25 SONGS BY MEHDI HASSAN:
Mehdi Hassan
By Ustad Ghulam Haider Khan
Every great artiste is made by the separate contributions of several teachers, actual or virtual. Some teachers appear like a commanding wind; the artistic mind bends to its modulations. And others try to impose themselves on the artiste, especially when he is young and still unsure of himself. One such teacher was the dhrupad singer Niaz Hussein Shami. A failed singer himself, the man was recognized as a genius among tune-composers. Once he composed a ghazal for Mehdi Hassan. It was ‘Patta patta boota boota haal hamara janey hai”. The ghazal was difficult to sing because of a change in the horizontal note. But Mehdi rendered it ably. (Even Lata Mangeshkar was compelled to acknowledge this.) Now Mehdi was so impressed by Niaz Hussein Shami that he began to treat him like an ustad. But Shami got over-excited and began to claim that he had even composed Mehdi’s great hit ‘Gulon mein rang bhare’. This annoyed Mehdi and he dropped Shami.