Nazia and Zoheb

Nazia Hassa (Urdu: نازیہ حسن) singer, born April 3 1965; died August 13 2000 and Zoheb Hassan (Urdu: زوہیب حسن) were a singing sensation and pioneers of the Pakistani pop music scene during the 1980s.

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History

Born into a well-to-do Karachi family, Nazia and Zohaib spent their teenage years in London. The brother and sister duo released their first album "Disco Deewane" in 1980 and became an instant hit with the title song reaching the top of the local charts. They released their second album in 1982 titled "Star". It was a sensation both in the United Kingdom as well as in South Asia. They shot to true stardom and fame as a result of the song "Aap Jaisa Koi" which Nazia Hassan sang for the Indian movie "Qurbani" made by actor/producer Feroz Khan when she was just fifteen.

After 4 albums, with 4 being huge hits in the 80s, Nazia went on to get married in 1995 and Zoheb went on with his solo career which was short lived.

Nazia Hassan died of lung cancer in London in 2000 at the age of 35. Her brother Zoheb Hassan help set up a charity foundation named after her to help in creating support systems for children in need as well as providing homes for them. The foundation also sponsors awards in recognition of individuals who promote greater harmony between cultures. The recipients of these awards will be selected from all fields ranging from music and the arts to science, sport, business, engineering, humanities and charitable work, politics, etc. The Nazia Hassan Foundation seeks to promote fusion between different cultures, traditions and beliefs.

Albums

• 1980 Qurbani (Aap Jaisa Koi) [Bollywood Movie, Playback Singer]
• 1980 Disco Deewane
• 1982 Star [Bollywood Movie, Playback Singer]
• 1984Young Tarang
• 1986 Dil Wala (Tonight Pyar Karo)[Bollywood Movie, Playback Singer]
• 1986 Ilzaam (Mein Aya Tere Liye)[Bollywood Movie, Playback Singer]
• 1986 Mein Bulwaan (Hulla Gulla Karien Hum, Break Dance) [Bollywood Movie, Playback Singer] sang duets with Kishore Kumar
• 1987 Sheela (Sheela O My Sheela, Takta Mani Mana)[Bollywood Movie, Playback Singer]
• 1987 HotLine
• 1988 Then He Kissed Me (Nazia's Solo with Meera Syal UK Release)
• 1988 Don't Think Twice (Zoheb's UK Release)
• 1989 Dhanak (Nazia host this program for PTV and sung semi classical Songs)
• 1990 Kaliyan (A Pupet Show |Nazia & Zoheb sung many duets for children PTV)
• 1991 Saaya (Aap Aye Tu Shukriya) [Bollywood Movie, Playback Singer]
• 1992 Camera Camera
• 1995 Pro Audio show (Nazia's Last Performance on TV with new track Ankhein Band Karo)
• 2006 Kismat

Nazia Hassan

When Nazia rattled Lata

Raju Bharatan

ON September 28, 2000, Lata Mangeshkar turns 71. And says she feels as young as those two digits reversed!

 'Going-on-17' is how ace composer Chitalkar Ramchandra viewed Lata when sweet on her. Lata was 26 when Chitalkar (Maze mohabbat ke aa rahen hain) Ramchandra envisioned her as sweet 16.

"You know what I found most rewarding in the way Lata came over in Aa jaa re pardesee?" Salil (Madhumati) Chowdhury (himself stuck on this supersinger) soliloquised in front of me.

"It was C Ramchandra seeking me out to congratulate me upon the fashioning of Aa jaa re pardesee. He was driving along when this melody fell upon his ears in a way that made him pull up short. 'I got the feeling that a 16-year-old was singing - and singing extra sweetly!' noted C Ramchandra."

"I have, in Aa jaa re pardesee," explained Salil to me, "used the seventh chord as basic melody, the chord of incompletion, symptomatic of 'desire unfulfilled' -- on Vyjayanthimala playing the apparition in Madhumati.

