With both gone, Ghulam Aliji will have to carry the burden alone unless another Madan Mohan is born.” “He gave ghazals its soul while Jagjit Singhji made the genre more approachable to the comman man. “Today, he’s gone and will always be missed,” sighs the singer-composer. Sukhwinder Singh was with him yesterday and they discussed him coming to India for treatment. “Even after he came to be known as ‘ghazal king’, he continued to have a high regard for classical musicians and loved Rajasthan,” says Lalit. Post Partition, he migrated to Pakistan where after working in a bicycle shop and as a car and tractor mechanic, he moved from ‘thumri’ to more commercial ghazals to support his family. He learnt music from his father Ustad Azeem Khan and uncle Ustad Ismail Khan, traditional Dhrupad singers. Hassan was born in the village of Luna in Rajasthan into the Kalawant clan. In 2004, my brother Jatin and I were at the press conference in Pakistan he addressed after almost a year,” says Lalit. “I met him several times and once he performed all night at our Ganpati baithak. Lalit, born into the Mewati gharana of Jodhpur, is the son classical exponent Pandit Pratap Narayan and the nephew of Pandit Jasraj. Like Lataji (Mangeshkar) is to female singers, Mehdi saab was a role model to male singers.”
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As singer-composer Lalit Pandit says, “He was Pakistan’s biggest contribution to the world of music for his soulful renditions, perfect pronunciation, ‘hatke harkats’ in his ‘gaayki’ and impressive personality. General Ayub Khan honoured him with the Tamgha-I-Imtiaz, General Zia-ul-Haq with the Pride of Performance and General Pervez Musharraf with the Hilal-e-Imtiaz, but Mehdi Haasan was not just a ‘shahenshah’ in his country.