-Satish Chopra
Indian film
panorama after the commencement of talking era, witnessed a variety of
personalities attached to different faculties of production; may it be acting,
direction, photography, editing, dialogue-writing, music composing and or
singing.
Amongst a large number of the music composers, we had some rarest of the rare
glittering gems, who not only fashioned some captivating melodies, but also
shaped the destiny of a large number of singers. This was in view of the fact
that these maestro music directors had a profound understanding of lyrics,
instrumentation, classical music, the voice quality of the respective singer and
insight of the eminence of recording. This was perhaps one of the foremost
reasons that music and musicians of first three decades (1931-60) i.e after the
beginning of film-recording are considered as all time greats.
One amongst such composers was Sajjad Husain, who was known for his contentious
personality, but he created some immortal melodies, which were altogether
different from all others. But,
with the passage of time, he has been completely forgotten.
Sajjad Husain was a master of a number of musical instruments; be it a Violin,
Veena, Jaltarang, Flute, Piano, Banjo, Accordian, Hawaiin & Spanish Guitar,
Sitar, Clarinet, Harp and Mandolin.
He could even play Mandolin, with perfection even for classical ragas.
In the All India Music Conference held at Calcutta in the year 1956; where
greats of classical music such as- Vinayak Rao Patvardhan, Ali Akbar Khan,
Allaudin Khan, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Ahmed Jaan Thirakwa and Nikhil Banerjee
were present; Sajjad Husain played classical ragas-’Shivranjani’ and
‘Harikauns’- on Mandolin. The listeners including the maestros were spell
bound at his classical playing of Mandolin, which is considered
a completely un-traditional musical
instrument.
Sajjad Husain as music director fashioned some immortal melodies in the voices
of Noorjehan, Rattanbai, Nirmala Devi
(mother of actor Govinda), Lata Mangeshkar, Suraiya, Geeta Roy, Asha Bhonsle,
Mohd Rafi, Talat Mehmood, Surender and others.
A few lines about the careergraph of the
maestro. Sajjad was born at Sitamau (Madhya Pradesh) on 15 June, 1917. His
father Mohd Amir Khan, used to play
sitar. But, Sajjad could not
confine his learning to sitar only. He additionally learnt playing Veena,
Jaltarang, Accordian, Violin, Spanish & Hawaiin Guitar, Flute, Piano, Banjo and
Harp. Thereby he could deploy these instruments for
background music effects brilliantly and
also created some enthralling sound effects.
He came to Bombay in the year 1940 and
was introduced to Mir Allahbuksh (father of Meena Kumari) who was a
composer and associated with Minerva Movietone. Mir was very much impressed with
Sajjad’s mandolin playing, as a result he
took him as his assistant.
Later on he joined Pt Hanuman Prasad, another composer
and assisted him for the music of film-
‘Gaali’ (1944). In this film Sajjad composed two songs of Nirmala Devi
–‘Aag lagey saawan mein’ & ‘Ab aa jaa dil
na lagey’.
Sajjad Husain got his major break in the year 1944 for the film ‘Dost’
starring-Noorjehan and Motilal. . Noorjehan sang some unforgettable songs- ‘Badnaam
muhabbat kaun karey’, ‘Ab kaun
hei mera’, and ‘Koyee
prem ka de key sandesa’ and
the film till date is remembered
because of such musical super-hits.
If you have listened to these captivating melodies, you must have observed the
beauty of delivery of word ‘Badnaam’
and a charismatic pause
thereafter. Besides, expression of
thought and an extra-ordinary
quality of sur. It was somewhat
classic! Then, the pain of parting
and sorrow transformed in other
numbers- ‘Ab kaun hei mera’
and ’Koyee prem ka
de key sandesa’.
The songs provided a
remarkable impact on the listeners.
Shaukat Hussain Rizvi, the paramour and later on husband of Noorjehan, who
produced the film ‘Dost’, after viewing its grand success
observed that entire credit for the success of these songs goes to
Noorjehan, who sang such fabulous melodies.
Sajjad could not digest such remarks and vowed not to compose a song for
Noorjehan for her future films. As a result, for her next film ‘Jugnu’, the
music was composed by Firoze Nizami.
Just have a glance at some of his subsequent marvels-
‘Dharti
se door gore, badlon ke paar aaja’, (Asha & Geeta Roy)‘Darshan
pyasi aayi daasi’ (Geeta Roy), ‘Wo
to chale gaye aye dil” (Lata) and
‘ ‘Yeh hawa yeh raat yeh
chandni’ (Talat Mehmood)- the maestro composed for film ‘Sangdil’
(1952).
While listening to these three immortal numbers, sung by four different singers,
at times it is extremely difficult to evaluate, as to which one is
better than the other. The harmonium played as prelude to
‘Yeh hawa yeh raat yeh chandni’
available on soundtracks was simply classic; whereas touches of flute in the
duet of Asha & Geeta are heart-throbbing and the total impact of Lata’s
‘Wo
to chale gaye aye dil’ is simply beyond my capacity to find words of
appreciation..
Inspite of creating such crest melodies, he could merely get a chance of giving
music for just 14 films. The reasons were very simple. He was a highly
perfectionist, egoist and extremely short-tempered. And above all, suffered from
a complex behavior.
Though the
list of other phenomenal melodies
composed by the maestro may not be long, yet the
fact remains whatever he composed, it
was completely different from all others and was unique.
