Noor Jehan - Acting Career in Pakistan

Acting Career in Pakistan

After the creation of Pakistan in 1947, Rizvi and Jehan decided to move to Pakistan. They left Bombay and settled in Karachi with their family.

Three years after settling in Pakistan, Noor Jehan starred in her first film in Pakistan, Chan wey (1951), opposite Santosh Kumar, which was also her first Punjabi film as a heroine. Shaukat and Noor Jehan directed this film together making Noor Jehan Pakistan's first female director. Noor Jehan's second film in Pakistan was Dopatta (1952) which was Produced by Aslam Lodhi, Directed by S Fazli and assisted by A H Rana as Production Manager. Dopatta turned out to be an even bigger success than Chan wey (1951).

In 1953-54, Jehan and Rizvi were divorced due to personal differences. She kept custody of the three children from their marriage. News of several affairs followed, including one with cricketer, Nazar Mohammad. In 1959, she married another actor, Ejaz Durrani, nine years her junior.

Durrani pressured her to give up acting, and her penultimate film as an actress/singer was Mirza Ghalib (1961). This contributed to the strengthening of her iconic stature. She gained another audience for herself. Her rendition of Faiz Ahmed Faiz's Mujh se pehli si mohabbat mere mehboob naj maang is a unique example of tarranum, reciting poetry as a song. Noor Jehan last acted in Baaji in 1963, though not in a leading role.

Noor Jehan bade farewell to acting in 1963 after a career of 33 years (1930 to 1963). The pressure of being a mother of six children and the demands of being a wife to another actor forced her to give up her career. Noor Jehan made 14 films in Pakistan, ten in Urdu, four in Punjabi.