Jingle Bells, Soap Bubbles & Other Such... (II)

A Song for Every Mood

This one is about the songs sung by Shafqat Amanat Ali for Pakistani TV soaps

The TV dramas are a full-fledged, flourishing industry in Pakistan. The 80’s and 90’s were said to be the golden period for the TV dramas there. And when I think of the monster hits like Dhoop Kinare and Tanhaayian, I feel that their music could definitely be counted as one of the reasons for their success. The haunting background score of Tanhaaiyan and the beautiful words of Faiz used as a song in Dhoop Kinare- anyone who has watched these two will always feel nostalgic about these tunes…

Shafqat, too, has lent his voice to several, beautiful Pakistani TV drama tracks.

Here are some of them in my order of preference.

At No.11 : Matti 

“Apni matti se wafa, hum bhi karein tum bhi karo / Iska jo haq hai ada hum bhi karein tum bhi karo...”

10 : Khalish - If you thought Bin Tere was the only one where Shafqat laments about the Khalish of separation, listen to this one…

9:   Tere Jaane ke Baad –  “Knowing someone isn't coming back, doesn't mean you ever stop waiting”

8:  Jaaye Kahan Yeh Dil - Amazing when it gets to the part - 

“Yaad kisay hum rakhain, aur kisay hum bhoolain/ 

Nainon se nain kahain, palkon se palkain choolain”

7:  Khamoshiyan – The silent tears…

"Apne Haathon Ki Lakeeron Se/Tera Naam Mitaa Ke

Tere Chehre Ko, Apne Dil Ke…Aiiney Se Hata Ke

Aaj kyun aankh bhar aayi…"

6:  Makaan - Sweetness of the language, that is Punjabi –

“Roz, Roz marde ne, jeende ne- Do ghadiyaan de Insaan….”

5 : Aman- “When we reach out, we bloom. We make this world a more beautiful place to live in”

“Haath se haath mila kar toh dekho, duniya khud hi badal jaayegi”

4:  Mera Ishq Ghumshuda.. “Though lovers be lost, love shall not…”

“kisi ujadi yaad ka sheher hai, kisi gehre dard ki leher hai ,yeh  hai zindagi ki yeh ki zeher hai…”

3:  Ik Sitam aur Meri Jaan : Shafqat's version of the original by Mehdi Hassan- beautiful lyrics!

"Jurme-tauheen-e mohabbat ki saza de mujh ko/ kuch toh mehroom-i ulfat ka sila de mujh ko

Jism se rooh ka rishta nahi toota hai abhi /haath se sabr ka daaman nahi choota hai abhi

Abhi jalte hue khwabon ka dhuaan baaqi hai…."

2: Kaisee hain Dooriyan –“And ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.”- Khalil Gibran

 “Tumhe paane ki badi aas thi, Bujh na saki jo pyaas thi..”

And my No. 1 is this : Jiya na Jaaye :  Dripping with romance- each word, each note -caresses the senses, as softly as a snowflake!

“Bheegi bheegi aankhon mein , kahin bheeni bheeni raat hai

Neele neele paani mein kahin geela geela chaand hai”

“I have my own particular sorrows, loves, delights; and you have yours.  But sorrow, gladness, yearning, hope, love, belong to all of us, in all times and in all places.  Music is the only means whereby we feel these emotions in their universality.”

So true, these, words… I connect to each of these songs and despite not having watched the shows that they are from, I can still relate to the emotions that they convey.

Thank you Shafqat Amanat Ali, for giving me a song for every mood…

Saagar- The High Tide That Refuses To Ebb

“For East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet…”- wrote Rudyard Kipling in his Ballad of the East and West-maybe because he never got a chance to listen to Fuzon’s  Saagar- the perfect example of the east and west reaching out, and embracing each other .A perfect blend of two styles, the coming together of two very different musical traditions, to create something so unique and magical that it satiated music lovers in a way like never before

“Still listening to this in 2012”- reads a YouTube comment on the song Aankhon ke Sagar from this album; and it was this comment that inspired this post. In this day and age pop albums in the subcontinent are hardly getting produced, and even if they are, they have a very short shelf life and are easily forgotten, for they have to compete with a monster of a song factory called Bollywood.

What is it then that makes Saagar sound so fresh, so endearing till date, a decade after its release? An intriguing question, indeed, and I had to search the answer.

Beautiful compositions, for starters, which combine the delicate nuances of the Hindustani classical with the energy of western sounds and beats… Easy to remember, catchy lyrics, which talk of the universal themes of friendship, love, romance, separation, yearning, pain …

But above all a voice- the voice so pure that it connects its listeners to the emotions of the songs instantly. A voice so strong that it takes over your being and transports you to another world altogether. It feels more than it sings, and brings the music not just to your ears but straight to the heart.

The voice of Shafqat Amanat Ali!

Here I pick my top 5 favorites from the album that I just cannot get over.

1. Khamaj- The Heart Calls Out..

“Beautiful heart-rending song, it almost touches the soul with its bare hands”

- a YouTube comment

If I had to hear one last song before I died, this would be the one! The melancholy, the longing and a kind of resignation, too… For the world, it might be the lament of a lover, for me it is a call to the divine-the desperation of a soul to meet its maker, an appeal to end the long wait before the two reunite! Titled after the beautiful raga that it is based on, this song in my opinion is synonymous with perfection…

2. Aankhon ke Saagar- The Ultimate romance!

“I could elope with his voice” – A Shafqat fan, on twitter

This song is every woman’s dream come true-The impassioned urge of a lover in a voice that sounds like that- what more could one ask for? And lines like-Palkon ko aise, Palkon se chchoo le…Ke jab dil mile, toh manzil mile” are simply to die for!                                                                                                                                                                      

3. Madhbanti – Yearnings of the night!

Another raga based composition, which brings to life the mood of the night. As night falls, and the shadows lengthen, the pain of separation seems to increase manifold

Purwa Chalay Kuch Aisi/Khushbu Teri Ho Jaisie

Sham Dhallay Kuch Aise/Palkain Jhukaye Tu Jaise

The wind blows such/ like your fragrance floats around

The night falls/ as if you slowly lower your gaze

4. Malhaar- Singing in the Rains!

My favorite season, one of my favorite ragas and my favorite for life singer… when they got together, I became hooked forever. I think I’ll be playing this song every monsoon season that I live to see.

5. Akhiyan- The first flush of love

The feeling of falling in love is incomparable- and the excitement, the attraction, the energy that it creates is beautifully captured in this folksy, fast paced number. The passion, the power and the pace makes you want to tap your feet and dance to it even today!

It’s hard to sum up how I feel about this album- but a line borrowed from a music review of the album does some justice to my reaction to it- the first time that I heard it and every time that I hear it…

“Fuzon's vocalist Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan, one of Pakistan's most distinguished classical pop vocalists, is at his very best... a formidable achievement, every glorious second of it.”

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…

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!