A look at some of his fabulous melodies- ‘Aaj
mere naseeb ne mujhko rula rula diya’ (Hulchal’51); ‘Bhool
ja aye dil’ (Khel’50), ‘Kaali
kaali raat mujhe baraa sataye, teri yeead aye’ and
‘Kismat
mein khushi ka naam nahin’ (Saiyan’51), ‘Tumhein dil dia’, ‘Wo
to chale gaye aye dil, yaad se unki pyaar kar, (Sangdil’52) -all
sung by Lata Mangeshkar; ‘Teri nazar mein main rahoon meree nazar mein tu’ -Suraiya
and Surender; ‘Dil mein samaa gaye samaa gaye sanam’ -Lata & Talat
Mehmood; ‘Yeh
hawa yeh raat yeh chandni’ -Talat Mehmood and ‘Sajna din bahure
hamare’ -geeta Roy (Khel’50)-Geeta
Roy.
Each of these melodies has more than one
matchless feature; be
it a superb pause, un-comparable expression of lyrics, brilliant style of
musical instruments deployed and excellent choice of the voice quality of the
singer.
But, inspite of his original and enduring creations, he could not get chance of
composing in very many films. The reasons was his most stubborn, short-tempered
and rigid behavior.
In one of the rehearsals, he told Lata Mangeshkar-
‘Yeh Naushad miyan ka ganaa nahin, ganey
mein dhyan dijiye’. And he once
observed- ”Kishore Kumar should have been
named as Shor Kumar and Talat Mehmood as Galat Mehmood”.
He took 17 retakes of ‘Yeh
hawa yeh raat yeh chandni’ sung
by Talat Mehmood for film ‘Sangdil’. D.N. Madhok wrote all the eight songs for
film ‘Saiyyan’, which were super-hit. But, due to their personal conflict; he
never composed thereafter any creation of D.N. Madhok.
In the year 1955, he composed music for film ‘Rukhsana’ and after a considerable
gap, in the year 1963, Sajjad got a chance of composing music for historic
film-‘Rustam Sohrab’ -starring
Prithviraj Kappor and Suraiya. In this film, he once again created some
memorable melodies viz ’Phir
tumhari yaad aayee’ in
quawali style -sung by Rafi, Manna Dey and Sadat Khan and ‘Ab
der ho gayee wallah’
sung by Asha Bhonsle.
Though the maestro composed some of the outstanding songs for Lata Mangeshkar,
in particular and a few for others as well; yet he always remained in oblivion
and neglected. Listen to some of my favorites of Lata-
‘Aaj
mere naseeb ne mujhko rula rula diya’, ‘Bhool
ja aye dil’’ (Khel’ 50). ‘Kaali
kaali raat mujhe baraa sataye, teri yeead aye’ (Saiyyan’51),
‘Dil
mein samaa gayey sanam’ –with Talat Mehmood (Sangdil’ 52),
In the year 1958 Madan Mohan, the renowned music director composed one of his
songs viz ‘Tujhe
kya sunaun aye dilruba, tere samne mera haal hei’ in the
voice of Rafi for the film-
‘Akhari Dao’. The song was by all standard identical to Sajjad’s immortal
composition-‘Yeh
hawa yeh raat yeh chandni’ - film-Sangdil. .
Sajjad was furious, owing to the fact that
Madan Mohan had copied his composition. In
a get-together at the Music Directors Association, he asked Madan Mohan in a fit
of anger, as to how he dare, without his permission to have copied his tune.
Madan Mohan very calmly and shrewdly replied- “I could’nt find a better composer
to copy”. This made Sajjad
speechless!
“He was an
extremely talented man, very knowledgeable about music, but his temperament was
his undoing” said Naushad. “even if someone made a minor suggestion, he would
turn on him and say, ‘what do you know about music?’ He fought with almost
everyone. Because of this, he sat at home most of his life and wasted his
talent. But, the body of work he has produced, small as it may be, ranks among
the best in Indian film music.”
“By all
standards Sajjad Husain was an original, a genius music director, different from
all others and each of his musical composition carried most difficult notations,
which he himself used to create and took utmost pleasure out of it”, once
observed Anil Biswas.
Sajjad died
in oblivion. His last years were not exactly how they should have been. His
genius went unsung. One wonders if the story would have been different had he
been a little tolerant. Then he would’nt have been Sajjad. Sajjad was a package
deal- either take him in his entirety or forget about him. The waste of his
talent is ultimately our loss. We have missed the hundreds
of of times that never got created by
Sajjad, because he was never given a chance. What we have with us now is just an
infinitesimal fraction of his untamed genius. We should be thankful for that.
After all his music was eternal !
Sajjad
breathed his last on 21 July, 1995. The leitmotif of his lifetime, isolation,
cast its shadow over his death too, when, with the notable exception of Khaiyyam
and Pankaj Udas none else from the film industry bothered to turn up to pay him
their last respects. “It hurt,” admits his son, “but what is far more important
is that to the last day of his life, my father was happy. There was no
bitterness, no regrets. He could have been hugely successful, made piles of
money, but the only thing he wanted was to be acknowledged as a great musician,
and to live life on his own terms. And I think he achieved that.”
“We get only
once in our life-time, a music director like Sajjad”–bemoaned
Noorjehan at the demise of Sajjad
Husain. .
-Satish
Chopra, BA/26B Ashok Vihar-I, Delhi-110052 #011-27134229/8802805055 Email:
satishchopra@rediffmail.com