"The antaraa here was Lata's own suggestion. 'Pancham se shuru karte hain('We start from pancham), Lata said."

"Lata's integrity as a singer lay in the fact that she never ever suggested a single change of note when I composed for her," observed Salil. "But where it came to doing Aa jaa re pardesee, for the first and last time in my case, Lata made a suggestion - that we start from pancham.

"And it was a great suggestion, too. It made all the difference to the unfolding, on the screen, of Aa jaa re pardesee."

"As a tune, Aa jaa re pardesee, if you must know," added Salil, "has its unfolding origin in that piece of background music, composed by me to go with the sequence in Jagte Raho. In which Raj Kapoor, playing the vagrant, is very thirsty and asks for water."

HOW can we forget the Salilian Bhairav strains of Lata's Jaago Mohan pyaare stunner, accompanying the climax of that very sequence!

By the time Jagte Raho(1956) and Madumati hit the screen, Lata Mangeshkar had peaked as the unputdownable nightingale of the cinema in India.

Salil's Aa jaa re pardesee, in fact, was to win, for Lata Mangeshkar, the Filmfare Best Singer award (no separate honours, then, for female and male performer) -- in the year in which the citation was introduced -- 1958.

In less than a decade after that, the Padma Bhushan had been bestowed upon Lata Mangeshkar at the very young (for those times) age of 39. Today, at 71, Lata is the diva nonpareil.

WERE there, then, no serious challenges to Lata Mangeshkar in her long singing career? There were and there weren't.

In India, Lata just swept away all opposition. Runa Laila -- tele-emerging, blazing vividness, from Pakistan, on her 'packback' to Bangladesh -- did give Lata a fright. But our composers were too scared a tribe, then, to commission a 'foreigner' to mount a challenge to Lata's suzerainty.

Yet there was a happening in Lata's life and times that made a mere teenager a near despair for her. That teenybopper was Nazia Hasan.

AS I was with the Hasans in their suite in Mumbai's Taj Mahal Hotel (facing the Gateway of India), along came a wedding band playing the song that was the rage at the time: Aap jaisa koi meree zindagee mein aaye, to baat ban jaaye, baat ban jaaye.

"Mummy, my song, my song, they're playing my song!" exclaimed, ecstatic, the 13-year-old Nazia, as she rushed to the balcony for a glimpse.

That is how naive Nazia was -- when she made waves all over the subcontinent -- as the Baat Ban Jaaye Girl. In fact, as a daisy-fresh beauty did Nazia come (at the Old Lady of Boribunder) into the editor's cabin at The Illustrated Weekly Of India.

M V Kamath, at the time (1981), was the magazine's editor. And even the sepoys at The Weekly (Manohar and Jaywant among them) insisted upon being in the editor's cabin, as Nazia delighted us with a spot rendition of Aap jaisa koi.

Nazi she was to her friends - but she was no Hitler. So it was no threat at all that Nazia posed to Lata at her zenith.

But facts are facts.

AND the unvarnished truth is that Nazia Hasan's Aap jaisa koi meree zindagee mein aaye stayed put, in the top slot of Ameen Sayani's Binaca Geetmala, for (believe it or not) 14 weeks running!

There was no way even the velvet voice of Lata could scale down Nazia during that spell. Not since Lata herself had occupied an enviable slot in the same Binaca Geetmala for one full year before the film's release, with her Mera salaam le jaa charmer from Naushad's Uran Khatola (1955), had we witnessed a Binaca phenomenon like Nazia.

HOW Nazia Hasan's Aap jaisa koi took shape, in tune with her petite physique, is a story in itself.

Feroz Khan, as the maker-director of Qurbani (1980), and as a family friend, encountered Nazia, suddenly, in London and took an instant fancy for her voice.

The music directors of Qurbani were Kalyanji-Anandji. Without as much as a by-your-leave in the case of that top-selling duo, Feroz Khan got unknown Coorgi Biddu to tune (without any final wording) the song in London.

