Pakistani Ghazal Maestro Mehdi Hassan died in Karachi

Pakistani ghazal maestro Mehdi Hassan passed away in Karachi on 13 June 2012 following a prolonged illness. The legendary ghazal singer had not been well for last several years. He was suffering from suffering from lung, chest and urinary tract ailments.

Born into a family of traditional musicians on 18 July 1927 in Luna in Rajasthan, Mehdi Hassan had migrated to Pakistan with his family in 1947 at the time of partition. Belonging from the Kalawant clan of traditional classical musicians, he represented the 18th generation of the family. He had been presented with numerous honours including Tamgha-e-Imtiaz, Pride of Performance and Hilal-e-Imtiaz by the Government of Pakistan, Saigal Award in India and Gorkha Dakshina Bahu by the Government of Nepal.

Mehdi Hassan learnt dhrupad and kheyal from his father Ustad Azeem Khan and uncle Ustad Ismail Khan who were both renowned Dhrupad singers. Hassan started to perform at a young age of eight and sang in more than 325 films. He got his first opportunity to sing on Radio Pakistan in 1957.  From there he earned a name for him within the musical fraternity.

Once dubbed as the voice of God by Lata Mangeshkar, Hassan had a huge fan following both in India and Pakistan. The singer who was also fondly called the Shehenshahe Ghazal by his fans, gave his voice to nearly 5000 songs including film songs, ghazals, thumri, dadra etc. His most popular film numbers came in the movies like Dard, Bharosa, Jab Jab Phool Khile, Insaaf Aur Qanoon, Daman Aur Chingari and Aaina. Aaj tu ghair sahi from the film Dahleez was his last big hit.