{"id":5985,"date":"2020-12-25T12:37:15","date_gmt":"2020-12-25T07:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/?p=5985"},"modified":"2026-02-15T16:31:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T11:01:39","slug":"sajjad-husain-the-unsung-maestro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/sajjad-husain-the-unsung-maestro\/","title":{"rendered":"Sajjad Hussain, the &#8216;Unsung&#8217; Maestro"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_5986\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5986\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5986\" src=\"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/12\/sajjad-husain.jpeg\" alt=\"sajjad husain\" width=\"700\" height=\"549\" srcset=\"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/12\/sajjad-husain.jpeg 700w, https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/12\/sajjad-husain-150x118.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/12\/sajjad-husain-300x235.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-5986\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sajjad Hussain<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Sajjad Hussain was a composer par excellence who was active in the Hindi film music world from the 1940s. Born in 1917 in Sitamau in the present Madhya Pradesh, he learned to play the Sitar when very young, tutored by his father and grew to be quite proficient in playing it. He moved to Bombay when only 20, and worked as an instrument player for composers for a few years. Besides the Sitar, he acquired the skills of\u00a0 playing the Veena, Piano, Violin, Flute, Jal tarang, Clarinet, Accordion, Spanish and Hawaiian Guitars, Banjo and Mandolin (and many other instruments besides these) with dexterity.<\/p>\n<p>Sajjad specialised in playing the mandolin, which had evolved from being a humble serenading string instrument in Italy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, to take its place with more sophisticated pieces in the orchestra and songs (remember that famous Dean Martin number <em>The man who plays the mandolino<\/em>?). Sajjad became practically a mandolin virtuoso, adapting the instrument which was hitherto not very popular in India to Indian film music and even fashioning a few changes to the instrument, to suit his own compositions. The mandolin thus became an integral part of many film composer&#8217;s orchestra. It was Sajjad who introduced the sound of Arabic music and instruments\u00a0to Hindi film songs through his compositions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe peculiarity of Sajjad\u2019s music,\u201d said Aziz Ashraf (Sajjad&#8217;s son), \u201crests on an integrated fusion of two disparate musical traditions &#8211; the Hindustani and the mid-Eastern.\u201d<sup>(1)<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>His first film as an independent\u00a0 composer was the movie <em>Dost<\/em> for which he composed\u00a0 nine tunes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Koi prem ka de ke sandesa<\/em> and <em>Badnaam mohabbat kaun kare<\/em>, both sung by Noor Jehan being outstanding hits among them.<\/li>\n<li><em>Badnaam mohabbat kaun kare<\/em> had Noor Jehan singing tantalisingly with a short pause after <em>&#8216;badnaam&#8217;<\/em>, which added immensely to the song&#8217;s appeal (a la Khayyam, who had later composed several beautiful hit songs with that intriguing pause).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But the very success of these songs of <em>Dost<\/em> led Sajjad to an altercation with the film&#8217;s director Shaukat Hussain Rizvi, under whom Sajjad had earlier worked as his assistant.\u00a0Rizvi, who was to marry Noor Jehan shortly after this movie was released, publicly ascribed the film&#8217;s success to Noor Jehan&#8217;s singing. Sajjad felt very offended at this and, besides\u00a0openly repudiating the claim, also swore never to work with Noor Jehan again.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5987\" style=\"width: 392px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5987\" class=\"wp-image-5987 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/12\/sajjad-hussain-_pic-court-_sudarshan-talwar.jpg\" alt=\"Sajjad Husain\" width=\"382\" height=\"273\" srcset=\"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/12\/sajjad-hussain-_pic-court-_sudarshan-talwar.jpg 382w, https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/12\/sajjad-hussain-_pic-court-_sudarshan-talwar-150x107.jpg 150w, https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/12\/sajjad-hussain-_pic-court-_sudarshan-talwar-300x214.