Abdul Ahad (music director)

Ahad was born in Rajshahi in the then Bengal Presidency. He took lessons from Ustad Bali and Ustad Manju Sahib.[4] He took part in the All-Bengal Music Competition in 1936 and stood first in the Thumri and Ghazal section.[4] In 1938, he won a scholarship from Shantiniketan as the first Bengali Muslim student.[5] In Santiniketan, he sang the song Diner Por Din Je Gelo and was beloved by Rabindranath Tagore.[4]

After spending four years at Santiniketan, he joined Master's Voice in Calcutta in 1941 as a music teacher.[4] Artistes including Pankaj Mullick and Hemanta Mukherjee recorded Tagore songs under his direction.[4] In 1941, Ahad joined HMV Calcutta and gradually became a music director for the recording industry as well as the film industry.[4] He got success as a music director in feature films such as Duhkhe Jader Jiban Gada, Asiya (1960), Nabarun and Dur Hyay Sukh Ka Gaon.[4] After the 1947 Partition of India, Ahad joined Radio Pakistan and became a key person in the musical arena of Dhaka.[6] He introduced many new talents to the music world, composed numerous songs and wrote several books on Bengali music.[2]

• Arnold, Alison, ed. (2000). The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: South Asia: The Indian subcontinent. New York: Taylor & Francis. p. 858. ISBN 978-0-8240-4946-1.