By A C Tuli
A ghazal, to put it succinctly, is a poetic composition, often in rhyming couplets, expressive of a lover’s feelings and emotions for his beloved. It may also be philosophic in content, dwelling on some eternal truths of human life.
Literary historians believe that the poetic genre known as ghazal first originated in tenth century Persia (present day Iran), later made its way into Afghanistan, and finally came to our country when a large part of it came to be ruled by Muslim kings. They and their followers brought with them the socio-literary traditions of the land of their origin.
Of course, ghazals were originally written in Persian, but when years of social interaction between Hindus and Muslims in India gave birth to a new language, known to us as Urdu, ghazal writing underwent a significant change. This literary development took place mainly in the 18th and 19th century India. Many Urdu poets - among them Mir Taqi Mir, Zauq, Mirza Ghalib, and, much later, Jigar Moradabadi, are some renowned names - wrote beautiful ghazals, which they recited at ‘mushairas’ or in private ‘mehfils’.
When the talkies came to India in the early 30s, film lyricists and music directors began to compose songs for films. Most of the lyricists who then wrote songs for films were reputed Urdu and Hindi poets. Quite a few of the songs they wrote for films were ghazals, to which music directors of those days gave memorable tunes. Thus, people who were not literary-minded enough to read what these great Urdu poets had written, now got the opportunity to listen to their creations beautifully set to music.
The earliest male singer-actor who gave his voice to the creations of Ghalib, Zauq, Mir Taqi Mir, and several other eminent Urdu poets of the 19th and early 20th century was K L Saigal. His melodious voice was eminently suitable for singing ghazals.
The first Hindi film for which K L Saigal sang four memorable ghazals was ‘Yahudi Ki Ladki’ (1933) made by New Theatres of Calcutta. Three of these ghazals - ‘Yeh tassuraf Allah Allah tere maikhane mein hai’, ‘Nukta cheen hai gham-e-dil’, ‘Lag gayee chot karejwa pe hai raam’ - are considered to be among his best-sung songs.
His other well known film ghazals are from ‘Meri Behn’ (1944) - ‘Ai katib-e-taqdeer mujhe itna bata de...,’ and ‘Hai kis boot ki mohabbat mein giraftaar hue...’ - written by the poet Pandit Bhushan.
Hindi films provided Udru poets like Arzoo Lakhnavi, Shakeel Badayni, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Sahir Ludhianvi, Kaifi Azmi, Rajinder Krishan, Qamar Jalalabadi, Prem Dhawan, Hasrat Jaipuri and several others with the opportunity to have their creations immortalised in the voices of our eminent playback singers.
After Saigal, the next great ghazal singer for Hindi films was Talat Mehmood. Some of the most remembered film ghazals are in the voice of Talat Mahmood. Who can ever forget his, ‘Meri yaad mein tum na ansoo bahana’ (‘Madhosh’), ‘Yeh hawa yeh raat ye chandni, teri ik nigah pe nissar hai’ (‘Sangdil’), ‘Sham-e-gham ki kasam, aaj ghamgeen hain hum’ (‘Footpath’), ‘Dil-e-nadaan tujhe hua kya hai’ (‘Mirza Ghalib’), ‘Dekh li teri khudaee bus mera dil bhar gaya,’ (‘Kinare Kinare’), ‘Mein dil hoon ik armaan bhara’ (‘Anhonee’), ‘Zindagi dene wale sun, teri duniya se dil bhar gaya’ (‘Dil-e-Nadan’), and many others.
