Aaj Jaane Ki Zid Na Karo...

mag·i·cal/ˈmajikəl

Adj:giving a feeling of enchantment

Synonyms: bewitching, charming, spellbinding

There was once this song. It was made many- many years ago- 1973 to be precise-A simple love song that caught the imagination of millions of music lovers. The perfect combination of lyrics, melody, melancholy and romance…It would often get requested in dying hours of parties when it was almost time to leave. Everyone who was or had been in love could relate to it.

Given its popularity many singers sang it – different voices, different styles. Each lover of this song seems to have their own favorite. I had mine, too. It was sung by the Ghazal queen Farida Khanum.

And then one day I listened to a version sung by Shafqat Amanat Ali. And It was MAGICAL. The way he sang it, transformed the meaning of the song for me. It gave it a new ethereal, spiritual dimension. It was no longer a simple ballad that talked about common love. It was now the agony that the thought of being separated from someone you have devoted your life to would produce. It was realization of the impermanence, the fleeting nature of time;of the purity of love itself that takes the mortal existence to a higher level of being all together.

The powerful singing even compelled me to do a very inspired translation of the beautiful lyrics- my own interpretation of the love and longing that the song represents.

Do not talk of leaving tonight

Just be here, sit by my side

Devastated and lost that’s what I’ll be

If you even talk of leaving me

How can I not urge you not to go

You are my life, don’t you know

My dearest, promise me, you have to agree

Tonight you won’t talk of leaving me

In the shackles of time, lives are bound to be

Rare moments like these, set us free…

If you let them just flit away

You’ll miss them…. every day

So tell me you won’t go…and will be here today

So vibrant, this hour, oh so divine,

Grace and passion rise in an embrace, sublime

For the ‘morrow there is no worry no care

When tonight is ours to feel and share

So be mine, I won’t let you out of sight

Don’t insist on going away tonight!

They say that you know that you are in love when the hardest thing to do is say good-bye. No wonder then that I can’t stop listening to Shafqat’s  Aaj Jaane ki Zid na Karo, because his voice makes you fall in love with it ,each time!

Some facts about the song

- The song was written by Fayyaz Hashmi and composed by the famous music composer Sohail Rana for the Pakistani film “Badal aur Bijli”

- It was originally sung by Habib Wali Mohammad

- The version sung by Farida Khanum is probably the most popular, though many other singers including Asha Bhonsle, Talat Aziz and Anup Jalota have sung it as well

- The song is in Raag Yaman

Umra Langiyaan

"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music”

-  Sergei Rachmaninov

I have to say that my becoming and admitting to being a diehard Shafqat Amanat Ali fan is a pretty recent happening. I have admired his voice and work in since his debut album Sagar as a part of the Fuzon band and I welcomed his entry into Bollywood with the very endearing Mitwa, like any other music lover, but it’s only recently that I realized what a beautiful body of work he has managed to do in the past few years both in Bollywood and outside it.

What is it that makes Shafqat's voice and work so special for me? And before I put forward my reasons I would like to add the disclaimer that I am no expert in critiquing music. I talk like a lay person, an average music lover, who can attribute the ear to music to many a winter evening spent with my granddad- him playing his harmonium and singing his favorite folk songs. He was a good singer and his enthusiasm was infectious. Or could it be my dad? Two walls of his room are lined with his massive collection of music tapes, the titles of which include pretty much all the greats of  the Hindustani classical music. The tapes would be played religiously each morning and evening for hours (I even protested, sometime) and the music still reverberates inside me.

Coming back to the reasons why I think Shafqat‘s voice is special: the number one of course is his rigorous training in classical music. And then there is the spiritual element of his personality which gets reflected in the words that he writes or the music that he composes. And last but not the least is his ability to keep up with times, to experiment, fuse and reinvent his music to make it more in tune with the times- The way he chooses his songs when he sings for the others in Bollywood also reflects that. While the latter two might become topics for later blogs, for this one I want to stick to his background in classical music.

When I searched for his non Bollywood music, I stumbled upon this video. 

It sounded interesting – both the words the music. And then it led me to discover the other star of his family, the much loved Asad Amanat AliKhan, his elder brother who passed away, relatively young in 2007. This was one of his most loved song. A Punjabi song written by Mazhar Tirmazi interspersed with some lines of Ghulam Farid. The YouTube comments and the reactions of the audience say it all. But more than everything it’s the joy on his face while he sings which reflects the passion that this family has for their music.

It is not fair not compare the two renditions as the one by Shafqat is done on request in a live concert, impromptu, with a rock band as an accompaniment, while Asad Amanat Ali performs in a studio mehfil with traditional instruments. The quality of sound and video are also vastly different (Shafqat’s is probably captured on phone)

But the point is that these two stars come from the same family. They were taught and polished by their grandfather, father and uncle who are stalwarts of music. Both the brothers’ singing has the ability to surprise. While Asad’s voice for me is like a playful mountain brook which can make you marvel at its ability to change its course at will, Shafqat’s comes across as a placid lake that makes you wonder what is coming out next from its depths. That’s the power of classical discipline, the might of the musical genes! It gives a singer the authority and the control that sets him apart form an untrained voice.

"Umran Langiyaan", when translated form Punjabi, means “lifetimes have passed”. It definitely takes more than one lifetime for listeners like me to even begin to grasp the might of this music which has transcended through generations in this musical clan…

Roots and Wings

 “I had an inheritance from my father,

It was the moon and the sun.

And though I roam all over the world,

The spending of it’s never done.”

― Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls

Shafqat Amanat Ali hails from an illustrious musical family and is infact the seventh generation performer, who carries forward the tradition of the Patiala Gharana that was founded by his great grandfather Ali Baksh.

Imagine growing up in a household where music is a way of life and comes as natural as breathing … (Shafqat recalls his first lessons of music from his grandmother, here) Having lost his father, Amanat Ali Khan at a relatively tender age of 9, his musical training came from his uncle, Fateh Ali Khan

Amanat Ali and Fateh Ali performing together

Fateh Ali Khan talks about his Gharana and Gayaki

“Every child born in the family had to compulsorily train in music for 10-12 years and though no one was forced to take up music as a career, at the end of the rigorous grinding they all just wanted to be musicians”- says Shafqat. 

According to him, his elder brother’s sons Amjad Amanat Ali’s sons Salman Amjad and Ali Amjad are ready to enter the industry whereas Sikander Asad (brother,Asad Amanat Ali’s son) is also waiting for the right time to surprise everyone. “Even my own 15-year-old son Saadat Ali Bakhs is getting formally trained from the gharana”( Read the interview)

Someone has said, “The songs of our ancestors are also the songs of our children” – and this is so true for the great tradition that Shafqat today represents.Here’s hoping that many generations of this family will continue to enthrall the music lovers worldwide!

Introduction

My humble tribute to my favorite singer, Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan. A one stop shop for everything and anything related to the man who wins hearts through his voice!