Zahida Parveen

Zahida Parveen was a Prominent Star of Patiala Gharana. She started from singing pure classical on Lahore Radio and then joined movies as a singer in the earlies Pak Films such as Hichkolay (which incidently was the first Pak Movie whose songs were recorded on 78rpm gramophone records before the release of movie. After marriage to a landlord when she settled in a village near Multan, she only sang Sufi Poetry and re-earned a special place in Sufi Poetry called Kaafi singing. She sang a lot of those at Multan Radio Station and also recorded at Lok Virsa Islamabad and some private concerts.

Zahida Parveen was from Amritsar and she rose to prominence early as she had acquired enough proficiency over a number of forms. She was particularly adept at singing the kaafi and to music lovers she was one of the greatest exponents of the kaafi. For the connoisseurs she was much more than that and her rendition of the kheyal, thumri and ghazal too were of equal importance. She sang the kaafi formalistically in raagdaari as the musical variations of the bols were based on the principles of progression in the raag. Zahida Parveen had great command over the craft and she sang with a certain abandon. The range of her voice easily traversed the three registers.