Although I’m guilty of the crime as much as anyone, I really don’t like referring to the Mumbai-based Indian cinema industry as Bollywood. It rings false, as if it somehow were not serious, frivolous and needs to be associated (linguistically) with Hollywood to be legitimate. But most of all, it is the narrowing of the frame of what defines an Indian film that makes me most uncomfortable. India is full of regional cinema with some of the world’s most acclaimed directors working in non-musical based cinema. (full post and goodies)
Noor Jehan is
Pakistan’s most well known and certainly most loved popular singer. With a
career that began in pre-Partition India, Madam
Noor Jehanis widely considered,
not only the best popular singer Pakistan has ever produced, but perhaps the
greatest female voice from the entire sub-continent. She migrated ‘back home’ to what had become
Pakistan, in 1948, where she ruled the roost without having to fend off any
serious challenge to her undisputed status as Malika-e-Tarunnum (Empress of Melody) until her death in 2000.
A confluence of politics, economic priorities and feudal
dismissiveness saw the once strong Lahore and Karachi based film industries
steadily weaken in the years following Independence. It didn’t have to be this way. On Pakistan’s
very first day as an Independent nation, the celebrations in Karachi marking
the occasion were headed up by one of Bombay’s hottest jazz band leaders, Ken Mac, who was flown in especially to
set the right tone! In attendance at the hot dance party was none other than
Pakistan’s first Prime Minister, the prickly Mohammad Ali Jinnah. The mind simply boggles, from this historic
remove! Read about this
very cool ‘birth of Pakistan’ at Naresh
Fernandes’ fabulous website.
With Bollywood now a global brand it is too easy to relegate
the Pakistani film industry (Lollywood) to a history that holds, ‘it was never
any good’. Barring Noor Jehan, and even then very few beyond the northern parts of the
sub-continent would know her name or music, Lollywood has been unable to make a
dent in the world’s popular consciousness.
Tonight’s post is a small attempt to set the record
straight(er). Ahmed Rushdiwas born in
Hyderabad (Deccan, not Sindh) into an un-musical, religiously observant family.
Though his father was censorious of such worthless activities as popular music,
his son persisted in listening to the radio and dreaming. An older man in the neighbourhood convinced
the family to enrol Ahmed in a local music school in Hyderabad, but unlike most
of his contemporaries and peers, Rushdi never had formal instruction from a
classical singer. He was about as
natural and self-taught as one could be.
In 1951, Ahmed,
it is claimed by most (but also disputed by others) got his first break in the
Hindi film Ibrat, in which his
brother Arsalan, also starred.
Whatever the truth, in 1954 we find him in Pakistan where he has migrated with
his family. Within 12 months he was
auditioning at Radio Pakistan and several months later had a huge hit with a
reworking of a tune made popular by Lata
Mangeshkar in the 1951 film Hum Log: Bahe ankhiyon se dhaar, jia mora beqara.
Rushdi, took the
basic tune of Lata’s song, added a
catchy galloping sound and took his listeners on a tour of Karachi city. The
song Bander Road se Kemari (From
Bandar Road to Kemari) was a massive hit and has become an icon of Pakistani
popular culture. Rushdi sings the
song from the viewpoint of a tongawala (horse
carriage driver) who is obviously very proud of this great modern city and
relishes pointing out all the sights to his passengers.
Film work soon followed and Ahmed Rushdi quickly rose to
be king of the playback scene.
Throughout the 60s and through most of the 70’s his was the male voice
of the film industry. The 1966 film Armaan,
had Rushdi doing a jazzy guitar
driven pop number, Ko Ko Kareena,
which sounds as if Johnny Cash has
woken up in Karachi after a night of heavy hash smoking. In fact, the song is again a re-working of a
popular Goan song of the same name, sans, of course the film-specific Urdu
lyrics. Ardent fans claim Ko Ko Kareena was the first ‘pop’ song
in South Asia, which is not entirely credible. But it certainly is an early and
very strong example of the genre that both film industries would, over the
years, come to perfect. (Watch the scene from Armaan below)
Rushdi has a
voice that sits somewhere between that of Kishore
Kumar’s and Mohammad Rafi’s. It
is melodic and sweet but (to judge from this collection) he does not have the
vocal or emotional range of Rafi.Ahmed
Rushdi’s improbable place at the top of a nation’s pop charts finally came
to an end with the arrival of a true pop singer Alamgirand the emergence
of the ghazal as the musical lingua franca of the middle
class.
This collection is called Meri Pasand (My Choice) and represents, presumably, Rushdi’s personal favorites. It is a fantastic selection for sure, not
just because of the ground-breaking Ko Ko
Kareena but because it includes such gems as Gol Gappey Wala Aaya, Salaam-e-Mohabbat and Ek Uran Khatola from the delightfully titled action film, Jane Bond: 008 Operation Karachi.
Ahmed Rushdimay have been royalty in a minor kingdom but one can’t help
but wonder had to remained in India, would his name be mentioned in the same
breath as that of Rafi and Kishore?
Track
Listing:
01 Liye Aankhon Mein Ghuroor (Jaise Jante
Nahin)
02 Ko Ko Koreena (Armaan)
03 Kabhi to Tumko Yaad (Chakori)
04 Kisi Chaman Mein Raho (Aanchal)
05 Salaam-E-Mohabbat (Salaam-e- Mohabbat)
06 Aisi Raat Allah (Jaise Jante Nahin)
07 Akele Na Jana (Armaan)
08 Gol Gappay Wala Aaya (Mehtab)
09 Jane Tamanna Khat Hai Tumhara (Chand aur Chandni)
10 Yadash Bakhair (Anjuman)
11 Gori Ke Sar Pe Sajke (Tum Mile Pyar Mila)
12 Kuch Log Rooth Kar Bhi (Andleeb)
13 Ek Uran Khatola (Jane Bond 008 Operation Karachi)
Never judge a book by its cover. Or, in this case, a CD.
