The Rotary Club Ludhiana Greater and the literary organisation Dhvani: Association for Promotion of Arts paid a rich musical tribute,Ehsaas,to late ghazal singer Mehdi Hassan at Punjabi Bhavan. The noted vocalist of the city,C L Bhalla,Secretary of Ishmit Academy Charan Kamal Singh,ghazal singer Neelam Khosla,Sufi singer Jasmit Kaur,Sanjeev Uppal,Rakhi Kanwal,Randhir Kanwal,Gurleen Kaur and Rashi Sud sang famous Ghazals of Shahenshah - e- ghazal Mehdi Hassan,who passed away recently after a protracted illness in Pakistan. Narrating his life story,Dr Bharti Uppal said that Mehdi Hassan was born in a village of Rajasthan in 1927. Later he shifted to Pakistan with his family after partition in 1947. He was 16th generation of musicians in his family tradition. Speaking on the occasion,Randhir Kanwal,president of Dhvani,said that Mehdi Hassan played a big role in popularising ghazal singing in its present form all over the world. Dr Sanjeev Uppal,president of the Rotary Club & Head of the Department of Plastic Surgery at DMC&H,said that after Begum Akhtar,Mehdi Hassan revived ghazals sagging popularity and took it to new heights in the 1970s. In fact,he extended the horizons of ghazal and later singers Ghulam Ali and Jagjeet Singh further extended the same. Many of his popular ghazals like Gulon mein rang bharein,Ranjish hi sahi dil hi dukhane ke liye aa,Mohabbat karne wale kam na honge,Baat karni Mujhe mushkil kabhi aisee tau na thee,Dekh tau dil ki jaan se uthta hai,Zindagi mein tau sabhi pyaar kiya karte hain,Rafta rafta wuh meri hasti ka samaan ho gaye and Ab ke hum bichherein tau shayad kabhi khwabon mein milein were sung on the occasion,which enabled the audience to relive the golden era when ghazal singing dominated the scene. Others present on the occasion included former Himachal Pradesh Deputy Speaker Vijay Kumar,former MLA Harish Dhanda,,Prof N K Kalia,Prof Dharam Paul Uppal,Balbir Singh,J S Bindra,Jagmohan Singh of Oster Industries,Dr Navin Laiker and Inderjit Pal Kaur.
