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Muhammad Fawad Zafar

2021-11-0168

Writing and Communication SS100

Mahrukh Baig

18 November 2017

Noor Jehan by Saadat Hasan Manto

Noor Jehan is one of the most iconic personalities when it comes to Pakistani music

and film industry. She obtained the title of Malika-e-Tarannum - which translates to “the

queen of melody” – on grounds of her enchanting voice. She is mentioned as one of the

“Legendary film personalities…” (62) according to Gita Viswanath and Salma Malik in their

journal article. Her work is still praised and respected by many people. Similarly, Saadat

Hasan Manto shows his admiration for Noor Jehan in his writing, “Noor Jehan”. Saadat

Hasan Manto was a South Asian author, and his works contain short stories, novels, plays,

essays, etc., and is still named as one of the most renowned writers in South Asian history.

Suketu Mehta considers Manto to be the greatest writer of South Asia in the 20th century in

her article “Pearls of Regret” in The New York Times. In the passage, Manto describes how

loved Noor Jehan was during that period, not only by him but also by many different people,

ranging from innocent children to madly in love grown-ups. The audience targeted by the

article is not specific, but it might attract people with an interest in music and film celebrities,

as well as people interested in history of South Asia. It might as well attract the elderly

people, as they can relate to many things in the essay, as Noor Jehan would have been famous

in their time more than she is now. Throughout the article, Manto adopts various methods to

show how Noor Jehan was a great singer - which enabled her to gain the support she had -

and describes how dedicated her fans were to her. Although Manto used different techniques,

such as examples from his own life and the lives of people around him, and provided a decent
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description of the scenarios, however, he ignored the counter arguments to his ideas with

fallacious statements, had an inappropriate structure of his article making his stance unclear,

and had a biased tone throughout the article.

In this text, Manto states how devoted Noor Jehan’s fans were to her, and praised her

for her singing. He started off by stating how he first saw Noor Jehan in a film, and proceeds

by praising her abilities in singing and her physical beauty. He continues to praise Noor Jehan

using stories from his own encounter and from other devoted fans around him, specifically

the 4 years old child in his own house and the barber who chopped off his flesh to prove his

love for her. He also mentions fans from other categories, cooks and servants. He also

mentions Noor Jehan’s family at various points in the passage. Finally, Manto concludes his

writing by stating the problem Noor Jehan was going through during that time, which was a

case filed against her for assaulting another actress, Nighat Sultana.

Firstly, Manto focuses solely on the idea that Noor Jehan was appreciated by

everyone. The examples provided are not credible enough to represent a large group of

populaces, but are restricted to a narrower category, precisely the junior workers, such as

barbers, household servants and cooks. This might give away an idea that she was not liked

by the elite and the rich. Also, the commitment of a four years old boy towards Noor Jehan is

not credible enough to be included in the list of Noor Jehan’s devotees, since a four years old

child is not sensible enough to understand music and films. Additionally, no example was

given to show that there were people who disliked Noor Jehan. This portrayed Noor Jehan as

a person who was not disliked or hated by anyone, which is a not possible. There should have

been a counter: such as, a small portion of the people did dislike her, but most of them didn’t,

to prove his point. At many occasions, Manto uses logical fallacies. For instance, Manto

compared the ability of an acrobat to balance on a tightrope with Noor Jehan’s ability to keep

on holding a single note. This comparison is flawed and illogical. Also, in the second
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paragraph Manto mentions that Lata Mangeshkar was more popular than Noor Jehan at that

time, and that Noor Jehan’s voice was not as “sweet, youthful” as it was earlier, but refutes

this statement with the statement “But Noor Jehan remains Noor Jehan.”, instead of providing

a proper justification, which is again a logical fallacy. The passage also contains some

illogical statements like “holding a single note for an hour” and “throat that could never be

damaged”. These are obviously exaggerated and make the text less authentic. Secondly, the

structure of the article is inconsistent. There is plenty of irrelevant information given in the

passage. For example, in the second paragraph Manto mentions Noor Jehan’s sons and where

they were studying at that time. This information was unnecessary and distracts the readers

from the main claim. Similarly, in the third and second last paragraphs, Manto narrates what

was going in Noor Jehan’s life at that moment. This again was irrelevant to the main claim,

which was about Noor Jehan’s appraisal and makes a reader think that the passage could be

about Noor Jehan’s family and her role as a mother. These paragraphs hindered the continuity

of the text and deviated the path of the passage. Other than the inconsistency, some

paragraphs go against the claim of the author and make it harder for the reader to grasp the

main concept of the passage. To demonstrate, the paragraph where Manto claims that Noor

Jehan had an arrogant streak and implies that it is a negative aspect for her personality.