Take a look at tonight’s feature and I wouldn’t be surprised
if you clicked on to another blog or simply through your hands up in
exasperation.Looks like a chunk of
Pakistani beefcake. Perhaps a refugee from a Bollywood Boy Band. But nothing
worth my time.
But hold on. Look beyond ever-so-cool stare (yes, Mr Ali Zafar is a model, among many other
things) and give the lad a fair go.
Within this very unlikely package lies some very unexpected
music.I came across Ali Zafar in one of the Coke Studio
discs I have lying about the shelves but had forgotten his name. After
listening to Jhoom (2011) several
times I googled the guy and found the following (paraphrased and condensed by
your’s truly):
·Ali is 32 years old
·Born and raised in Lahore
·Ali is aka ‘Prince of Pop’
·Studied at the National College of Arts and did
quick portraits for passersby at one of Lahore’s pricey hotels
·Starred in couple of Pakistani movies before
being sucked up into the Bollywood dream machine.
·Everything he touches seems to turn to gold. His
movies are cult classics and win awards.
·He has won more awards than an 80 year war hero.
·Voted 5th sexiest Asian man in the
world (2011)
·He’s got a voice as pure as the Indus river at
its source.
·He’s been an actor, artist, composer, singer and
model.
Ali Zafar
The sobriquet ‘Prince of Pop’ rings true, for like Prince (or the artist once known as
such) Ali Zafar composes, sings,
arranges and plays all his own music.He’s got an amazing range of styles and is comfortable with every idiom
from sufi to folk and rock’n roll to R&B. His arrangements are tasteful and
fit the spiritual aura of this collection of sufi-inspired songs.You’d never guess it by looking at the cover
photo but this is record full of classy, contemporary, innovative
interpretations of Bulleh Shah and Ghalib to mention just a couple of
luminaries.
It is one of my favorite records of the week.Really really nice.
Tonight’s post shines the pop spot light on a strange little
gem from that ever confounding country Pakistan. A concept album about a train
and its journey across the countryside. An album with no vocals. An album of
popular music with no links at all to film studios, stars or songs. An album
that is chock full of short little musically diverse snippets that against all
expectation actually hold together to create an atmosphere. Not exactly the
same atmosphere I remember from my trips on Pakistan Railways but a musical
atmosphere that is quite unlike anything else I’ve come across in my search for
the quieter lagoons of South Asian pop.
As the son of renowned Urdu poet Rana Akbar Abadi, Sohail Rana was born into a respected family in
Agra, India in 1938. Having achieved academic qualifications in his formative
years in Karachi, Rana moved into a
career in musical composition following a chance meeting with media mogul and
future long-running collaborator Waheed
Murad that led to a job composing music for the Lahore (Lollywood) film
industry.His early standout
compositions for films like Armaan, Jay
Sey Deika Hai and Heera Aur Pathar marked the beginning of
a filmography of 25 films working along side luminaries as Runa Laila, Noor Jehan, Ahmed
Rushdie, Tafo and M. Ashraf
while balancing his non-film career as a stand alone composer of popular
music.Combining his well studied
interest in science, technology, music and English literature, Sohail’s early records introduced
experimental techniques and electric instruments to his unique blend of Western
pop and traditional Pakistani folk music. (liner notes)
Sohail Rana (left) and Ahmed Rushdie
With the status in his country similar to that of Laxmikant or Anandji in India, Rana was
one of Pakistan’s best loved composers of film scores.Many of the films he scored were block
busters racking up upwards of 50 ‘House Full’ weeks and turning singers like Ahmed Rushdie into stars. Those were
the days, eh? When Pakistan still had a film industry that actually produced
fine films and could support a mini universe of singers, composers and
technicians. He has worked with several generations of singers (Mehdi Hassan, Farida Khanum)as well as taught younger ones like Nazia Hassan and the mega star Adnan Sami. His living room shelves creak with trophies and
awards given to him by Presidents, record companies and peers.
All (and we mean ALL) aboard!
Sohail’s explorations in
world music with his band The
Forethoughts led to two successful self initiated projects entitled Folk Tunes of Pakistan On the Latin American
Beat and Four Folk Tunes of Pakistan which
garnered critical acclaim through the East with EMI-funded tracks appearing on
oriental, bellydance and exotic LP compilations marketed to tourists and easy
listeningenthusiasts alike. (including
this one) In 1969, EMI Pakistan funded Rana’s
most ambitious project to date, Khyber
Mail, which would run the length of a full 12” disc (a seldom pressed
format in Pakistan at the time) with the hope of appealing to a wider global
audience.
The resulting concept album, designed to invoke images and
sounds of a high speed Pakistani train travelling from Karachi to Peshawar, was
dominated by Sohail’s whining and
addictive electric keyboard and motoric rhythm section of beaty percussion and
sitars introducing a form of radical patchwork pop and mechanical music to a
warm receptive audience.By combining
the folk music of Sindh, Punjab withmaverick sounds, signatures and rhythms, Khyber Mail, marks a landmark shift in the Pakistani pop industry,
kick-starting a lengthy career for one of its best loved musical patrons, while
setting a challenging new standard for the ‘plugged in’ Lollywood pop scene
that would explode at the turn of the decade.(liner notes)
Throughout the 70s and 80s Rana served in Pakistan Television as composer conductor and
producer. Khyber Mail went on to be
one of the best selling records in Pakistani history.Since the early 1990s Rana lives in Canada where he continues to teach music.
