Munawar Ali Khansahib — Two Mehfils at Rafi Muneer’s

In the Shadow of Greatness

Munawar Ali Khansahib, like a few other musicians, suffered from being sired by and nurtured in the shadow of a musical giant. The son of Khansahib Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, he was heir to one of the two prominent musical dynasties of the Patiala Gharana (1). I feel he was never given his due recognition as a great singer in his own right, invariably being compared to his father. Munawar Sahib’s voice was sonorous and with a gravitas that was the hallmark of the greatest Indian classical singers. In addition, his training in the traditions of his father gave him that perfect balance of technical perfection and musicality, which make his singing uniquely enjoyable. 

1982 Session 

QAUL BLOG · Khansahib Munawar Ali Khan (March 1982)

1987 Session 

QAUL BLOG · Khansahib Munawar Ali Khan (1987)

Khansahib blossomed in the intimacy of private performances rather than on the stage. Unfortunately, recordings of private sessions are few and far between. In the two sessions that are presented here, Khansahib is accompanied by his son, Raza Ali Khan.

Khansahib travelled to Pakistan regularly. I suppose it was to maintain ties with Kasur, his ancestral home, and with Lahore where his father and family lived for some time in the 1950s, before Bade Ghulam Ali Khansahib decided to return from Pakistan to India. He sang at our house on one of his first return trips from India, in 1962 or so. It was my first experience of several magical musical concerts at home, immaculately organized by my parents. In track 4 of the 1982 session, Abba and he reminisce about that evening (among other things), in a dialogue seemingly resumed after twenty years. 

I last met Khansahib in Delhi in 1988, a year before his death. It was at a luncheon organized by a mutual friend and patron of music. The delightful lunch served by our hostess was augmented by conversation on music, mutual friends and the various performing styles of the rich traditions of Indian classical music. I rose from the gathering altogether more educated and with the realization that Khansahib was another fountainhead of musical knowledge, in addition to being a performer of stellar quality. His deep knowledge of history and traditions were no less than those of Ustaad Amir Ali Khansahib, whose writings on music are essential to the study of North Indian Classical music.

The People — The Times

Both the sessions were held at the house of the late Rafi Muneer, scion of one of the leading Karachi Industrial families. Rafi was a dear friend of my father and mine, being about equidistant in age from the two of us. A man of extraordinary charm, humour, elegance and generosity, Rafi was a prominent feature of the Karachi social scene of the ‘sixties and ‘seventies. His friendships spanned generations. His sense of humour was legendary — each of his friends had a few anecdotes of Rafi’s antics or his spontaneous quips that would inspire hilarity. Unfortunately, most of those stories are too bawdy for polite company ...

My favourite recollection of Rafi goes back to one of the most significant political events in Pakistan’s history. In the winter of 1966, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto resigned as Foreign Minister from the cabinet of President Ayub Khan and rode a crest of political restlessness in a Pakistan that was tired of Ayub Khan’s unending rule. Bhutto’s charisma and resignation from his position as Foreign Minister ignited passions of students and youth who saw, in him, the salvation of Pakistan and all the ills that seemed to plague it. So Bhutto decided to take a train ride from ‘Pindi to Karachi, being stopped and mobbed by students and the dispossessed at each major station along the way. He was scheduled to arrive at the Karachi Cantonment station and a large mob of adoring students flooded the station, waiting for Bhutto’s train which was delayed by four of five hours. Being an idealistic youth, I skipped school to go to the station and be part of the mob. 

While standing in the swelling mob on the train platform, I felt someone prod me and point upstairs to the balcony of the station building. There was Rafi, beckoning me to come up. He was surrounded by a host of cronies, most of whom were to later become luminaries of Bhutto’s party. When I got upstairs, Rafi said “Vahaan kya kar rahay ho, Pyaray? Idhar ao mairay paas!” (What are you doing there, dear one? Come here to me.)  And so, we had a bird’s eye view of Bhutto alighting from the train and being carried to a flatbed truck, which we rode along with Bhutto and his inner circle in a four-hour procession from the station to his house. Thus began the saga of Bhutto’s formation of a political party, the election of 1970, Pakistan’s break up, a military coup, and Bhutto’s eventual assassination at the hands of a military dictator.