Simultaneously, the arrogance is justified by stating that it was her right to become arrogant

over her voice, instead of providing the readers with a valid justification. Moreover,

sentences such as the one where Manto raises a question if her married life was artificial like

her traits were more of personal questions in which the readers might not be interested in.

This was again deviating from the main path of the passage and causes distraction. Other than

the structure, Manto uses a biased tone throughout the text. Being an acquaintance to her

might be the reason. The use of phrases like “her body had every feature that a young girl

could possibly need” and “honey-filled voice” gives a biased tone.

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On the contrary, there are some good techniques used by Manto to keep the readers

involved. The examples he chose to prove the sincerity of Noor Jehan’s admirers makes his

claim stronger. These examples range from extremely devoted fans - specifically the barber

and the child - to somewhat typical fans, Manto himself and his wife’s friends. The example

where the barber cuts a piece of his flesh was the extreme, as the barber did it just to prove

his love and sincerity for Noor Jehan. The part where Manto narrates his own memory of

Noor Jehan adds up to the credibility of his claim, as it was detailed enough and authentic.

The way he develops the story of his encounter and the way he concludes the story by stating

how he still remembers that “honey-filled” voice makes the example more effective to

convince the readers to agree with his claim. Besides, the targeted audience, specifically

music enthusiasts and elderly people, can easily relate to what Manto said. The example of

the young child is also a clever technique, as people find the actions of children innocent and

adorable. This also adds a touch of humor, because Manto keeps the identity of the fan

hidden till the end. He reveals that the fan was a child after developing a good story,

surprising the readers with something they would not have expected. This part adds some

humor to the text, and keeps the readers involved by keeping them in suspense of who the

admirer could be. Suspense in this part is a good method to keep the readers involved.

Furthermore, the use of only three specific examples was a good choice, as the readers might

get bored if too many examples were used. The transition from specific examples of people to

a more general group of people was also done smoothly and efficiently. Other than this, the

choice of words by Manto was also suitable. He describes Noor Jehan’s looks well when he

states that she possessed everything a young girl could need. Except the looks, he also

described her voice in a decent manner, such as “she had such a pure voice” and “honey-

filled voice”. These references will be easily understandable for the readers who have listened

to Noor Jehan before.

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Other than the methods already adopted by Manto, he could have used a few more to

make his writing more effective. Starting from the beginning, he could have included more

background knowledge on Noor Jehan to make the readers who did not know about her

before a bit familiar to her. Also, he could have used more facts such as her achievements and

awards to support the claim of her being praised. Also, the usage of fallacious reasoning to

counter the opposing opinions makes the work less credible, so it could have been replaced

with proper reasons to make the arguments valid. Other than these problems, the uniformity

of the paragraphs should have been maintained, as the existing order or paragraphs makes the

readers distracted from the actual idea of the passage. Other than that, the language could

have been altered to a less biased one, and Manto could have criticized Noor Jehan to make

his stance firm by countering them, instead of relying only on examples.

To conclude, this passage was not as much convincing as it could have been. The

negative aspects of the passage outweigh the positive ones, making it a less credible and

substantial. The approach of using more personal opinions rather than facts and figures had

an adverse impact on the passage. Despite the well detailed narrations and descriptions, the

passage needs more improvements to have a better influence on the readers and to grasp a

greater interest of the readers. The use of irrational reasoning makes the arguments weak and

less reliable, and makes the readers less affected by the text. The author’s personal

acquaintance with Noor Jehan makes the text more biased towards her favor and caused the

author to adapt a positive language for his subject. Despite being interesting, the passage

failed to be conclusive enough for its readers due to the lack of facts and logical reasoning.
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Works Cited

Mehta, Suketu. “Pearls of Regret” The New York Times, Web, 2014,

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/11/books/review/bombay-stories-by-saadat-hasan-

manto.html?_r=0

Vishwanath, Gita, and Salma Malik. “Revisiting 1947 through Popular Cinema: A

Comparative Study of India and Pakistan.” Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 44,

no. 36, 2009, pp. 61–69. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25663519.