Next, the spool-tape cassette of the number was quietly sent to lyricist Indivar in Bombay -- with instructions to 'write to tune'!

Indivar was a pastmaster in the art. He came up with words that sat pat on Biddu's tune -- as Aap jaisa koi meree zindagee mein aaye.

Kalyanji-Anandji did not like it but had to lump it, as the song -- swiftly released well before the advent of Qurbani -- proceeded to make unprecedented waves in Ameen Sayani's Binaca Geetmala.

I met Ameen at the time it all happened and asked him about what ranked as the most spectacular Binaca breakthrough, in a long, long time, by a fresher-singer.

Aap jaisa koi had topped the Geetmala four times by then. Ameen (as the one who got Pak stripling Nazia Hasan, as easy on the eye as the ear, to 'hit parade' her talent) said to me:

"It's perhaps not so much a breakthrough as a fluke -- Aap jaisa koi. Either it's a fluke," went on Ameen, "or it's the harbinger of a new trend. Nothing else can explain the fact that a Pak girl, who's totally unknown in India, should achieve such super success."

What Ameen Sayani, for all his seasoning, momentarily forgot is that a popular voice knows no nationality.

Ameen, therefore, was nearer the mark when he went on to wonder if the Aap jaisa koi disco number "is perhaps the first Hindi film song the essence of which is Western, not Indian."

Following the runaway success of the number even before Qurbani's release, Nazia Hasan became a star overnight in London (where she was still schooling).

SHE was invited by the BBC to feature in radio and TV programmes like Naya Jeevan; and being asked out in Birmingham, Southall and other Asian pockets in England "to sing Aap jaisa koi in person".

This Polydor disc, we were then warned, "might have been pressed afresh by an illegal company, in Singapore, and from there found its way to Pakistan, where Nazia has become a household name on its strength".

THE fact that this was the first stereophonic recording to emerge on the Geetmala scene also clearly counted. In fact, the number came to Indivar already trendily orchestrated by Biddu -- with dummy words!

And how Nazia hit the high spots with the Indivar catchline, Aap jaisa koi meree zindagee mein aaye - the punch in the song-lyric lying in: Baat ban jaaye, baat ban jaaye.

Something so patently Western, in form and content, had not been heard on Binaca before.

A parallel was drawn with Priti Sagar's all-time Julie hit, My heart is beating, as scored by Rajesh Roshan. But, then, My heart is beating had made it to the top, in the Geetmala, but twice.

With just one hep disco number, Nazia Hasan had thus overtaken Runa Laila, too, in the Geetmala!

Runa's Kalyanji-Anandji-scored Ek se badhkar ek had finished just twice at the very top in the Geetmala.

Runa had gone one better as she dueted with Bhupendra in Jaidev's Gharaonda in a mood of: Do deewane shehar mein. This one had made it thrice to Binaca Top - ultimately a full '11 Top Notches' behind 14-times number-one: Aap jaisa koi.

WHERE, then, does Lata Mangeshkar come into all this? Well, Lata's film Aasha heart-stealer, picturised on Mohsin Khan's wife-to-be, Reena Roy, Sheesha ho ya dil ho aakhir toot jaata hai, just could not catch up with Nazia's Aap jaisa koi for 14 weeks running, hard as it tried!

The year 1980 in Hindi film music thus belonged to a Pak singer - a slip of a girl who came to India via England to capture subcontinental hearts.

Aap jaisa koi actually set a disco trend that came to be picked up by Usha Iyer, going on Kalpana Iyer, as Hari Om Hari (in Pyaara Dushman).

Feroz Khan's Qurbani came presold on the strength of the spot hit Nazia Hasan had turned out to be. Before that, Qurbani had been just another movie release on the cards -- until Nazia hit the big time.

Nazia's single song-craze ensured that Qurbani came to be proclaimed the box office hit of 1980. As highly disappointing though the vacuous Zeenat Aman might have been viewed to be, ultimately, in the way she enacted the number on the screen.