That day I learned that Rafi was a dear friend of Bhutto’s — a younger brother rather than a friend, actually. But Rafi did not take up political office in Bhutto’s party or in his government. He had neither aptitude nor the wiliness required to enter or survive politics — he stayed as a rather cheeky younger brother to Bhutto, throughout, though. After Bhutto’s assassination, Rafi lost his lustre and was never the same again, despite showing some of his boisterousness on occasions such as these mehfils.

Such was Rafi’s loyalty and love for his friends that he visited Abba regularly during the last month of Abba's life, and he and Ardeshir Cowasjee drove all the 140 km from Karachi to Sujawal to bid our final farewells as we laid Abba to rest on his beloved farm.

The Music

Rafi was really fond of Khansahib and the two had a close relationship — Rafi addressed him as "Munnoo Bhai" — so it was natural that there was a mehfil whenever “Munnoo Bhai” was in town. I was at the 1982 performance.

Together the two performances present nine raagas that are amongst my favourites. The 1982 performance is somewhat lighter in style than the 1987 mehfil.

The 1982 Jaijaiwanti is rhythmic, sensual, and measured in its tempo. The bandish is a composition of Bade Ghulam Ali Khansahib and the musical provenance is unmistakable. It is followed by a Kamod that is melodic, romantic, flirtatious. I find it simply delightful as Khansahib gets into full stride. The Chayya is a languid follow up to the Kamod. Its expression is slightly different to conventional expressions of this raaga. The performance concludes with a lovely medley of Thumrees that were a central part of the repertoire of the gharana.

The 1987 mehfil is, as I mentioned, more deeply “classical”. The three raagas sung, Behag, Hameer and Chaya, are all lovely and it is hard to pick and choose favourites.  Hameer is eternally close to my heart and I have yet to hear a rendition that I do not love. Khansahib’s rendition of this raaga has a special flavour that transports me. But the Chaya is extraordinary. The careful, unhurried, and complex expression takes one back to a remembrance of how Khyaal was sung by the Greatest of Them All.

Conversations

In track 4 I never cease to smile at the conversation between Abba and Khansahib. In addition to talking about the past, the conversation turns to a discussion of Parween Sultana, an Assamese singer who claimed musical descent form Bade Ghulam Ali Khansahib. Abba, always a sucker for a pretty face, was bowled over by her looks and her undoubted musical prowess (which she overstretched at times). Parween Sultana was at her prime at the time. It is lovely to hear Abba’s adulatory comments contrasted to Khansahib’s more qualified and gently dismissive view.

So there we have it, dear reader.

A Hope

I would conclude on a personal note. I am in the Last Act of my life and, frankly, I wished I did not have to witness the inhumanity, shrill anger and hatred that seems to surround us at present. Looking back at happier, gentler times and to the music of life seems to help me cope.

I hope that this collection of music will sustain, in some small way, the same sense of hope, beauty and humanity in you who visit this page.

It is the hope and humanity in each of us that will eventually overcome darkness.— Asif Mamu

Playlists:

1982

1. Jai Jaiwanti
2. Kamod with Tarana
3. Chhaya
4. Conversation between Abba and Khansahib Munawar Ali Khan
5. Thumree Medley — Yaad Piya Ki Aaye & Maar Dala Najariya Milaike

1987

1. Behag
2. Hameer
3. Chaya Chayanut

1984 Mehfil - Munshi Raziuddin & Sons

Munshi Raziuddin was largely out of circulation in the Karachi 'society' circles, during the late seventies.  His patrons began to pass away, or fade from prominence, audiences were demanding the more rock 'n roll type of Qawwali.  Above all, the break-up of the Manzur Qawwal group left him without accompanists, as Abu Mohammad and Fareed Ayaz were not yet mature enough to come out on their own.  He was, as one saw, going through a hiatus, although he bore his difficulties with grace and equanimity.