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 382px) 100vw, 382px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-5987\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sajjad Hussain (sitting far right) (Pic: Apaarchive\/Sudarshan Talwar)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In 1952, he composed the benchmark setting music for <em>Sangdil<\/em> which had beautiful solos by Lata; such as\u00a0<em>Dil mein sama gaye sajan<\/em> and <em>Woh toh chale gaye ae dil<\/em>, apart from the unforgettable haunting ghazal,\u00a0<em>Yeh hawa yeh raat yeh chandni<\/em>,\u00a0which also considerably helped to catapult a rising Talat Mahmood to take his well-deserved place among the top singers of the time. The eminent musicologist Ashok Ranade described the song <em>Yeh hawa yeh raat<\/em> as a &#8216;tantalising composition&#8217;. Strangely (or perhaps not so strangely either), Sajjad fell out with Dilip Kumar, the principal actor of <em>Sangdil<\/em>,\u00a0and was never to again compose for any film featuring Dilip Kumar.<\/p>\n<p>Sajjad Hussain was a sensitive artist (as most artists are), very conscious of his genius, and was always quick to take offense, especially when he perceived that his genius was either not given its due, which was often, or when someone else&#8217;s work was recognised beyond its proper place, as &#8216;he&#8217; assessed it. Sadly, he also was so proud about this genius that he managed to get on the wrong side of just about everyone in the Hindi film music scene.\u00a0 Among his fellow composers, he had a high regard only for Anil Biswas. Though he was a contemporary of Naushad, he was unimpressed by Naushad&#8217;s abilities and reportedly, once strongly admonished Lata during a rehearsal saying<em>, &#8220;Yeh Naushad miyaan ka gaana nahin hai. Aapko mehnat karni hogi.&#8221;<\/em>\u00a0 Lata herself has mentioned that Hussain was one music director whose compositions gave her the jitters.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5988\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5988\" class=\"wp-image-5988 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/12\/sajjad-husain-and-lata.jpg\" alt=\"sajjad husain and lata\" width=\"300\" height=\"352\" srcset=\"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/12\/sajjad-husain-and-lata.jpg 300w, https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/12\/sajjad-husain-and-lata-128x150.jpg 128w, https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/12\/sajjad-husain-and-lata-256x300.jpg 256w, https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/12\/sajjad-husain-and-lata-150x176.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-5988\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sajjad Hussain and Lata Mangeshkar (Pic: Google Image Search)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Sajjad was a perfectionist and was very exacting in getting what he wanted out of his singers and instrumentalists.\u00a0He had high regard for Lata&#8217;s singing\u00a0and gave Lata some of his best songs \u2013 <em>Ae dilruba nazrein mila<\/em> (<em>Rustam Sohrab<\/em>, 1963), <em>Jaate ho toh jao<\/em> (<em>Khel<\/em>, 1950), <em>Aaj mere naseeb ne<\/em> (<em>Hulchul<\/em>, 1951), <em>Woh toh chale gaye aye dil<\/em> (<em>Sangdil<\/em>). The 1951 movie <em>Saiyyan<\/em>, composed by Sajjad, has six outstanding solos by Lata.\u00a0Yet, in his book, <em>Lata Mangeshkar, A Biography<\/em>, Raju Bharatan, the noted film historian and Hindi film music critic, states that when he asked Sajjad Hussain if he could recall a number sung by\u00a0 Lata composed by any music director other than himself, he could, after long persuasion, only mention one composition by S.D. Burman, <em>Megha chhaye aadhi raat<\/em>, from <em>Sharmilee<\/em> (1971), while simultaneously qualifying the compliment by adding that &#8216;the composition was not great; it was Lata&#8217;s rendition that enhanced it&#8217;.\u00a0 Interestingly however, legendary composer Naushad, while commenting on Sajjad said: \u201cHe (Sajjad) was an extremely talented artiste, very knowledgeable about music, but his temperament was his undoing. Even if someone made a minor suggestion, he\u2019d turn on him and say: \u2018What do you know about music?\u2019 It means he was not prepared to consider anyone a cognoscenti in the matter of music composition.\u201d<sup>(2)\u00a0<\/sup>In consequence, the unfortunate outcome was that his quantitative output was considerably disproportionate to his genius and the quality of his compositions.<\/p>\n<p>In 1951, Sajjad Hussain composed music for the movie <em>Hulchul<\/em>,\u00a0which had an outstanding Lata rendition, <em>Aaj mere nasib nein, mujhko rula rula diya<\/em>. But his best\u00a0work was in 1963, almost towards the end of his composing career, for the movie <em>Rustom Sohrab<\/em>, which features a <em>qawwali<\/em> sung by Mohmmad Rafi, Manna Dey and Sadat Khan, <em>Phir tumhari yaad aayi ae sanam, ae sanam. Hum na bhoolenge tumhen Allah kasam<\/em>.