Adil Najam
I have spent much of today reading, remembering and listening to the poetry of Munir Niazi, who died yesterday.
This is probably the best way to celebrate the life and work of a poet. The celebration of his work has gone on on this blog from a while (here, here, here and here) and, as I said yesterday, will no doubt continue.
I wanted to share two things with you that I have been listening to all day.
The first is this delectable ghazal sung delectably by Ghulam Ali (listen here):
bechain bohat phirna, ghabrai hooway rehna
Ik aag si jazbouN ki dehkai hooway rehna
Aadat hi bana li hai, tum nay to Muneer Apni
Jis shehr meiN bhi rehna, uktai hooway rehna
Also, by way of homage to Muneer Niazi is this video clip of his memorable film song “Uss Bewafa ka Shehr,” from the movie Shaheed, the singer is Nasim Begum, the actress is a young Mussarrat Nazir, and the music is by Rasheed Attre.
Adil, even some of the younger singers have sung Mr. Niazi’s ghazals. Najam Sheraz covered “Un say nain mila kay daiko, yeh dhoka bhee kha kay dayykho”. Since Najam got his education in Lahore, I am not surprised that he did so. Intizar Hussain paying homage to Munir Niazi, mentioned something which rings true as one reads “bay chain buhat phirna” as to how Nasir Kazmi and Munir Niazi have captured emotions in diction which is so unique
Wah adil bhai, thanks for sharing this gem with readers but IMO things like “Mohabbat nahi hogi” and “Ek bewafa k shaher hey” are gems of Niazi sahib. Naseem Begum also has done justice with the ghazal and sung very well and I think noone else could sing it well. Same thing goes with “Ranjish Hee sahe” by Ahmed Faraz which mehdi hasan sahib sung very well. As faraz said himself,”Jis shiddat se meyne ye ghazal likhi, us se zyda shiddat se mehdi sahab ne ye ghazal gaye hey”. What a compliment!
Another great author Shaukat Siddiqui left us on December 18. He is famous for his Khuda ki Basti’s dramatization for Pak TV.