My elder brother and I were visiting Karachi, and Razi Mian came over one day to call on our father.  We talked and he told us that his sons were performing these days.  An appointment was set, and since our mother was a bit under the weather, we arranged a session at a friend's house in Defense.  This was a stag session.

Most (unpleasantly) memorable was the presence of a local man of letters, scion of one of Karachi's leading 'intellectual' families.  Unfortunately, his vast knowledge of Indian classical music was exceeded only by his obnoxiousness in showing it off.  In this session, he repeatedly interrupted the singers, asking them to switch from one raaga to another, upsetting their concentration and frustrating the full exposition.  We heaved a collective sigh of relief when he prominently and loudly announced his departure, somewhere in mid session.  I remember saying, sotto voce, Janaa hai to dafaa ho, kiss ney rokaa hai?  Raziuddin and his sons took it all in stride and rendered a performance that convinced one of their mastery of the classical genre.

The Maru Behag with which they started this recital, remains my favourite.  Maru Behag holds a very special place in the heart.  In 1969, my father and I did a driving tour of the north of Pakistan, and we found ourselves in Kalaam in northern Swat.  We stayed in a rest house on a plateau above what was then a tiny hamlet.  We sat in quiet solitude after dinner, on the patio of the rest house, with the moon casting a silvery glow.  In front of us was a majestic mountain, Falakh Seher, which is about 17,000 feet high—a mere hill by Himalayan standards.  Below us was the river Swat, with its gushing white waters.  The sounds of the river and the rustle of the crystalline breeze in the pine trees providing a soothing aural backdrop.  Across the narrow valley a young shepherd boy played the flute to no apparent melody, dawdling over random notes, as young boys are prone to do.  And the simple transistor radio we had with us was receiving an All India Radio broadcast of Malavika Kaanan singing Maru Behag, in a rendition that radiated a teasing sensuality, despite the crackling of the airwaves and the puny size of the speaker in the radio.  The perfection of all this harmony caused me to tell my father that this was the moment to leave this world, since never again would one reach such a state of absolute spiritual peace.  He laughed, and told me that I had a few years ahead of me, so should perish the thoughts of an exit …

Also the Kedaara—a favourite of mine—is quite special.

The recording was made on my father's Akai cassette deck, bought in 1972—a machine that still soldiers on.  Says a lot for Akai.—Asif Mamu

The raagas sung are:

Volume I
1. Rasiya Ao Na (Raaga Maru Behag)
2. Mangal Karan Soondhar (Raaga Tilak Kamod)
3. Qaul - Man Kunto Maula (Raaga Shudh Kalyan)

Volume II
1. Jia Chahe so Kahe (Raaga Mishra Pilu) - Tarana (Raaga Zeelaf)
2. Chura Jhanake / Paiyan Paroon Gi Palaga Na Daroon Gi (Raaga Jaijaiwanti)
3. Keenay Jattan Re Ghanay/Lagi Ri Mein Tau Charran Tehare (Raaga Bilawal)
4. Ay Daiya Kahan Gaye Veh Log (Raaga Bilawal) / Teri Re Mein Tau Charan Lagi
5. Sej Nis Neend Na Aave / Ay Sukhe Daiya (Raaga Kedara)
6. Mati Malaniya/Hoon Tau Janam Chadde (Raaga Kamod)
7. Jhanjhan Jhanjhan Payal Baaje Reh (Raaga Nut-Bihag) - Jhana Jhanan Baje Bichwa (Raaga Chayya-Nut).

Volume III
1. Harva Mora Re/Guru Binay Kaisey Gun Gavain (Raaga Yaman Kalyan)
2. Preet Na Jane / Mori Bangari / Kangana (Raaga Malkauns)
3. Ali Ghar Deyo Badhayi - Aaj Badhawa Sajan Ghar
4. Hajrat Khaja Sung Khailiey Dhamaal (Raaga Bahar)



Updated on 26 August 2010: Corrected track titles per Cirrhosed's comments.  Many thanks to him for the feedback!

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References:
1. The text for this post was taken from Asif Mamu's "Notes on the Music".