Ghazal, and Its Place in Music

Beckon me with benevolence whenever you wish
I am not time elapsed that can never return (Pic: Rekhta.org)

A short note on the structure of a ghazal

Ghazal is an intricate pre-Islamic poetic form. Originally an Arabic verse form dealing with loss and romantic love, medieval Persian poets embraced the ghazal, eventually making it their own. It is a series of couplets, called shers, which are related but not connected in a narrative pattern.

The first couplet, or matla, has a rhyme pattern, called kaafiyaa, preceding a single word or short phrase refrain at the end of each line, known as radif.

Thereafter, every couplet shows a pattern wherein the first line doesn’t rhyme, but the second line ends in the kaafiyaa and the radif.

Finally, the last couplet, the maqta, contains the Takhallus, the poet’s nom-de-plume.

Ghazal, in short, is a collection of shers which follow the rules of Matla, Behr (Behr is the sequence of long and short syllables in each line of a ghazal or couplet. It enables the ghazal to be recited in an elegant rhythm), Kaafiyaa, Radif, and Maqta. Listeners of ghazals soon become familiar with these terms and their strict pattern on listening to a few ghazals. In any case, one does not need to really know these terms to enjoy a ghazal.

How ghazals evolved

The ghazal was initially composed to a purely religious theme. Now, ghazals usually have romantic themes (usually sad, but occasionally also joyous). A ghazal can be interpreted as meant for a higher being or for a mortal beloved. Most often, either the beloved has not returned the poet’s love or returns it without sincerity, or else circumstances do not allow it.

Invoking melancholy, love, longing, and even metaphysical questions, ghazals are a favorite with Afghan, Pakistani, and Indian musicians. Their growth owes much to such Persian poets as Rumi and Hafiz, and later to Indian poets such as Mirza Ghalib. In the eighteenth century, the ghazal was used by poets writing in Urdu. Among these poets, Ghalib is the recognized master.

Hain aur bhi duniyan mein sukhanwar bahut achche
Kehte hain ke Ghalib ka hai andaaz e bayaan aur (Pic: Rekhta)

The ghazal takes its form from 7th century Arabic poetry and came to India in the 12^th and 13^th century. One of the earliest Urdu poets to advance the cause of ghazals in India was Amir Khusro, a Sufi singer, scholar and poet, also reputed as the “Father of Qawwali,” who lived in Delhi. One of his famous ghazals Zehaal-e-miskeen makun taghaful, duraye naina banaye batiyaan (words in Pharsi) has been made very popular by Ghulam Ali.

During the reign of Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah, the Sultan of Bengal, the city of Sonargaon (now in Bangladesh) became an important centre of Persian literature, with many publications of prose and poetry. This period is described as the “golden age of Persian literature in Bengal.” Its stature is illustrated by the Sultan’s own correspondence with the Persian poet Hafez. When the Sultan invited Hafez to complete an incomplete ghazal composed by the ruler, the renowned poet responded by acknowledging the grandeur of the king’s court and the literary quality of Bengali-Persian poetry.

Atul Prasad Sen

It is said that Atul Prasad Sen pioneered the introduction of Bengali ghazals. Residing in Lucknow, he was inspired by Persian ghazals and experimented with a stream of Bengali music which was later enriched profusely by the contribution of Kazi Nazrul Islam and Moniruddin Yusuf. Many may be surprised to learn of this Bengal connection and its influence on the ghazal. It was natural, given the deep and committed association of Bengal with poetry.

A commonly held perception is that ghazals originated in Punjab, the former United Provinces, and other areas of North India prior to partition, where Urdu was used by poets with as much felicity as Hindi and almost all ghazals have been written in Urdu.  Most Hindi poets (and film lyricists) were as accomplished in Urdu as in Hindi. The lyricist Gulzar, a Sikh, has written most of his work in Urdu. Other Hindi lyric writers such as Neeraj, Shailendra, Qamar Jalalabadi (Om Prakash Bhandari), Anand Bakshi, SH Bihari, Naqsh Lyallpuri (Jaswant Rai Sharma), and Prem Dhawan were among many accomplished writers who wrote their poetry and film songs in Urdu.

Sadly, the use of ghazal as a song in Hindi films appears to have gone out of vogue now. The slide began in the nineties and has continued. The new generation of Hindi film music composers conveniently (but inaccurately) shrug it off, saying that the tribe of excellent lyricists of the past is now extinct.

But have good lyricists vanished? Not really. Rather, the present-era composers are no longer interested in seeking them out. Music makers of films today believe that the present generation of film goers considers ghazals as passé. When someone asked a reputed music director why the present composers do not produce songs that were so sweet and meaningful as in the past, he promptly replied, “Show me the lyricists who write like those in the past.”