\u00a0 Readers may note that though the tunes of the three stanzas of this <em>qawwali<\/em> &#8216;sound&#8217; similar, there are subtle differences in their composition. Sung by Rafi in the softer version of his voice, this is a very catchy and unforgettable tune that any listener would like to hum. But, equally captivating\u00a0are the lyrics by Qamar Jalalabadi (an Amritsari Punjabi Hindu, born as Om Prakash Bhandari, highly religious and very well versed in Bhagavad Gita and Transcendental Meditation).<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4423\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4423\" class=\"wp-image-4423\" src=\"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/07\/yeh-kaisi-ajab-daastan.jpg\" alt=\"Suraiya in Yeh kaisi ajab daastan ho gayi hai\" width=\"400\" height=\"306\" srcset=\"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/07\/yeh-kaisi-ajab-daastan.jpg 465w, https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/07\/yeh-kaisi-ajab-daastan-150x115.jpg 150w, https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/07\/yeh-kaisi-ajab-daastan-400x306.jpg 400w, https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/07\/yeh-kaisi-ajab-daastan-300x230.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-4423\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Suraiya in <em>Yeh kaisi ajab daastan ho gayi hai<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<p><em>Rustom Sohrab<\/em> had other musical gems, one a typically difficult\u00a0Sajjad composition sung beautifully by Lata: <em>Ae dilruba, nazrein mila<\/em>&#8220;,\u00a0 besides a classic <em>Yeh kaisi ajab dastan ho gayi hai&#8217;<\/em>, sung by Suraiya, who was a singing artiste second only to Noor Jehan.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Hussain received many invitations to play the mandolin in films, Mustafa (another son of Sajjad) said his father accepted only two such assignments. The first was from his close friend, the composer Vasant Desai, to play on the title music track of the film <em>Do Behnen<\/em> (1963). The second invitation came from director Bapu and music director KV Mahadevan for the Telugu film <em>Muthyala Muggu<\/em> (1975) for which Hussain composed and recorded a stunning five-minute solo piece.\u201d<sup>(3)<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Sajjad Hussain was a priceless asset to Hindi film music but could not get the recognition that was his due, despite his prodigious talent. Anil Biswas, the music maestro, paid him the ultimate homage saying, &#8220;He was the most original composer of our industry. All of us at some point have been inspired by something or the other of Sajjad Hussain.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>References:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>(1) and (3)\u00a0<em>Sajjad Hussain, the composer whose music has endured \u2018with a tenacity that defies reason\u2019<\/em> (Rudradeep Bhattacharjee, Scroll.in, Jun 15, 2017<\/p>\n<p>(2) <em>Sajjad Hussain, Bollywood&#8217;s Loss<\/em>\u00a0(DP Rangan, Songs of Yore, July 21, 2018)<\/p>\n<p><strong>More to read<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/khayyam-the-gentle-giant\/\">Khayyam: The Gentle Giant<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/naushad\/\">Aawaz De Kahaan Hai: The Golden Music of Naushad<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/roshan-music-director\/\">The Uncommon Roshan<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/mast-songs-of-madan-mohan\/\">Aye Dil Mujhe Bataa De \u2013 The Mast Nagmein of Madan Mohan<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp; <\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sajjad Husain was a priceless asset to Hindi film music but\u00a0could not get the recognition that was his due, despite his prodigious talent.\u00a0A tribute.<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":956,"featured_media":10571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[821],"tags":[980,534,1962,2060,2661],"class_list":["post-5985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-makers","tag-khayyam","tag-lata-mangeshkar","tag-naushad","tag-sajjad-husain","tag-sajjad-hussain"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/956"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5985"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10572,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5985\/revisions\/10572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}