Iqbal Bano

Beat Street

Husn-e-Ghazal

HUSN-E-Ghazal brings together 11 Pakistani women musicians, some heard and some unheard. It is an unusual album, for it brings to fore so many voices from that part of the world from where you get to hear of only suppressed voices of women. EMI has done a commendable job of compiling this volume.

The album has the famous "Hum dekhenge" which stirred the audiences at the World Social Forum, when Shubha Mudgal sang it. This compilation has Iqbal Bano's celebrated version of the song, a live performance which had over 50,000 giving her a standing ovation. The story (narrated by Aditya Johri, an ardent fan of Faiz in the essay Musings and Such, Nothing Much) goes that the performance happened when the man who wrote the song — the winner of Lenin Peace Prize, the Leftist poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz — was in jail. The song expresses his anguish about the state of affairs in Pakistan, post Partition. Faiz spent most part of his life in the prison, for his writings were dubbed as "anti-Pakistani". It is not easy to understand Faiz's loaded Urdu lines, but you can quite imagine its power, with the audience goading the singer to repeat verses.

Coming from the Begum Akhtar school, Iqbal Bano has a distinct style of singing, without much ornamentation. It is clear from her rendition of the nazm that she emphasises more on the clarity of lyrics. Faiz, in this poem, talks about the Islamic promise of justice to all and Iqbal Bano sings it packed with energy, yet shorn of any sentimentality. "We shall see... That day which is promised in all holy books/ when oppression and fear/ will fly away like cotton ... " (translated to English by Priya Vora). The other song by Iqbal Bano is "Dashte tanhai" which has some rich accordion interludes.

Mehdi Hasan's famous "Ranjish hi sahi" has been rendered by Runa Laila, who is more known as a pop singer, though she is quite an accomplished ghazal singer herself. It's quite a transition from the earlier songs on the album, with Runa Laila's song carrying a more modern, yet subdued orchestration (the guitar progressions are lovely). She does a fine job of it and one must say her rendition is next best to Mehdi Hasan's.

"Naina re naina" in Farida Khanum's soft, pleasantly nasal voice is good. She gives it some lovely graces. It reminds you of an old Hindi film song. Nasir Kazmi's "Gaye dinon ka suragh lekar" by Firdousi Begum is a disappointment, particularly if you have listened to Ghulam Ali's brilliant version. It neither bears that literary sensibility, nor does it have a sparkling tune. It has a very folksy orchestra and a rather drab tune. Even Firdousi Begum's voice is shaky.

Abida Parveen, as usual, is arresting, singing some striking lyrics — "Rang baatein karen, aur baton se khushi aaye, dard phoolon ki tarah meheke, agar too aaye" — in her untamed, robust voice. You love Reshma in her earthy voice in her rendition of "Aksaar shab-e-tanhai".

It is a rare collection, though not all songs are uniformly good. Many songs in the collection are dreary, while some are haunting. The sleeve notes are done rather indifferently, with no details.

DEEPA GANESH

Iqbal Bano is best known for her ghazals and renditions of poems of famous poet and revolutionary, Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
Born in Delhi in 1935, Iqbal Bano studied under Ustad Chaand Khan of the Delhi Gharana, an expert in all kinds of pure classical and light classical forms of vocal music.

Khan taught her pure classical music and light classical music within the framework of classical forms of thumri and dadra and also sent her along to All India Radio, Delhi.

Iqbal Bano migrated to Pakistan in the 1950's and was also associated with the country’s film industry.

She is remembered for singing the works of Faiz Ahmed Faiz and gave musical relevance to his the ghazals. At the height of the Zia era, Iqbal Bano sang at the Faiz Festival in Lahore to a crowd of 50,000.

Her rendition of Faiz's poem Hum Dekhenge caused quite a stir and also landed her in trouble with the military authorities. But this act also made her an immensely popular singer, breaking the boundaries that were imposed by the select audiences of classical music.

Despite her trouble with the military government which debarred her from official concerts, Iqbal Bano continued to sing for private audiences and soon after emerged on stage owing to her immense popularity in a wide section of Pakistani society. However, her failing health restricted her performances and by 2003 or so, her appearances were rare.

Another Legend passes away..

The programme began with a presentation by Sohail Hashmi where he explained the creative bonding between Iqbal Bano and Faiz. He discussed many aspects of Bano’s life and said that when Faiz was banned in Pakistan because of his revolutionary writings under military rule, Iqbal started singing Faiz and on the first death anniversary of Faiz in 1985, Iqbal Bano had sung Hum dekhenge and started a revolution. After Sohail Hashmi, renowned vocalist of Benaras Gharana Sunanda Sharma recited the famous thumris of Iqbal Bano like Mere saiyyan utrenge paar, Gori tere naina kajar bin kaare and Ab ke sawan ghar aaja and explained the differences in singing between the Benaras and Dilli Gharanas. She also sang the famous tappa, Sadvi janni yaar ve miyan and Mora saiyyan bulaye aadhi raat. Tanveer Ahmed Khan performed her favourite thumris More saiyaan ji utrenge paar and Bahut din beete piya nahin aaye.

Rekha Raj performed her famous Bano ghazals like Ambava ki daaliyon pe jhoolna jhoolaja, Ulfat ki nayi manzil ko chala and Mohabbat karne waale kam na honge.

The concluding performance was by Madan Gopal Singh and Rekha Raj, who sang Bano’s trademark Faiz compositions Dasht-e-tanhaiye and the revolutionary nazm, Hum dekhenge.