A genius: Sajjad hussain

Its very disturbed atmosphere in the forum, lets change the mood a little bit. We all know about Kishore being notoriously eccentric genius. Read the article about another eccentric genius who called talat mahmood as ghalat mahmood and kishore kumar as shor kumar...

Sajjad There was one music director in Hindi Film Industry who was far superior to all the others. He was the real master - or the master of the masters. Sajjad Hussain by name, this man experienced an unstable career in Hindi films. As one might wonder he was a little too good for the business he was trying to make a living from. All the training in classical music he ever received was from his father. He took some Sitar lessons under his father as a kid. He entered the stage in 1944 in Dost - and he entered with a bang. With Noor Jehan at his hand he smashed his first ace with Badnaam mohobbat kaun kare. To the connoissures even the mention of this extraordinary song is enough to touch their ears. He was a great mendoline player - taught by nobody - and he could do wonders with that instrument. Sajjad was an absolute perfectionist. He would tire the hell out of his crew to get a recording done as per his wishes. It is known that he called for 17 re-takes of the legendary Yeh hawa yeh raat yeh chandani (Sangdil). Even after all that he was never happy with that song. Anil Biswas has certified Sajjad as the "only original music director". He said that everybody else - including himself - had tto turn to some source of insppiration. Sajjad never needed that! Lata Mangeshkar and Noor Jehan were the only two female voices Sajjad thought worth considering as playback singers. He used to genuinely wonder that why Khuda bothered to put all the others on this planet after creating Lata! Among male voices he pardoned Talat. No one else managed to sneak into his erudite group to sing a line or two of his composition. Lata sang Aaj mere naseeb ne mujh ko rula rula diya (Hulchul) for Sajjad which he considered his best work ever for quite some time. Eventually he started disliking that also. He began thinking that he could and should have done far better than that. Talk to any music director and he would tell you why a particular of his compositions is so good. But Sajjad ? Wrong number! He used to say that the master pieces like Dil mein sama gaye sajan (Sangdil) are perfectly ordinary from composition point of view. What - then - shall we think of as "extra-ordinary", Sajjad saab ? A brilliant Suraiyya piece in Rustum Soharaab was Yeh kaisi ajab daasataN ho gayi hai. Was that also ordinary ? And how did Suraiyya get to sing a song where only Lata and Noor Jehan were allowed ? The biggest and most formidable enemy of Sajjad Hussain was he himself. He could not put up with anyone in the industry. In a place full of sycophants self esteemed insolence of Sajjad Hussian could not survive. The man who told once to Lata - when she was reportedly struggling with a tune of his - that she should take more effort and that the tune is not of Naushad to take lightly, waged war against many in the industry. It finally led to his destruction and the most talented of them all had to sit at home doing nothing when the mediocracy prevailed years after years with second rate songs and plagiarisd tunes. Anecdotes have it! One fine evening in a party, Sajjad walked to Madan Mohan in a not-so-friendly mood. He confronted Madan and asked with rage, "How did you dare steal my tune ?" I don't know what Madan Mohan replied. Sajjad was refering to the new avtaar of his Yeh hawa yeh raat yeh chandani - namely Tujhe kya sunau main dilruba (Aakhari Daao - Rafi) from Madan Mohan. Sure the tune was the same. And sure Sajjad had conceived it first. So did Madan Mohan actually steal it ? Well, if a composer like Madan Mohan falls for such a tune, it's not his fault, is it ? Looks like in spite of his preferences among playback singers he did in fact use quite a few of others in his career. He created Woh to chale gaye aye dil (Lata) for Madhubala, Kahan ho kahan mere jeevan sahare (Talat) for Dilipkumar in Sangdil and Aye dil ruba (Rustum Soharaab - Lata), Jaate ho to jao hum bhi yahaN vaadoN ke sahare jee lenege (Khel - Lata) with his favorite singers. But Phir tumhari yaad aayi aye sanam (Rustum Soharaab - Manna Dey, Sadat Khan, Rafi) and Dharati se door gore badaloN ke paar (Sangdil - Geeta, Asha) were a few of his compositions in which he took a day off from the leading vocalists. Sajjad died in oblivion. His last years were not exactly how they should have been. His genius went unsung. One wonders if the story would have been different had he been a little more tolerant. But then he wouldn't have been Sajjad. Sajjad was a package deal - either take him in his entirity or forget about him. The waste of his talent is ultimately the loss of ours. We have missed the hundreds of tunes that were never created by Sajjad because he was never given a chance. What we have with us now is just an infinitesimal fraction of his untamed genius. We should be thankful for that, for that is more than what mortals like us deserve. After all, his music was ethereal!

Sajjad Filmography (From Issue #56 of Listener's Bulletin.) He was born in 1899 in Sitamau (M. P.) into a musical family. As a child, he mastered Sitar, Veena, Violin, Jaltarang, Flute, Piano, Banjo, Clarionet, Harp, Accordian, Spanish and Hawaaian guitars and Mandolin. He came to Bombay in 1940. Later, Pandit Hanuman Prasad said that Sajjad Hussain is a one-man orchestra. His movie list follows: 1944 - Gaali (with Hanuman Prasad), &nbs p;Dost 1945 - Dharm 1946 - 1857, &nbs p;Tilasmi Duniya 1947 - Qasam, &nbs p;Mere Bhagawan 1950 - Khel, &nbs p;Maghroor (with Bulo C. Rani and Ram Panjawani) 1951 - Hulchul (with Mohammad Shafi), &nbs p;Saiyan 1952 - Sangdil 1955 - Rukhsana 1963 - Rustam Sohrab (Suraiya's last film) __________________ 14 Films in all.... * Lata has sung 14 solo songs for Sajjad and 1 duet.

