabbat is both an affectionate remembrance by a disciple and an important account of one of the great figures of twentieth-century Indian music.

An absorbing book for admirers of Begum Akhtar as well as readers interested in Hindustani music, ghazal, Urdu cultural history and the lives of India’s great performing artists.