Habib Wali Mohammad

In 1941, in Bombay, some young music lovers between 17 and 19 years of age were waiting outside a room for an audition. One by one, each candidate went in the room and was tested for his voice, diction, pronunciation and singing abilities..

Amongst those eager and apprehensive teenagers was an eighteen year old whose name was Mukesh Chand Mathur. Behind Mukesh was another young boy and whose family name was Habib Tabani later to gain fame as Habib Wali Mohammad.

Habib Wali Mohammad was born in 1921, in Rangoon, to a conservative memon family. The family later moved to Bombay. A little later, he started taking interest in classical music in Bombay. He took lessons in classical music from Ustaad Fayyaz khan’s nephew, Latafath Husain.

He participated in (Ismail Yusuf College) musical functions and came to be known as the Taan Sen in his college. As soon as he finished his college education, his parents sent him to America where he completed his MBA.

He returned to Bombay in the late forties, and took part in a music competition, in which 1200 singers had participated. He selected Bahadur Shah Zafar’s immortal ghazal Lagta nahi hai jee mera is ujRay dayar mein to render for the competition and a panel of judges awarded him the first prize.

Encouraged, he put a lot of effort and came out with his first record of ghazals. On one side of the record, he dubbed Bahadur Shah Zafar’s ghazals and on the other side, Ghalib’s ghazals.

In those days, a prominent Indian actress, Meena Kumari, was affiliated with Radio Ceylon, she happened to listen to those ghazals and liked them so much, that she made it a point to broadcast them often from Radio Ceylon. Thousands of listeners heard those ghazals on the radio and rushed to the music stores to buy the gramophone records: Habib Wali Mohammad became a celebrity.

After partition, he migrated to Pakistan. The Tabanis are a leading industrial conglomerate. His elder brother Ashraf Ali Tabani is a former Governor of Sind. Being one of them it was natural that he concentrated on business first. He never made music his profession. Music has always been a hobby for him.

He continued singing ghazals and geets, recording them for Radio Pakistan and the record companies. And he played a few concerts as well. In eighties, he collaborated with music director Nisar Bazmi on a ghazal audio cassette that was well received by his fans.

He sang a ghazal written by Ustaad Qamar Jalalavi which was an instant super hit Kab mera nasheman ehlay chaman… All ghazals of Bahadur Shah Zafar, sung by Habib Wali Mohammad were mega hits, includingNa kisi ki Aankh ka noor hooN

Habib Wali Mohammed is retired now and settled in California. He is very courteous to his fans and does what ever he can for the betterment of humanity. He is a role model and an incessant source of inspiration for the Pakistanis around the globe.