Naheed Akhtar remained an unavoidable part of the titles of almost all Pakistani films between the mid-70′s to the late 80′s. In so many ways, she was the female counterpart of Ahmed Rushdie, even though coming a generation later.
Naheed suddenly found her place as one of the most versatile singers around mid-70′s when it turned out that she has got an unusually expressive voice that can be suited to so many diverse situations – creating the gloomiest melancholy with her television ghazal Tum say ulfat kay taqazay or Sawan kay din aye (Naag Aur Nagin), boosting the spirits up with such peppy songs as Dil tore kay mut jayyio (Waqt) or Piyar Kabhie karna na kum (Aashie), establishing a touch with spirituality with the devotional Allah hi Allah kya karo (Pehchan) and even getting herself established as the raunchiest and lewdest female voice of the time if need be: Yeh aaj mujko kiya hua (Naukar), Dil sanbhala na jaye (Mera Naam Hai Mohabbat), etc. Indeed there was no way escaping her in those good old days of the late 70′s.
Naheed’s voice became for Babra Sharif what Ahmed Rushdie’s voice had been for Waheed Murad. Indeed, they retained a kind of symbiotic existence on the screen throughout the following decade.
With the decline of the film industry early 80′s onwards Naheed had more time for television and did such memorable programmes as Sur Bahar, which gave her opportunity to display her talent in a more classical style (that particular programme was based on the music of Ameer Khusro).
She has now retired from singing and lives her life completely off the screen. What a pity. Naheed Akhtar was perhaps the last audio legend of our film industry – the heydays were already over when she left and people had stopped remembering the names of the best film singers – Khurram Ali Shafique