Mehdi Hassan
Mehdi Hassan was born in a village of Rajasthan into a family of dhrupad singers, went to Pakistan in 1947, and from the late 1950s sang the ghazal as nobody had — with the full discipline of khayal behind every line. Ranjish Hi Sahi, Gulon Mein Rang Bhare, Zindagi Mein To Sabhi Pyar Kiya Karte Hain and Rafta Rafta are heard across both borders; Lata Mangeshkar said that God himself sang in his voice.
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Life
He was born in 1927 at Luna in Jhunjhunu district, the sixteenth generation of the Kalawant family of musicians, trained under his father Azeem Khan and uncle Ismail Khan, and after Partition worked as a mechanic in Pakistan while he practised; Radio Pakistan took him in 1957 and film work (Farangi, 1964, Gulon Mein Rang Bhare) followed.
Through the 1960s and 70s he sang for Pakistani films and recorded ghazals of Faiz, Ahmed Faraz, Mir and Ghalib; his concerts in India from the late 1970s were events, and his tunes were taken up by Hindi film composers. Illness ended his singing around 2000. He received Pakistan's Pride of Performance, the Hilal-e-Imtiaz and, in India, honours from the Sangeet Natak Akademi and the Saigal Award.
The voice
A deep, grave, extraordinarily controlled baritone that moved through raga phrases as easily as through words; the low register and slow alaap opening a ghazal are his signature.
Composers
- His own settings
- Nisar Bazmi
- Rasheed Attre
- Khalil Ahmed
Sang for
- Waheed Murad
- Mohammad Ali
- Nadeem
Sang with
- Noor Jehan
- Mala
Honours
Pride of Performance (Pakistan); Hilal-e-Imtiaz; Nigar Awards; Saigal Award (India)
Ghazals and non-film recordings 5
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