Another legend is no more with us…

Unfortunately, we will never again hear the unparalleled voice of ghazal maestro Mehdi Hassan, as he is no more with us today.

After the nation has mourned the death of a most talented ghazal singer of the subcontinent, it boils down to the relationships between the performer and the individual he is communicating to

Undoubtedly, there are no words to explain the influence he had over my generation and the ones before me.

His golden voice, excellent command over his craft embedded in classical singing, its remarkable range and skillful delivery struck the imagination of listeners is, and will remain till such time Urdu as a language survives.

Although he never wrote any piece of poetry, his skills made his King of Gazal singing.

Mehdi Hassan devoted himself to be trained as a ghazal singer with solid classical grounding, as he was blessed with a lineage that traced its musical heritage for previous 16 generations.

His commitment made people of Z.A Bukhari’s standing offer him commission at Radio Pakistan in the late 1950s and landed him a few songs for Pakistani movies.

However, there was no looking back once he combined with that matchless music composer Khawaja Khurshid Anwar in Ghunghat in 1962.

The enthralling picture was a hit here and an even greater success across the border, and the number ‘Mujh ko awaaz de tu kahan hai’ turned Mehdi Hassan into a star singer at once.

Since the melodic quality of his voice suited the persona of most male leads of our industry wandering as lovers in the 1960s and for a good part of the 1970s – Mohammad Ali, Waheed Murad and Nadeem – he was one busy singer.

Mehdi Hasan churned out hit numbers in scores year after year and this was besides his quite considerable Punjabi opus.

Although his film numbers had their own value, it is his ghazal singing in unique, classical mould that was always captivating beyond words for an industry that was forever entrant.

Lata Mangeshkar on occasion dubbed Mehdi Hasan as “the voice of God. That was what made that great diva who has reigned supreme for about three generations,

Mehdi Hassan laid to rest today but there is scant doubt his legacy and legend would live on – forever.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=25887

Posted by Faisal Farooq on Jun 15 2012. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.