Munir Husain

My Dear S.P.Wakil: I am pleased to go through your highly informative letter. I do understand your sentiments of that particular evening which you spend with Munir Husain.
Every now and then I have to make a tough decision to skip a song,ghazal or an important event in order to add another piece of something or some item of almost equal importance.
Moreover,I realize that `Dil`la.........nazzara lain de` is,indeed, a masterpiece.
I hope to do a little better next time.
All the best

Anis Shakur

I have a charming and enchanting memory of hearing and meeting Munir Husain at a time when he was at the pinnacle of his
singing career; or, at least, till the time I left Lahore.

Although I had heard him on radio I had not met him. It was not unusual but usually I knew most playback singers of the time.

I saw him at a concert on September 15, 1959. The concert was arranged by a friend, an in-law of another very close friend,
who had invited me and my ``girl friend``, a young lady with whom I was indescribably in love, to the concert.

The concert was most delectable and the fare almost ambrosial. The most popular song at the time was a Punjabi confection:
``Dil`la, thh`e^hr ja yar da nazzara lain dé", which he sang twice at the request of the unusually civil audience of the evening.
Next day I left Pakistan for ever.

It was either the song, the singer`s enchanting voice, or the totality of the theurgy of the evening, that has made the memory of
that evening and the song a treasured possession to cherish in my life. My beloved was my dream, the melody, entrancing.

I was sorry not to see that song mentioned in the roll in the article.*


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*The song was so popular that it was re-sung by Mehnaz and Ghulam Ali some years ago, perhaps because Munir Husain
himself could not ``lift`` the antra well.

Last I heard, he was in North America -- for the second time -- as a B-class singer for a remuneration of roti and kamra! He
heard thw news of his demise soon after. I was very sad to hear it.

Banjaara: We all have our likings and dislikings. I have great respect for your views.
Sincerely
Anis

SameerJB: Sounds good. These are, indeed, changing times.
truly
Anis

Rozaiba: I agree with you. A lot of factors were involved in Rafi`s time and these are all great names like Rafi, Mehdi Hasan, Munir Husain etc.
Best regards
Anis

Any one who sings..... karar lootnay waley karar ko tarsay.. should never be allowed to sing an Urdu ghazal.

Hi,
rozaiba,
As far as I know Munir Husain did not made any comments regarding Rafi Saheb. In fact, I know atleast two singers ( one pakistani, one Indian) who had said that given more opportunities, they could have done just like Rafi.
Many thanks and regards
Anis

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I am just wondering how movie singers will compete with singers cutting out their own albums? Good singer practice lot more bfore recording a song several times and picking the best one for album. Besides singer have full control over music of the songs. Add to that, radio listening is fast declining, whcih was the main outlet of popularizing movie songs, Very few people actually buy movie songs CD, relying mostly on cheaper cassettes. At least I have totally lost interest in listening to old or new movie songs.
In Munir Hussain`s time, radio was the main source of music. I wonder if even Lata, Rafi etc would have achieved the fame as they did in the absence of album-based singers.
Interestingly some singers are singing old movie songs with more practice and doing great job. Some of Lata songs sung by Vandana Bajpai and Anuradha Paudwal are excellent quality. At least I feel many are better than Lata singing them originally.

Hi,
Prem,
Glad to hear your comments.The pleasure is mine. Your friendly neighborhood writer.
Anis

Hi,
temporal,
Apart from being a great singer,Munir Husain was also a very great human being. He was humble and almost never complained in bad times.
We really miss such sincere artists nowadays.
truly
Anis

Wow....we rarely get to know about the greats of Pakistani music. This was very nice. Thank you.

anis:

thanks for an almost comprehensive list of what munir husain sang...this looks suspiciously like the index of your book...

wished you had taken the trouble to tell us what munir hussain as a person was about...

rgds,

t

I only remember a few of his songs. In `Vanjli valarrya` his voice was beautiful.

Was he the same guy who claimed he could sing better than Rafi? If so, that was a preposterous claim.