Ghazal singers themselves look at it differently.

“The new filmmakers are more inspired by Western culture. They copy Western music and feel that they have made a song. Such people don’t know what ghazals are all about,” said Jagjit Singh to IANS.

“At some point, cinema took a complete turnaround. A contemporary flavour took over. We had the mix of so-called college flicks with an obvious mix of Hindi, English and Urdu. There was no definite flavour. The entire landscape of the music industry changed. The louder it was, the more popular. Ghazal has lost its place in cinema. As much as Hindustani music blended with international labels, the ghazal genre somewhat lost out. We need solid filmmakers who are focused more on substance and meaning to bring ghazal back to its form,” said Pankaj Udhas in an interview with Miindia.com.

“These days, filmmakers want dance numbers, which are totally out of rhythm and have no meaning. Sometimes, even if we write something that’s borderline ghazal, it’s dropped because it cannot become an instant hit,” Javed Akhtar rued.

“Now, people make films for the weekend. This ideology somewhere defines the shelf-life of a film’s music, too. Also, Westernized plots don’t leave much room for ghazals,” Anup Jalota lamented.

Muzaffar Ali, whose Umrao Jaan is remembered even today mainly for its mellifluous ghazals, says, “We need more filmmakers driven by poetry. It’s a challenge to bring out that poise in today’s hurried scores. Till the sound of music doesn’t become more conducive to Urdu poetry, no poet can lend himself to Bollywood. They wouldn’t like to sell their souls here. They have to be inspired.”

Yet, ghazals are such an essential part of music that they have been featured in Hindi films from the 1940s.

Enraptured audience around Jagjit Singh: (From left to right) Raj Khosla, Ehsaan Khan (Dilip Kumar’s brother), music director Roshan and Jagdish Raj. H S Rawail sits facing the singer.

Ghazals in Hindi films

Composer Anil Biswas was among the earliest to introduce ghazals in Hindi films with Roti (1942), in which Begum Akhtar had six classic ghazals. KL Saigal, who earned fame through his soulful rendition of ghazals, had at least 40 private ghazals tuned by Pankaj Mullick and Rai Chand Boral.  Mullick has also sung many ghazals himself. Thus, film music makers from Bengal also considerably influenced the singing of ghazals in Hindi films.

The way ghazal shaped up and became known to Hindi film audiences is the way Anil Biswas did it. He changed the rendition and composition style, softening it further, with proper emphasis on lyrics where needed and made it more acceptable in its format. Anil Biswas in his book, Ghazaler Rang (in Bengali), elaborated upon how his experiments were carried on and how his thought was perfected by Begum Akhtar later in her life, without Anil Biswas being by her side.

Rahne lagaa hai dil mein andhera tere baghair (Roti, 1942) Anil Biswas / Behzad Lucknowi / Begum Akhtar

Also, the velvety-soft singer, already popular in Bengal, Tapan Kumar started a new trend and style of the ghazal as Talat Mahmood in Bombay with massive support of Anil da and SD Burman. Anil da’s last composition was  Kuch aur zamana kehta hai in Choti Choti Baatein (1965) — even the swan song was a ghazal.

Anil Biswas regarded Talat Mahmood so highly that for the film Aaram (1951), he chose Talat, but the producer/director D. D Kashyap would have none of it, insisting upon only Mukesh and pointing out that there was no ‘song situation’ for a Talat song. Biswas then recorded Shukriya aye pyaar tera, shukriya with Talat and also created a situation for it in the film. Talat thus not only sang the song but also acted in the film, thanks to the immense faith that Biswas reposed in Talat. It remains one of the best ghazals that Talat has sung. (Producer Kashyap’s insistence on rejecting Talat could have deprived us of such a great ghazal).

Anil Biswas’ love for composing ghazals continued with Dil jalta hai toh jalne de sung by Mukesh in Pehli Nazar (1945) and Ae dil mujhe aisi jagah le chal jahan koi na ho by Talat in Arzoo (1949).

(L to R) Anil Biswas with Lata Mangeshkar, Madan Mohan and Talat Mahmood

Naushad too promoted this trend with his ghazals for Shahjahan (1946). Sajjad Husain, a brilliant composer, produced two gems in Yeh hawa yeh raat yeh chandni (Talat) and Woh toh chale gaye ae dil (Lata) for Sangdil (1952). Madan Mohan began with Talat’s Meri yaad mein tum na, aansoo bahaana for Madhosh (1951) and later went on to create outstanding ghazals for many films, prompting Lata Mangeshkar to title him Ghazalon ka Shehzada.