IN the Binaca Geetmala year's final count, however, Lata's Sheesha ho ya dil ho (from J Om Prakash's Aasha) just about pipped Nazia's Aap jaisa koi at the post.

Laxmikant-Pyarelal, as the composers of Lata's Sheesha ho ya dil ho, held up this happening as the triumph of Tradition over Modernity!

For all that, Hindustani film music was never the same after Nazia, maybe accidentally, invaded it.

Even today, I would like to know, from my dear friend Ameen Sayani, how discreetly he contrived to see that Lata just nosed ahead of Nazia!

I met Nazia and her parents at the same Taj -- after she had become the captive voice in India. Nazia was a year older and lovelier by then.

The Hasans told me that her marriage had been fixed. Was it this marriage that went so tragically wrong?

How keen was Nazia to continue to sing in Indian films! But there was no way either Nazia Hasan or Runa Laila could punch a hole in the wall of the Establishment.

Nazia Hasan, in the circumstances, did something else. She set -- well ahead of its times -- the personal-album trend in India.

"Has the dimension of success you've had with Aap jaisa koi changed you?" was the first query I put to Nazia, as I met up with her in India.

"You have me in front of you as before, sir. Do you see a change?" Nazia asked -- in that husky voice that had fired the imagination of India's eighties' youth.

Until Nazia 'arrived', the pride of place, in Ameen Sayani's Binaca Geetmala, had belonged to Hemlata -- her Aankhiyon ke jharokhon se title-tune having been hailed as the Most Popular Song of The Year 1978.

Of course, Hemlata is Hemlata. Lata is Lata. Nazia is Nazia. It is not a comparison I am attempting -- no way.

I am merely taking timely note of one of the many minor hurdles, encountered by the Melody Queen, in her 53 years at the top.

IS it preposterous to set up a mere 13-year-old against Lata Mangeshkar?

Well, Lata herself never took any challenge, however youthful and distant, anything less than seriously.

After all, Lata Mangeshkar herself had been but 13 years of age when she first sought a career in films. And, by a Pakistani singer, Lata perhaps could remember only one movie number, vying with her innumerable hits, for Binaca Geetmala attention.

My rewind reference is to the latter half of the 1950s, when Pakistan's Iqbal Bano held us spellbound in the Binaca Geetmala -- for weeks on end -- with her resonant rendition of the Qatil Shefai-written solo tuned by Inayat for a film, Qatil.

The solo was: Ulfat kee nayee manzil ko chala, Tu baahen daal ke baahon mein, Dil tod ne waale dekh ke chal/Hum bhee to paden hain raahon mein.

Even this one, from a Pak film (Qatil), could be played by Ameen Sayani, in the Binaca Geetmala, only because its 78-rpm disc had been pressed in India!

THE Nazia disc, by contrast, came to be pressed in London. As a schoolgirl, as Aap jaisa came her way, casually did Nazia Hasan put it over. 'Bowled over' did she have the youth of India with her elfin elegance.

Where else but in a level playing field like films could a mere 13-year-old vie for vocal attention alongside the stupendous Lata Mangeshkar?

Reminiscing Nazia
By Umar Cheema
(Page 1)

I vaguely remember our family gathering in the summer of 1985. Many of our relatives from the province of Punjab came to visit us in Karachi. It was a family tradition. Every other year either we would go to visit them or they would come to Karachi to spend a few weeks with us. It was one of those summers and I was hanging out with a couple of my older cousins in our balcony which faced the beach. Having survived three previous hot summers in Karachi I knew the value of the cool breeze that would rise from the sea and hit our balcony. We were chatting and listening to Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ on my very first stereo. It was then when one of my cousins mentioned a song called ‘App jaisa koi meri zindagi mei aay’ (‘If someone like you comes into my life’) by a female artist named Nazia Hassan. I had no idea whom he was talking about. Nevertheless they popped in her cassette and hit the play button. I listened to the song and within a few seconds into it, I felt the melodious beat overcoming the hot summer day and the cool breeze that came from the sea. That was my first introduction to the queen of pop!

