Though I have special love and respect for many artists of the gharana, my favorite will always be Ustad Fateh Ali Khan This doyen of music passed away in January last year and left behind so many gems sung in his inimitable style.
G for Ghazal
The Patiala Gharana artists were not the ones to shy away from embracing change with changing times. Despite their mastery in the pure classical format, Ustad Amanat Ali and Fateh Ali did not hesitate to the try lighter genres like Ghazal which were becoming popular with the audiences.
H for Hamid Ali Khan
The youngest of Ustad Akhtar Hussain is more like the next generation of the gharana. Asad Amanat Ali, his nephew, and he teamed up to form another formidable duo in classical singing and continued the Patiala tradition of singing in pairs.
I For ‘Insha ji utho’ by Ibn- e- Insha
Insha jee utho,ab koch karo;Iss shehar main jee ko lagana kya Vehshi ko sakoon se kya matlab;Jogi ka nagar main thikana kya
( Insha! Rise… it’s time to leave, why grow fond of this life; Of what use is tranquility to passion, Where’s the place for a loner in a crowd)
These beautiful words of the great poet Ibn-e-Inshawere brought to life by Ustad Amanat Ali Khan. And the ustad died very young, at just 43… as if he were eager to walk away from this world full of attachments. His son, Asad, continued singing this song and he went way too early too. The family then began to perceive a stigma of bad luck with the song. The rest of the singing members of the family were thus asked to avoid singing it . Incidentally Ibn-e –Insha passed away early too, at the age of only 50.
J For Jaijawanti
Ustad Amanat Ali Khan was said to be particularly fond of this raag. This information and along with some insight into his musical personality comes through this quote from an article written by his friend…
“Amanat and I …sitting in a Government College hostel room … Amanat is dusting an old harmonium with his handkerchief. The instrument is untuned, but that does not deter Amanat from unravelling a raag in that beautiful voice of his. He loved the raag JaiJaivanti and he used to say that there were nights when he was able to physically invoke the presiding goddess of that divine raag.”
Shafqat Amanat Ali’s music is a reflection of what has been passed onto him as a legacy. He never fails to remember his roots and always finds a way to pay tribute to this inheritance. His album Saagar when he was part of the Fuzon Band had a repackaged Patiala Gharana thumri in Raag Khamaj. Then Tabeerhad his father’s famous Darbari.
The album Kyun Dooriyan had a song called Naukar Tere, the tune of which is inspired by a traditional Saraiki wedding song that his grandmother used to sing. (His grandmother was the sister of Ustad Umeed Ali of the Gwalior Gharana. She had extensive knowledge of music and in fact was in charge of the training the children in the family while Shafqat was growing up )
One of the highlights of Shafqat Amanat Ali’s recently released album, Muh Dikhai is a Ghazal –“ Dil dhahdkane ka sabab yaad aaya” Written by the very famous urdu poet Nasir Qazmi this ghazal was originally composed by Shafqat’s father, Ustad Amanat Ali Khan
Born as Raza Kazmi in Ambala, India, he wrote under the pseudonym Nasir. A great admirer of Meer he is often credited as one of the founders of modern ghazal. Simplicity of thought and of words helped him connect to mass audiences. A peer of Faiz,who was massively popular, he was still able to carve a special mark in the world of poetry.
What is common in most of what he has written is an undercurrent of resigned sadness. It is believed he was very affected by the partition which forced him to move to Pakistan and that sadness is reflected in his words.
But besides the sadness of losing his roots, his poetry,is also about having lost love and friendship. The expression of loneliness and the helplessness of it is, a theme that runs through many of his poems .
Intizar Hussain, a renowned Urdu fiction writer of Pakistan said in his tribute to Kazmi at a seminar-“Nasir Kazmi is the poet who, through his poetry, taught people the etiquette of sadness” Going through his works make you nod in agreement to that statement.
Silence is a sign of a level of comfort in a relationship but sometimes it is the sign of a relationship gone bad…
Aaj toh wo bhi kuch khamosh sa thaa
Maine bhii us-se koi baat na kii
He too seemed a little quiet today
And I didn’t talk to him either
Nasir laments here about the relationship that ceased to be
Yaad aata hai roz o shab koi
Hamse rootha hai besabab koi
Haunted by his memory day and night
The one who is upset without a reason
He expresses so beautifully on what all is missed when a relationship ends
Vo dosti toh khair ab naseebe dushmana hui
Wo choti choti ranjishon ka lutf bhi chala gaya
The friendship met its fate and ended in animosity
And with that went away the joy of those petty tiffs
It was Nasir Kazmi who said
Dil mein aur kya rakha hai
Tera dard chuppa rakha hai
What else would you find inside my heart
Only the pining and pain for you
And the phrase was borrowed probably by Anjaan for this song from the movie Imaandar ?
The need to be connected with the world and to be alone at the same time is a feeling that everyone knows, but how many can say it like he does
Diwangi e shauq ko ye dhun hai in dino
Ghar bhi ho aur be dar o divar sab hi ho
A frenzied desire overwhelms me these days
Of having a house sans its walls and doors
It isnt the world around us that is usually responsible for our woes, it is mostly ourselves who cause it- and he talks about it in his popular ghazal Apni dhun mein rehta hun
Apnii lahar hai apna rog
Dariya hun aur pyaasa hun
My being is what ails me
Like a flowing river that thirsts
And music lovers from the subcontinent often have swayed to Dil mein ik lehar si uthi hai abhi– sung beautifully by none other than Ghulam Ali Sahab.
Some profound thoughts in this one too
Bhari duniya mein dil nahin lagta
Jaane kis cheez ki kami hai abhi
In this bustling world, my heart finds no solace
What is it that is lacking, what is that it is seeking?
And
Tu sharik e sukhan nahi hai to kya
Hum sukhan teri khamoshi hai abhi
So what if you are no longer participating
Your silence is still a part of our conversation
A rare and surprisingly optimistic note pops up sometime- struggling and possibly succeeding in living with the pain- a comfortably numb state if you may
Kuch ab sambhalne lagi hai jaan bhi, badal chala daur e aasman bhi
Jo raat bhari thi tal gai hai jo din kada tha guzar gaya wo
My heart finds a new strength, the times are changing
That trying night has finally passed, that hard day has finally ended
Dil Dhadkne ka Sabab – Translation
When I felt my heart beat, I remembered why
I was remembering you… that is why
My friend, as I struggled to stay afloat ,
The effort just made me miss you like never before
The day was hard to get by as it is and then I remembered
That promise of an evening rendezvous
O your long forgotten vows of fidelity
Recalling them is but a death wish
Then so many people came by and were gone
Reminding me of that joyful place
I’d have had no qualms about sharing my woes
Alas I remembered them, only when he was gone
I then sat in lesiure, in the shadow of the bossoms ,missing him
And cried to my heart’s content
Even Mallika e Tarannum has lent her voice to a film version of this ghazal – (Music by Ustad Nazar Hussain? )
I wish I had access to Ustad Amanat Ali’s original rendition… but this one re created and sung beautifull by his son is brilliant, by any standards.
Reading Nasir moves you… his dignity in pain amazes you. His subtle and sophisticated references to what he is going through almost makes you ask him..in his own words…
EverythingShafqat 