An interesting issue here. Why did Lata hail Madan Mohan only as Ghazlon ka Shehzada, and not, Badshah?

There is no authentic source for this, but perhaps Lata considered Madan too young to be crowned a Badshah when veterans such as Sajjad Husain, Ghulam Mohammad, Anil Biswas, and Naushad were around. A more probable reason could be that the famous shayar, Mir Taqi Mir was already crowned Mir, Ghazlon ke Badshah in a book written in 1955 under this very title. We may remember Mir for his beautiful lyrics in Lata’s melodious ghazal Dikhayi diye yoon, ke bekhud kiya in the film Bazaar, set to music by Khayyam. Jagjit Singh too has been credited with the title “King of ghazals.”

About 18 years after he recorded his first song, Talat Mahmood sang Jalte hain jiske liye for composer S.D. Burman in Bimal Roy’s Sujata in 1959. Loosely described as a ghazal, the song became a romantic anthem for generations to come, but for Talat Mahmood, it became his identity. He was, from thereon, the ‘King of Ghazals‘.

So, perhaps Lata was right in describing Madan Mohan as a ‘Prince’ of ghazals.

Jalte hain jiske liye (Sujata, 1959) SD Burman / Majrooh Sultanpuri / Talat Mahmood

Ghulam Mohammad’s music for Mirza Ghalib (1954) predominantly comprised ghazals by Suraiya, Mohd Rafi and Talat Mahmood. Ghazals for Hindi films were also sung by Pankaj Mallick, G.M. Durrani, Noor Jahan, Mubarak Begum, Lata and Mohammad Rafi. For most people, these were not as easy to sing as other light and catchy filmy tunes and were regarded by them as being classy and difficult songs for common film goers to sing themselves.

Many films until the 1950s and even later were replete with delectable ghazals, as mentioned earlier. However, other leading composers of the time such as Shankar-Jaikishan, SD Burman, OP Nayyar, Hemant Kumar, RD Burman, Kalyanji-Anandji and Laxmikant-Pyarelal, who created excellent songs, were not overly disposed towards the ghazal, although all of them composed some very good ghazals from time to time.

Dil-e-nadan tujhe hua kya hai (Mirza Ghalib, 1954) Ghulam Mohammad / Mirza Ghalib / Talat Mahmood and Suraiya

On the other hand, Roshan (Rehte they kabhi jinke dil mein, and many others), Madan Mohan (prolific and yet classy with ghazals in practically every film of his), Naushad (Uthaye ja unke sitam), Jaidev (Subah ka intezaar kaun kare, Jab ghamein ishq satata hai toh hans leta hoon, and Seene mein jalan, aankhon mein toofan sa kyon hai), Dattaram (Aansoo bharin hain yeh jeevan ki rahein), SN Tripathi (Lagta nahin hai dil mera and Na kisiki aankh ka noor hoon), Ravi (Chaudhwin ka Chand ho and Choo lene do naazuk hothon ko) created many memorable ghazals in the run up to the 1970s.

One of the early ghazal albums of Jagjit Singh & Chitra Singh

By the 1970s and 80s, Jagjit Singh, Pankaj Udhas, Anup Jalota, Talat Aziz, and the Pakistani singers Ghulam Ali and Mehdi Hassan, were regularly performing in concerts, singing mainly ghazals, besides singing in films.

However, the credit for making ghazals popular through the medium of films belongs to Jagjit Singh, who composed for movies like Prem Geet and Arth, and sang for Saath Saath in 1981 and 1982.  Jagjit Singh had composed a beautiful tune for a ghazal written long ago by Rajindar Nath Rehbar. This ghazal has six verses. Jagjit Singh created a beautiful tune for only the first two lines which were included in the album of Arth. (Tere khushboo mein base khat, main jalaata kaise).

When Kaifi Azmi was writing the songs for Arth, Jagjit got him to write a ghazal for this tune.  Thus was born Koi yeh kaise bataye, picturised dramatically by Mahesh Bhatt. Songs of Arth gave a great fillip to Ghazals among Hindi film music listeners.

Around this time, Ghulam Ali’s Chupke chupke raat din (played in the background) in Nikaah became a hit, Talat Aziz and Pankaj Udhas also sang for films, and suddenly, Hindi filmgoers could not have enough of ghazals.