‘App jaisa koi’ was a hit single featured in the 1980 Bollywood movie, Qurbani. The song took South Asia by storm and Nazia, who was only 15 years old, became a star overnight. This was soon followed by her debut album Disco Dewane which also featured her brother Zoheb Hassan. The album was an instant hit. Pakistani and Indian youth welcomed this new and fresh style of music and singing with open arms. The incredible success of the album signaled one fact clearly: The sibling duo was here to stay and South Asia would be singing their tunes for a long time.

Nazia Hassan was born in 1965 in London to an affluent Pakistani family. As a kid she used to sing around the house with her brother. She was gifted with this incredible nasally voice that was plain yet intriguing. Music was simply a hobby for her and she had never considered singing as a career choice. She didn’t arrive at the crossroads of her musical journey until she met Biddu, a British-Indian composer. He was really impressed by the nasally quality of her voice. After discussing his thoughts with Feroz Khan the director and star of Qurbani, Nazia was asked to sing what would become her history-making song, ‘Aap jaisa koi.’ And that was it, her crossroads, and she chose the path that began her musical adventure.

Released in 1980, the title track from Disco Diwane was a number one hit not only in South Asia but also in a few countries in South America and the Middle East. Both the audio and video albums made record sales in India. However, Pakistani media took some time to accept this non-traditional style of singing and dancing. Pakistan Television (PTV) was reluctant to put these edgy and bold videos on air as the Pakistani television audience at the time was not used to disco/pop genre. It wasn’t long before they were able to see the Pakistani youth going crazy over the audio album and the success of the music videos in India. The videos were aired in 1981 and they were a blast. The “disco deewane mania” took over the country and Nazia and Zoheb Hassan became household names. Jinnah’s land was finally introduced to pop music.

Nazia and Zoheb Hassan (Image from PakistaniMusic.com)

The duo released another album ‘Boom Boom’ the same year. The songs from this album were featured in another Bollywood movie, ‘Star’. The movie didn’t do very well but the songs made history yet again. It was time for young Pakistanis, who only had Alamgir, Sheki and Naheed Akhtar as their listening choices, to get accustomed to the music of Nazia and Zoheb. And they did. Nazia and Zoheb Hassan became superstars in both countries. They were on TV talk shows, on the cover of magazines, on radio and on everyone’s lips. Historically India and Pakistan had a very unstable and dangerous relationship since their independence from the British rule. Both countries have had a really tough time in getting along with each other. Thus it was refreshing to see the youth in both countries singing the same tunes.

The Hassans released two more albums, ‘Young Tarang’ and ‘Hotline’ in 1985 and 1987, respectively. Both were hit albums. The siblings loved what they were doing and the audience simply wanted more. It wasn’t just one particular thing about their songs or their style of music. It was a combination of factors. The lyrics were provocative, energizing, exciting, intriguing and listeners were able to relate to them. Nazia’s nasally voice, MTV style videos and disco/pop music all played into what felt like a cultural revolution.

Reminiscing Nazia
By Umar Cheema
(page 2)

As far as Pakistanis’ music exposure was concerned, it was the best of times and the worst of times. General Zia-ul-Haq’s 'Islamization' of the country during the 80s became an obstacle for music lovers, whether they were the audience or the performers. Almost all musical shows on TV that involved women were banned. The mullahs had a serious problem with a brother and sister dancing together on screen. Nazia’s first video that aired on TV in the early 80s was shot waist up so the audience couldn’t see her dancing feet.

In 1988, General Zia was killed in a plane crash. Following the shock, the country went quickly into a recovery mode. The new government had the responsibility of lifting the morale of millions of people. Many things changed and many things created opportunities for a change. The music industry lifted itself up as well and made an entry back into people’s houses. The Nazia and Zoheb phenomenon paved the road for new and young talents all over the country.

