The strains of the itinerant fakirs chants wafted across the gentle summer air of a hamlet in Amritsar. They had done so, day after day, from time immemorial. But, to an impressionable ten-year-old, the chants were special. He would hum along, and into the day, long after the vagrants croons had died into the distance. A dozen or so years before the partition, Pheeko and his folks would migrate to Lahore, where, thanks to a brother-in-law with a keen eye for talent, the boy would learn classical music from maestros Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan, Pandit Jiwanlal Matto and Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan.

A serendipitous opportunity to sing in a KL Saigal concert at the age of 13 and a chance to do vocals for the Punjabi film Gul Baloch in 1941 preceded the inevitable an offer for a Hindi film, Gaon Ki Gori. Soon, Mumbai beckoned. Many films and hits followed, putting Pheeko on the path to stardom. He had already collaborated with that maestro of a music director, Naushad. But it took a Baiju Ba ...more