In 1991, Lata Mangeshkar and Jagjit Singh made an album together titled  Sajda with 14 ghazals, 4 of them duets and the rest solos by them. “For years and years Jagjit Saab harboured the dream of doing an album with his Latabai. Sajda finally happened in 1991 after years of dreaming and delay.”
Talking about this album, Lata said that initially Sajda, was supposed to have only her own solos. “But I told him (Jagjit) he had to sing as well. This was my chance to sing with a voice I had liked for years. Sajda was an idea put forward by Madan Bhaiyya’s son Sanjeev Kohli who worked at that time with HMV…… Jagjitji got very emotional when I sang his composition Dard se mera daaman bhar de. He was going through a personal tragedy and the song touched his heart.” (Source: When Jagjit Singh made history with Lata Mangeshkar)

The film Umrao Jaan (1981) for which Khayyam composed the music is a cult movie more popular for its outstanding ghazals than for Rekha’s acting or Muzaffar Ali’s superb direction. In this fashion, ghazals too became an integral part of Hindi film songs.

Dard se mera daaman bhar de (Sajda, Non-film, 1991) Jagjit Singh / Qateel Shifai / Lata Mangeshkar

Difference between Film and Non-film Ghazals

The setting under which composers and lyricists get together for creating film songs is unique, but they are constrained by many factors from giving their best. A few composers such as Jaidev, Khayyam, Madan Mohan disregarded the prevailing system and gave full rein to poets in first creating their lyrics for the situation and composed tunes for them, making suitable adjustments. OP Nayyar too was an exception for not insisting on lyricists writing the song to his tunes. He wanted the lyricists to write their words first and could compose a tune for anything that they wrote.

Another outstanding example is Jaidev whose song from the film Gaman: Seene mein jalan written by Shahryar ranks among a very few songs that leave one wondering who, among the composer, lyricist, singer and actor, besides the director for his brilliant picturization, made that ghazal great.

Seene mein jalan (Gaman, Non-film, 1979) Jaidev / Shahrayar / Suresh Wadkar

But Naushad, SD Burman and almost all other composers always created their tunes first and rigidly demanded that the lyricist should frame words for them (this was a serious handicap for most lyric writers, stalling their creativity and having to write in a proffered groove). Not all composers were willing to compromise on ‘their’ tunes to accommodate the lyricist’s words (although, with Shakeel Badayuni, Naushad’s composing sessions were an experimentation with Naushad prodding him while playing on his Harmonium or Piano and Shakeel improvising upon the lyrics). Thus, lyricists are often constrained by many factors from giving full rein to their talent and poetic creativity.  “Kaifi Azmi once memorably described a film lyricist’s job as first digging a grave and then finding a body to fit it!” (Source: Foreword to the book ‘In Other Words’ by Javed Akhtar)

Songs/ghazals in films had to be restricted to no longer than three to four minutes, so that an average of 6 to 8 songs should not take up more than 30 minutes of the film.

The stage concert ghazal singers, on the other hand, perform for two to three hours to a full house of audience that is physically present before them. In that time frame, they deliver about 15 ghazals (mixed with other pieces). Thus, each piece has to last at least eight to ten minutes to fulfil that time and also satiate the audience. (The length of their show time is also subject to the singer’s capacity to sing over an extended period, with just a short break or two).

As mentioned above, for films, composers, lyricists and the director (occasionally the producer, too) gather, and for any given ‘song situation’, the composer plays several tunes on his harmonium with the lyricist forming words for those tunes, both of them working to suit the song for the particular situation on the screen, with due regard to length of the song. But, very often, the composer has ready-made tunes that were made for other films but not used, and also tunes that he has composed and kept aside as his ‘Stock in Trade’. Therefore, film songs (even a ghazal) with such limited scope are often like ‘Made to order’ songs, although indisputably, a lot of talent and ingenuity does enter into making them.

The stage singers, on their part, did not ‘create’ their ghazals, or have them ‘written’, but picked their ghazals from a profusion of those written by hundreds of shayars over a long period. (Please look up Rekhta.org and you will find an astonishing range of beautiful ghazals, nazms, geets and shayari) These singers picked up hundreds of such ghazals, set them to very attractive tunes with their own musicians and sang them on stage, and/or used them for their albums.

These ghazals normally contain three (or more) shers (verses) and were earlier recited to live audiences in Mushairas by the shayars who wrote them. They did not carry any ‘musical’ element to them (the emphasis was on the shayari) and shayars in these mushairas never ‘sang’ their ghazals, although a few of them had their own ‘sing-song’ style of reciting them; more to establish their own style and stature rather than attempting to ‘sing’. So, before using them, the stage singers poured ‘life’ into these ghazals with an appealing tune and instrumental accompaniment.

