25 SONGS BY MEHDI HASSAN
Mehdi Hassan
By Ustad Ghulam Haider Khan
Alas Mehdi spent a lot of the money he earned on drinking and smoking. He was never a drunk, though; he remained alert and agile even when he had consumed a considerable amount. Once in the 1980s I was sent to fetch him for a concert in Faisalabad. He was staying at the Rio Hotel. In his room I learned that he had already drunk a bottle and a half. But instead of tripping him up, it vitalized him: on stage he announced that he was going to present a new ghazal of Ahmed Faraz that he had just composed in the dark and delicate Raag Kirmani. He began his alaap and rendered the bass Pa of the lower octave with such clarity, power and resounding beauty that the hall burst into applause. That unforgettable ghazal was ‘Shola tha jal bujha hu, hawaayein mujhay na do’.
And it is that same ghazal I remember when I think of Mehdi now. He is an old man, ill and bed-ridden, unable even to speak, let alone sing. At a tribute concert arranged for him recently in Islamabad, he appeared in a wheelchair, looking frail and sad. His family has done nothing to help him in this period of his life. Neither, sadly, has the government or business elite of this benighted country. For a man who has given us so much, and whose recordings are sure to inspire generations of singers to come, I am sure we can all do a lot more.
Ustad Ghulam Haider Khan lives in Lahore