Nazia and Zoheb Hassan (Image from PakistaniMusic.com)

By the early 1990’s, Pakistan experienced a new wave of young and hip bands. Music Channel Charts became one of the most popular shows in Pakistan’s music history. People would actually schedule their evenings around the show time. It was a great musical era. My sister and I used to sit in front of the TV and watch the weekly song ranking and share our excitement or complaints depending on which songs climbed up the charts. This was around the time when our generation was introduced to bands like Vital Signs, Arid Zone, Collage, Fringe Benefits, Milestones, Strings, Sequencers, Yatagaan and Junoon. This was the result of the revolution that Nazia and Zoheb brought about in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Nazia Hassan, the South Asian queen of pop, was a woman of many talents. She had mentioned a number of times that music was simply her hobby. She was extremely active in social work and that’s what she liked doing best. She received her bachelors in Business Administration and Economics at the Richmond American University in London. In 1991 she became an intern in the Women’s International Leadership program at the United Nations. Later on she went on to work for United Nation’s office of Political and Security Council Affairs. Using her celebrity status in Pakistan, she created an organization called BAN (Battle against Narcotics) in Karachi to help fight the drugs war. She and her brother Zoheb dedicated their album ‘Camera Camera’ to BAN and hoped to create drug abuse awareness among the Pakistani youths.

Nazia also actively participated in organizations such as The Voice of Women, Business and Professional Women, Inner Wheel Club for Disabled Children in India and NYCP (National Youth Council of Pakistan). She created and participated in many child welfare programs in Pakistan and was involved in social issues ranging from women’s issues to illiteracy among the youth. She tried to use her music to stir up people’s emotions against the use of drugs. The song ‘Nasha na karna’ (Don’t do drugs) was an example of the message Nazia and Zoheb were sending out. Nazia Hassan also created a mobile clinic in Lyari, one of the poorest areas in Karachi.

Nazia was married in 1995 and had a baby boy two years later. Unfortunately the queen of pop couldn’t capture the same level of success in her marriage she had in the musical realm. The woman who brought smiles on the faces of millions couldn’t find joy in her love life. The couple started having marital problems very early on in their lives. She continued to try to maintain a balance in her life between her social work and her life at home until another bombshell dropped onto her life. She was diagnosed with lung cancer. Her family started her treatment right away and she fought her battle against cancer as hard as she could. The pop diva, who conquered the hearts of millions, finally lost her battle against cancer.
On August 13th, 2000 Nazia Hassan died of lung cancer in a London hospital. South Asia stood still in disbelief. Millions mourned and cried for her. The person who had touched so many lives with her music laid lifeless on a hospital bed. It was a loss that cannot be described in words. Nazia’s family received millions of notes from fans all over the world. It was a sad ending to a remarkable story of a young woman who stumbled into an unknown adventure and reached the top while leaving her footsteps for others to follow. The year 2000 will be remembered as the year that brought an end to the Nazia Hassan story; that’s when Pakistan lost its favorite daughter.

Nazia’s parents Basir and Muniza created the Nazia Hassan Foundation as a continuation of their daughter’s life long efforts to make this world a better place for everyone. The foundation’s main goal is to recognize and encourage efforts of those who put the lives of others before their own and try to help bring a positive change in this world. Special awards are also given to individuals who exhibit and achieve intellectual and social goals as well as a desire to further these causes. The people of Pakistan will not forget Nazia and her work. She was posthumously awarded the ‘Pride of Performance’ medal by the president of Pakistan General Parvez Musharraf.

It is 2004 and as I write the final words of this article, I picture Nazia once again in her white shirt and blue jeans dancing away to the tune of ‘App jaisa koi meri zindagi mei aai, to baat bun jai’ on the silver screen. The song translates loosely into English as ‘If someone like you comes into my life, it would feel wonderful.’ Well Nazia, you came into our lives and our hearts, and it felt wonderful. We miss you.