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Begum Akhtar : Photo Archive - Photograph 05
| Content Provider | IGNCA - Begum Akhtar Portal |
|---|---|
| Owner | Saleem Kidwai |
| Description | Begum Akhtar straddled two inherently conflicted worlds – that of a Begum and a tawaif. She took her role as a Begum seriously and while initially she was ostracised by the women in Abbasi sahib’s family, she eventually won them over through lavish attention and generosity. Whatever earning she made were spent on buying gifts for all members of the extended family. She had a sharp awareness throughout her life that she was “not one of them”; and so, no stone was left unturned. Through her unflinching love and generosity, she came to be known as Acchhi Ammi in her extended family, something which Shanti Hiranand talks about. She also says that Ammi would raise a furore in the house when it came to cooking elaborate meals for the guests of Abbassi sahib. The household would go into a frantic tizzy as Begum Akhtar had set ideas about the ways meals should be prepared and served. Nothing less than a royal treatment would be bestowed upon the guests at their Havelock Road house in Lucknow! Though Begum Akhtar intensely loved her role as Begum sahiba of Mateen Manzil, she would tire of it soon and crave for something more. Sayeeda Raza reveals that during the initial years of marriage, “she did miss singing but she missed whisky more!” Contradictive narratives exist around the absence of Begum Akhtar from the music scene after her marriage and her return to singing as a way to overcome depression of her mother’s death. However, historian Saleem Kidwai says that Begum Akhtar stopped performing only for a little while & found respectable avenue to perform through All India Radio. However, throughout her life, she never performed publically in Lucknow following her marriage to Abbasi sahib. In his doctoral work on Begum Akhtar, Robert Ollikkala opines that Begum Akhtar was trying to adapt to the changing conditions of the society. She was aware that being part of a respectable family meant that it would be frowned upon to perform as it was still considered to be the domain of baijis. He believes that Begum Akhtar helped negotiate the change, but suffered for it. |
| File Format | JPG / JPEG |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Lucknow Sayeeda Raza Khayal Indian Classical Music All India Radio Thumri Havelock Road Vidushi Shanti Hiranand Begum Akhtar Ghazal Mateen Manzil Robert Ollikkala |
| Content Type | Image |
| Resource Type | Photograph |
