Inayat Hussain(1916-1993)

Pakistani film music director Inayat Hussain was born at Lahore, Punjab in 1916 and died on March 26,1993 at Lahore. He initially worked as an actor for a short period of time at Imperial Company, Bombay, India. Later on, he joined Columbia Gramophone Company at Lahore. After Pakistan became an independent nation in 1947, he became a film music composer in Pakistan. Inayat Hussain was first initiated into the world of music by the great classical music maestro Bare Gulam Ali Khan, when the latter was living in Lahore. Inayat Hussain worked as a music director with Columbia label and H.M.V. label for a total of 9 years. He shot to fame with his musical scores in the Pakistani films Gumnam (1954) and Qatil (1955). Even the renowned Indian classical music maestro Ustad Amir Khan was so impressed by his musical scores that when he was touring Pakistan in the mid-1950's, he especially asked to see him personally and paid tributes to his musical skills. It is well- known in Pakistan among his close circle of friends that he would often go to some isolated spot near a river bank to ponder over a new tune that he was trying to create. No doubt he was one of the most innovative and creative film music directors of Pakistan and has over 62 films to his credit - these films are both in Urdu and Punjabi languages. He had many health problems during the last decade of his life and died on 26 March 1993 at his hometown Lahore, Pakistan.