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Mehdi Hassan, the greatest ghazal singer of our times, turned 80 recently. He is a living legend who has given to this genre of music innovative and creative dimensions. The "nightingale" Lata Mangeshkar compares his voice to "the voice of God". The singing of Mehdi Hassan is uniquely sonorous with extraordinary warbling and cadence. He sings with full-throated ease and his notes are based on harmonious rendition of poetry. While computing musical notes for creating the desired melody and effect, he adopts a magical sequence of sounds, and rises to transcendental heights of sublime euphony. He sings with controlled velocity and shuns licentious speed. In his hands, ghazal singing has acquired inventive freshness though he is deeply rooted in centuries-old tradition of Indian classical music, which is tough, profound, and beyond the comprehension of lay listeners. It demands of the singer rigorous essentialities of controlling and regulating the release of breath and entails techniques highly ticklish but indispensable to sweeten the melodies. For example, the techniques of alaap, taan, meend, murki, khatka, iraada, behlaawa, etc, in the genres of khayaal, taraana, thumri, kajri, tappa, daadra, and classical ghazal. Mehdi Hassan has mastery over all these and his music is not an "expensive noise". He gives the listener calmness and tranquillity. It is no exaggeration when his admirers call him "Awaaz ka Messiha". He is a rare gift of the "nine muses" to the world. Mehdi Hassan has a knack of selecting and using musical stratagems that enable his singing to have exact concordance with the temper of the ‘thought and emotion’ of poetry sung by him. For example, while singing Mir Taqi Mir’s ghazal "Yeh dhuaan saa kahaan se uthtaa hai" (wherefrom does this smoky thing ascend?), he has given such a twist to his voice that in the minds of the listeners is created a picture of smoke rising up in curls. The most noteworthy innovation of Mehdi Hassan is that he frequently elongates select pieces of poetry while singing, and repeats his elongations several times, each time in different combination of notes. For example, while singing Ahmad Faraaz’s monumental masterpiece ‘Ranjish hi sahi, dil hi dukhane ke liye aa; aa phir se mujhe chhord ke jaane ke liye aa’ (Despite thy annoyance, please do come to me, be it to grieve my heart with thy redeserting me), Mehdi Hassan repeats coveted pieces of poetry three, four, nine, 12, and even 14 times, each time in variant snippets of melody strictly in unison with the feeling behind the words, and creates a galaxy of sweet combinations of poetry and music. Son of Ustad Azeem Khan, Mehdi Hassan was born 80 years ago at Loona village in Jaipur district (under the then princely state Mamdawa) into a family of hereditary musicians of the Kalawant clan. He is the 10th generation of this family in which the first known ancestor was the court musician of Raja Man Singh during the rule of Emperor Akbar. Mehdi Hassan started learning music at the tender age of just eight from his father who simultaneously taught him gymnastics and muscular exercises. In August 1947, his family migrated to Pakistan. The basic necessities of life compelled this boy of 20 years to work in a bicycle shop in Pakistan, and after some years, as a car and tractor mechanic. In 1952, his talent as a musical genius was recognised and he was appointed a thumri singer with Radio Pakistan. Some time later he became a playback singer in the film industry where he got a lot of name and fame. However, he rose to his full stature as a ghazal singer in the 1960s. In the late 1980s, he suffered a severe paralytic stroke but, fortunately, recovered after some time. He has a huge fan following not only in Pakistan but also in India, Nepal and West Asia. Currently, he is happily settled in Karachi with his family.
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