Like Father Like Son: Imran Mehdi Hasan Enthralls the Audiences with his Mesmerizing Voice

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Emcee Irfan Ali with Rizwan Ali and Ahsan Qureshi.

By Ahsan Qureshi

HOUSTON: In an enthralling performance marked by superb command over various ragas compsosed by his dad, young vocalist and ghazalist Imran Mehdi Hasan rendered Ghazals and Nazms with remarkable aplomb at a concert organized by Desiwindows.com on Saturday December 12, at the Village Banquet Hall, Sugarland. A scion of the redoubtable Jaipur Rajhasthan Gharana Imran Mehdi Hasan learnt music first from his father Ustad Mehdi Hasan Khan Saheb and later also learnt tabla from Ustad tari Khan.

Born in Karachi, Imran Mehdi Hasan now lives in Chicago, IL USA, and has taken part in numerous concerts, music festivals in Pakistan and abroad accompanying his father as a tabla player then as an exponent of ghazal.

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Imran prefaced his performance with a rendition of the evergreen composition sung by his father ‘Ranjish Hi sahi’ in Raag Aiman. (Every inch a purist, he called it Raag Yaman). Aiman is the first raag of the Kalyan thaath and, being a Sampooran raag, contains all seven notes in its aarohi and avrohi. The vadi sur of this raag is tivar Ga and the sumvadi sur is tivar Ni.

While many connoisseurs among the audience had listened to his father render the same raag with great elan- incidentally, the same asthai “Ranjish hi sahi” — they were equally impressed with Imran Hasan’s scintillating performance and the effortless dexterity with which he employed “meendh” and “soot”. They also gave him full marks for his “taiyaari”.

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Imran being presented with the bouquet

Imran Hasan was accompanied by his 16 yr old son Muhammad Hasan on tabla and some of the finest musicians of this age: Ustad Ishrat Alladitta on the acoustic guitar, Atif Syed on Keyboards and Romeo Chidanand Singh on Dholak.

While the young tabla prodigy Muhammad Hasan played his percussion instrument with his usual skill and in a stolid manner –- as a rule, he smiles feebly only when the instrumentalist loses his “taal”.  His Solo was mesmerizing and hard to believe that a feeble looking young 16 yr old boy who looks 12 can perform various taals and druts and lehras with suxh virtuosity. Imran changed the mood with qateel shifaee’s famous nazm “zindagi mein to sabhi pyar kiya karte hain” This is composed in Raag Bhimplasi which is again an evening raag. Imran showed a lot of maturity in this rendition and justified the komal notes with equal ease. Chote Ustad Muhammad Hasan also changed gears as being required and demanded by the compositions.

Imran Hasan rendered various “bandishain” from popular flims, which also belongs to various ragas. His “koshish” to maintain the mood of the raag and justify its usage by his illustrious father was exemplary. He never sang any thumri though it was being anticipated by the audiences.

The second part of the performance saw Imran Hasan render the ever famous “Mohabat Karne wale Kam na hongey” in Khamaj, the hallmark of his family’s style of music. He ended the performance with the Mili Naghma which his father sang. His style bore a striking similarity to his father Ustad Mehdi Hasan, who immortalized this form of gayaki   “GHAZAL”. This program was sponsored by Texans Energy.