Nirmal Chander Dandriyal’s film, Zikr Us Parivash Ka, opens in the narrow bylanes of Lucknow in search of Begum Akhtar’s home. The young don’t really know who she is and the elderly only know of her by reputation. While she may not be remembered in the locality she lived and died in, she is the epitome of Urdu ghazals, dadras, thumris, and known as the ‘Queen of Ghazals’.
Begum Akhtar (1914-1974) was born in Faizabad in Lucknow, the. . .