MS04, Thanks for posting this. 👏 👏

😊

Thanks a lot. Yes he was his own enemy. Just imagine just because of his own behaviour he had so less songs under his belt. He was in this industry for more than 20 years. But just 14 films to his credit. Whe actually he was really good. I have another picture of his. Posting it here.

Originally posted by: friend17

MS04, Thanks for posting this. 👏 👏

😊

Thanks friend,
There is a point in the article. It said plagiarism took over after sajjad. So what does it say about the greats we all worship: Madan Mohan, SD Burman and SalilDa.
Hmmm...point to ponder.😕

Originally posted by: Bhaskar.T

Thanks a lot. Yes he was his own enemy. Just imagine just because of his own behaviour he had so less songs under his belt. He was in this industry for more than 20 years. But just 14 films to his credit. Whe actually he was really good. I have another picture of his. Posting it here.

Thanks Bhaskar.
I have seen that picture too...
I was thinking about the point about plagiarism after sajjad. and am still confused.

Yes me too. If such good high grade MD's can go for plagiarism then why blame the ordinary ones. Salilda and SDBurman have done it I knew. Because they used to copy musics from bengali songs. Folk music more.

But Madan Mohan too..... Really surprising. And the interesting thing is Madan Mohan had even accepted this fact saying it was an inspired tune. But, seriously, the fact that Madan Mohan unabashedly accepted this was an inspired tune lifts it above the realm of plagiarism. It would have been a different matter if he had made a lame excuse like "after all, there are only seven notes..."

But now the question arises is when Bappi Lahiri or Annu Malik do it, it is plagiarisation; when Madan Mohan does it, why it is adaptation 😉

Originally posted by: Bhaskar.T

Yes me too. If such good high grade MD's can go for plagiarism then why blame the ordinary ones. Salilda and SDBurman have done it I knew. Because they used to copy musics from bengali songs. Folk music more.

But Madan Mohan too..... Really surprising. And the interesting thing is Madan Mohan had even accepted this fact saying it was an inspired tune. But, seriously, the fact that Madan Mohan unabashedly accepted this was an inspired tune lifts it above the realm of plagiarism. It would have been a different matter if he had made a lame excuse like "after all, there are only seven notes..."

But now the question arises is when Bappi Lahiri or Annu Malik do it, it is plagiarisation; when Madan Mohan does it, why it is adaptation 😉

A piece of another article...about madan mohan's lift.
Madan Mohan, when confronted with the charge of plagiarism, reportedly told
him, "I take pride in the fact that I lifted your tune, not that of some
second- or third-rater."

MS04ji,
Thanks for great post. All perfectionist do not do much in life I guss Even after all that he was never happy with song. Anil Biswas has certified Sajjad as the "only original music director. Thanks again it was great reading material.

Love ARR

Originally posted by: ms04

A piece of another article...about madan mohan's lift.
Madan Mohan, when confronted with the charge of plagiarism, reportedly told
him, "I take pride in the fact that I lifted your tune, not that of some
second- or third-rater."

So does that mean that if the tune is too good any MD can pick it up and use it. And that will not be considered as plagiarism. Why because it was first rater music. Very funny logic I must say.

Yes it is a funny logic to say the least to defend the plagiarism.
I have read that his contemporaries were better than him in negotiating with producers about the music score. See what others had to say about him.
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Music historian Raju Bharatan, whose interaction with Sajjad goes back a long way, has a somewhat different insight into the man. "It's true he wouldn't let
musically unqualified people interfere with his work,but the popular perception of him being stubborn is not right," he says. "Sajjad had a rational explanation for every action of his. You had to know him to recognise his
tremendous erudition, the fact that he was far superior to every other music director in the industry."

This erudition, the cornerstone of Sajjad's work, is recalled affectionately by Naushad. "He took pride in his ustaadi," he says. "He'd tell the producer, 'I've created a tune which even Lata can't sing.' And the producer would say, 'If Lata can't sing it, how do you expect the common man to sing it ?' But at the same time he did create simple, yet extraordinary, compositions -- for
example, "Yeh kaisi ajab daastaan ho gayi hai" from 'Rustom Sohraab'."

"He was very particular," recalls Lata Mangeshkar, who was known to be almost apprehensive of a Sajjad recording. "If even a minor instrument went slightly
out of sur, he'd stop the whole recording and begin again." This perfectionism necessitated 17 re-takes for "Yeh hawa yeh raat yeh chandani", but Sajjad still
remained unsatisfied with an interlude piece in the song -- played by a sitar and a sarangi maestro who are among the top names in classical music today.
"Till the day he died, whenever he heard the piece he'd sigh, "They didn't play it like I told them to," recalls his son amusedly.

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