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Ghazals will live on

GHULAM ALI looks back and forward

PHOTO: S. ARNEJA

THE LEGEND Transcending borders

His voice spells mellifluous magic, which takes you beyond this world. You can relate to each of his songs as they strike a similar emotional chord. That's the effect the ghazal singer Ghulam Ali can have on you. The legend from Pakistan who has completed 50 year of singing this year is very happy with his career has shaped up and is looking forward for many more. And there's no stopping him on this. "Jab tak yeh gala chalega, main bhi gata rahoonga," he insists.

Ask him whether good ghazals are slowly fading away from the world or how where he sees the future of ghazals? And he is quick to reply: "Jis music mein sachai hai, woh kabhi nahin mitega (Music that is sincere will never die)" and goes on to name a few of his and Mehdi Hassan's evergreen songs.

Coming from a family of musicians, Ghulam Ali was first trained by his father, a vocalist himself. It was only at the age of 15 that he started learning under Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and his three brothers in Lahore, where he built a solid foundation in pure classical music, ragas and thumri. But in spite of being so knowledgeable and poetic, he doesn't write his own verses. "Firstly, I never had the time. And secondly, there are still so much very good shayari that haven't been sung. Let me try and finish with them first," says the man with a heavy baritone, who has sung innumerable songs written by poet Nasir Kazmi.

His popularity in India is as much as it is in his own country, but he never aimed at making it big in Bollywood. "They don't create my kind of songs. And it is not that I don't want to sing. If I like the tune and lyrics, I will," says the singer, whose Chupke chupke raat din was used in the film Nikaah, starring Raj Babbar and Salma Agha.

In town to perform at Chowmahalla Palace, he is all praise for the connoisseurs in the city. Hyderabad, according to him, is one of the few places, where he has to be very conscious about what he sings and that's because "people here have a very good understanding of Urdu and sher aur shayari." But he is only glad about it. "It is good for a singer to have a good listener. It's a great learning experience," he points out.

But even performing at places, which don't quite understand Urdu or Punjabi, has never been a problem. He rewinds to a concert 10 years back in Kolkata and shares his experience. "People there didn't understand the lyrics, but I told the audience that they might not enjoy the songs as much. But I realised that people were so drowned in the music that the wordings didn't matter."

MANGALA RAMAMOORTHY

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