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Golden voice that transcended borders
Vandana Shukla/TNS

teri mehfil mein lekin hum na honge…"

Ghazal and Mehdi Hassan will remain inseparable in public memory. And a love affair once begun with his serenading voice will never end. Hassan's death after a prolonged illness in a hospital at Karachi, Pakistan, on Wednesday was that of his body.

Born in undivided India (1927), at Luna in Rajasthan, his music soared into the skies, rendering the lines drawn as boundaries futile. His textured voice made personal chambers in the hearts of his listeners across borders. Each one of them would vouch to have an intimate relationship with him - struck while listening to his cascading ghazals on a drive, in a party or in the privacy of ear plugged i-pod.

"Patta patta boota boota haal hamara jaane hai", "Ranjish hi sahi", "zindagi mein to sabhi pyar kiya karte hain", or "Baat karni mujhe mushkil" could serenade, sublimate and elevate-all at the same time. No wonder several of his 25,000 recordings have become part of personal narratives of his listeners, which is the greatest tribute millions of his fans pay to the artiste.

Equally popular among connoisseurs, erudite musicians and the novices, the undisputed king of ghazal, Hassan was born in a family of traditional musicians. He claimed to have been the 16th descendant of the Kalawant clan - the traditional Dhrupad singers.

His father Ustad Azeem Khan and uncle Ustad Ismail Khan, both acclaimed dhrupad singers trained him in music. Hassan is said to have given his first dhrupad and khayal concert at Fazilka, Punjab, in association with his elder brother.

In 1947, Hassan and his family moved to Pakistan, where they suffered financial hardship. This forced Hassan to work at a bicycle repair shop and later as a car and tractor mechanic. But he never left music, or rather music never left him.

Finally, Radio Pakistan came to his rescue. In 1952, he got his first break as a thumri singer. He also had a passion for Urdu poetry and started to experiment by singing ghazals on part-time basis. In this genre, popularity came to him in the 60s. His mellifluous voice, with its amazing emotive quality captured the mood of the ghazal penned by masters like Ghalib, Meer or contemporaries like Faiz, Parveen Shakir and Faraz.

He also became playback singer for Lollywood, but it was his ghazal renderings that caught people's imagination. Hassan remained thankful to radio officers ZA Bukhari and Rafiq Anwar in his progression as a ghazal singer. What did Hassan do to have maturity in his renditions and longevity of his singing career among many voices emerging on both sides of the border post-Partition?

He captured the most important aspect of ghazal rendering; its theme and mood, and found ragas suited to the particular mood of the ghazal, instead of going the other way round, as was the practice before him.

Among eminent classical exponents of his times ghazal rendering was a taboo. But with his finesse and strong footing in classical music, he gave it a high pedestal in the echelons of melodic renditions. He transformed ghazal into a classical genre. Though he used techniques of thumri and khayal gayaki in his ghazal rendering, the beautiful bond he nurtured between the lyrics and melody was responsible for making him the ghazal king.

The fluid texture of his voice could emote each word with such depth and effect that the listener would not come out of its spell. This spell would transcend time to become a part of memory, to linger.

His contribution to the genre of ghazal is all the more relevant because in Pakistan, where he lived for most part of his life, questions confronted him whether music is "haraam" or "halaal", and whether the glorious tradition of Hindustani classical music of the subcontinent should be banned under cultural ethos of an Islamic state. In this backdrop, he became a cultural ambassador of his country and popularised ghazal across the globe.

Hassan last performed in India in 2000, and wanted to visit the country again. Afflicted with paralysis and several other complications, he could not visit India again. The government of Rajasthan had offered medical help to him, but despite receiving a visa last January, he could not travel due to his deteriorating health.

"Sarhadein", released in 2010, had the first and last duet song "Tera milna" he sang with Lata Mangeshkar, who had once called Hassan the "voice of God". Hassan's voice for the song was recorded in Pakistan in 2009, and Lata Mangeshkar later heard the track and recorded her part in India in 2010, the recordings were later mixed together for the duet.

Rajasthan, where Mehdi Hassan was born, is known for its melodies celebrating the relationship between the earth and soul. His voice will continue to mesmerise music lovers for ever.

Hassan’s UNFORGETTABLES

• Zindagi mein to sabhi pyar kiya karte hain...
• Ranjish hi sahi...
• Ab ke hum bichhde to shayad khwabon mein milen...
• Ye dhuwan kahan se uthta hai...
• Rafta rafta wo mere dil ka...
• Patta patta boota boota haal hamara jaane hai...