Daily Times

Discovery of Mehdi Hassan originally hailing from Jaipur Rajhistan in India was phenomenal. He was born on July 18, 1927 in a village namely Luna. It is a panchayat village in Al sisar Tehseel of Jhunjhunu District. His parents had spent their time in music among Raja, Maharaja’s courts. Mehdi Hassan disclosed in an interview with Yasmeen Tahir in Radio Pakistan’s Podcast presented by Syed Raza Kazmi and produced by Nasreen Raza Kazmi that when he sang in his own compositions to his father Azeem Khan and Uncle Ismail Khan, both decided that he would be trained in music only. Hence he was not sent for any formal schooling. On a query that his pronunciation of Urdu language was superb he stated that he didn’t know this language till he migrated to Pakistan. It was improved in Ghazal singing by Radio Pakistan’s DG ZA Bukhari and later by Radio’s Station Director, Lahore Saleem Gillani. Mehdi Hassan had gone to Karachi to record film songs for the movie ‘Shikar’ when he was invited for audition at Karachi Radio Station. He gave audition in all domains of classical and semi-classical music to the producer Zafar ul Ahsan till 5 p.m. The latter was undecided as to what category would he be approved for, he requested SD Tahir Shah to listen to Mehdi Hassan. So he was asked to give audition the following day again. Ultimately he was approved in the classical music category. He performed for six months before switching on the Ghazal format on his own choice.

In light classical format he preferred the compositions which were composed in pure Raags like ‘Gulon Main Rang Bhare’ (Faiz) and ‘Daikh Tau Dil Keh Jaan Sei Utheta Hei’ (Mir Taqi Mir) in Raag Jhinjhoti, ‘Chalte Ho Tau Chaman Ko Chaliye’ (Mir Taqi Mir) in Raag Bhairveen and ‘Baat Karni Mujhe Mushkil Kabhi Aisi Tau Na Thi’ (Bahadur Shah Zafar) in Raag Pahari. According to Mehdi Hassan his selection to go for Ghazal singing was due to the fact that Akhtari Bai from Faizabad and Ustad Barkat Ali Khan were gradually aging off and there were no replacements in the offing.

The writer is the recipient of the prestigious Pride of Performance award. He can be reached at doc_amjad@hotmail.com