When we listen to a live recital of ghazals, we naturally get more involved not only with the singing and the instrumental accompaniment but also with the words. The enthusiastic Wah Wahs from the audience in such concerts attest to it. (Click here to enjoy a rare Jagjit Singh & Chitra Singh mehfil). The stage singers therefore needed to stretch the length of each piece they rendered on stage from the usual film song standard of three minutes per song to about eight to ten minutes per ghazal in a concert lasting over two hours.

They did this in two ways:

1. The singers added a prelude (mukhda) to the ghazal written by a shayar, the mukhda not necessarily written by the same poet. They borrowed a Sher written by another shayar which matched the ghazal’s theme, and thus increased the length of the ghazal by a couple of minutes.

1. • Anup Jalota’s famous Chand angdaayiaan le raha hai has a long prelude Marne ke baad bhi, meri aankhen khuli raheen. Jalota’s Tumhare shehar ka mausam has a long mukhda — Ghazal mein bandisho alfaaz hi nahin kaafi.
   • Pankaj Udhas uses such preludes to every ghazal of his. His famous Deewaaron se milkar rona (live version) has an opening sargam that stretches over 1.45 minutes of the 11-minute ghazal.
   • Ghulam Ali’s rendition of the sufi poet Ameer Khusro’s famous ghazal: Zehaale-e-miskeen, makun taghaful has a prelude Haal aisa nahin ke tumse kahein which is actually the prelude of another ghazal written by Mahboob Khijaan. Thus, the borrowed but apt Mukhda and the Aalaap together provide an extension to the actual ghazals by several minutes.

2. The other method is to extend the length by ‘Repetition’. In film songs, lines are not repeated very often (the need to restrict length of the song is paramount). But while singing ghazals on stage, the singers freely repeat lines, as often as three times (with a little difference in the tune for that line). This has two advantages: increasing the recital’s length and, what is of even greater significance to the audience, the words can be savored fully and enjoyably.

Listening to a film song lasting barely 3 to 4 minutes, one fails to register the beauty of the lyrics as one’s attention may be rapt on the action on screen. Or, the lines follow each other so quickly that there is no time to register and enjoy the lyrics (unless they catch up later, at home). At concerts however, this repetition of the lines helps the listener to fully absorb the meaning and depth of the words. Ghazal aficionados attend such concerts as much to enjoy and relish the words of a ghazal as the music in which it is cast and the way it is sung. This is also the reason why Mushairas are so popular although the musical element is almost non existent there.

Chupke chupke raat din (Nikaah, 1982) Ravi / Hasrat Mohani / Ghulam Ali

Thus, the filmy ghazal, written by eminent poets highly proficient in Urdu, is equally a source of perennial listening pleasure. The fact that most of such ghazals are also couched in flowing and literary Urdu, a very soothing language on the ears, also helps listeners to fully enjoy the ghazals.

One is wafted to an altogether elevated atmosphere listening to a ghazal being beautifully rendered by a singer during a live concert. The musical accompaniment, the aalap, the intermittent commentary of the singer explaining a sher (that Anup Jalota refers to as Kaabile gaur sher hai), and some witty anecdotes from the singers is an emotionally rewarding experience.

This is not to take away in the least from the credit that our film lyric writers richly deserve for their thousands of songs that we love to listen to. This essay, like an ‘ode’, has been written in praise of the ghazal, and offers an insight on what makes a ghazal so delightfully relishable.

(A part of this essay is sourced from Wikipedia)

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About the Author

NS Rajan ( 7 Posts)

NS Rajan is a retired senior IRS Officer. He is an avid reader and a sports lover, particularly cricket, having watched many greats in action from the late 1940s (he has played cricket at a fairly competitive level). He loves listening to music of all genres, is fascinated by Hindi film music of the ‘golden era’ and has written many essays on composers, lyricists and singers. Rajan loves to sing and spends some of his time singing on his karaoke system. He likes to write and has contributed articles, short stories and letters to newspapers and magazines, some of which have been published in Silhouette Magazine and LnC. Rajan is very fond of travelling and learning about new and fascinating places and is a keen observer of all that he sees, hears and observes during his travels. Travel and photography usually always go together and Rajan has been interested in photography from his teens, weaned on a German Zeiss Ikon. His abiding love for travel and photography inspired him to write an illustrated book on his trip to the USA, Go West Odyssey: How I Saw America in 19 Days, including in it a number of pictures taken by him during the trip. He works actively to keep himself engaged in some mental pursuit or the other and to keep himself mentally and physically fit at the ripe old age of 89.
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