Sajjad Hussain: A talented music composer who refused to compromise on his principles.

Sajjad Hussain: A talented music composer who refused to compromise on his principles.

At the time of reading the biography of Suraiya Jamal Sheikh, popularly known as Suraiya, I came across with one name of such a talented music director to whom people used to call as original composer. The word Original is confusing and difficult to define; but still music lovers can try to find out the factors which make his composition of songs appealing and good. He was a great mandolin player who had played the mandolin for more than twenty thousand songs.  He was well aware of Hindustani classical music and also used Ragas of Hindustani Music at the time of composing the music for films without elaborating the ragas. Music lovers can make out the same at the time of listening to the music composed by him for the song Badnaam Mohabbat Kaun Kare sung by Noor Jehan from film Dost made in 1944. In this song, one can easily feel the shadow of Raag Bageshri.The name of such a music composer is Sajjad Hussain.

From Yogesh Gogwekar

Sajjad Hussain was born on 15th June 1917 in Sitamau, a small place near Ratlamn, Madhya Pradesh. His father Muhammed Amir Khan was a well-known sitar player. From childhood, he was very much interested in playing instruments and gained good knowledge in many of them. He learnt sitar from his father but also learnt to play the instruments like Veena, Violin, Flute, Piano, banjo, accordion, Spanish guitar, sitar, clarinet, harp and mandolin. He was a top grade mandolin player and he had played Indian classical music on mandolin. It was a great thing for one person to have knowledge of so many instruments. He created an impression that he could establish the mandolin as a major instrument in the concert of Hindustani classical music. His close acquaintance with playing string instruments and total knowledge about distinctive timbre, he created an impression that mandolin was his instrument.

After the death of his father in 1937, he decided to migrate to Mumbai to do the job in the film industry not as an actor but as a music composer.  Therefore, he joined Minerva Movietone of Sohrab Modi in the beginning. Later on, he joined Wadia Movietone where he worked as assistant to many music composers like Meer Sahib, Rafiq Ghaznavi and Master Allah Baksh who was father of well-known actress Meena kumari. His real career of music composition started when he joined as an assistant to music director Pandit Hanuman Prasad who was composing music for film Gaali which was made in 1944. In this film, he got an opportunity to compose two songs like Aag Lage Saavan Mein and Ab Aaja Dil Na Lage. Both these songs were sung by Nirmala Devi. Both these songs became popular.

Recognising the talent of Sajjad Hussain, Shaukat Hussain Rizvi asked him to compose the music to his next film Dost. This was his first film as an independent music director and all songs of this film were big hits. Songs like Alam Par Alam Sitam Par Sitam, Ab Kaun Hai Mera, Badnaam Mohabbat Kaun Kare, Koi Prem Ka Deke Sandesa were super hit and all these songs sung by Noor Jehan who had executed and elocuted these songs  in perfect way under the guidance of Sajjad Hussain. Through this film, he started creating an impact with his melodically rich style of music-making., but Shaukat Hussain Rizvi was not ready to give the credit for his work and told him that all his songs became popular because of his wife Noor Jehan.  Due to this, he broke the contact with Shaukat Hussain Rizvi and decided not to compose any songs for Noor Jehan.  

Sajjad Hussain was a contentious personality. He often considered his own music to be super one. Once he said that there were only two outstanding composers one is Gulam Haider and another one is Sajjad Hussain. He once composed the song,’ Yeh hawa yeh raat yeh Chandni for the film Sangdil in 1952. This song became so popular which was sung by Talat Mahmood, but he had conflicts with an Actor Dilip Kumar on the set of this film and started teasing Talat Mahmood as Galat Mahmood and also to Kishor Kumar as Shore Kumar. Even he passed some unwanted remarks on Lata Mangeshkar. Due to this, their relations were spoiled for some period, later on; both have reconciled and started working together. One thing is sure that he had always praised Noor Jehan and Lata Mangeshkar. He rejected the offer given by Shashadhar Mukherjee of Filmistan and he missed the opportunity to do the music composition for film Mughal-E-Azam due to differences with K Asif who was producer and director of the film.

Sajjad Hussain always used to complain that his tunes had been plagiarised by other notables at the time of composing their music. He quoted examples of such plagiarism. The song, ’Tujhe kya sunaun mein dilruba, tere saamne mera haal hai’ composed by music composer Madan Mohan for the film Aakhri Dao was having the same tune of song, ’ Yeh hawa yeh raat yeh Chandani ‘ which was composed by Sajjad for film Sangdil in 1952. After listening to the tune of the song ’Tujhe kya sunaun mein dilruba, tere saamne mera haal hai, Sajjad sarcastically said, "Aaj kal toh parchaiyyan bhi ghoomne phirne lagi hain” means even shadows are moving around now. After coming to know about this remark, Madan Mohan said that he did not find any better music director to copy. This revert made Sajjad Hussain speechless.  Like this song, one can find some more songs which are matching with tunes composed by Sajjad Hussain. The song like Aaj Preet Ne Tod Di Bandhan Ki Deewar was first composed by Sajjad  having similarity with song  Jivan Mein Priya Tera Sath Rahe composed by Vasant Desai and also the song like Koi Prem Ka Deke Sandesh is on the same meter with the song Preet Teri Duniya Mein composed by Madan Mohan. Whatever the Sajjad Said, I feel that all the compositions of Madan Mohan , Shankar Jaikisan and Vasant Desai have their originals and not copied from any tunes of Sajjad Hussain and to understand the same one has to listen to these songs again and again. 

Due to his contentious personality, many people started ignoring him. As a result, he composed only 14 films. Whatever he composed the songs, all were milestones of his life and pleasant to listen.  Alam Par Alam Sitam Par Sitam, Badnaam Mohabbat Kaun Kare, Koi Prem Ka Deke Sandesa, Mere Naseeb Ne Mujhko Rula Rula Diya, Yeh Hawa Yeh Raat Yeh Chandani, Tere Jahan Se Chal Diye , Wo pehli mulaquat, Teri nazar mein main rahoon are some examples. In this case, I have to mention the songs which have been composed by him for his last film Rustom Sohrab which was made in 1963 and its lyrics were written by Qamar Jalalabadi. These songs are ‘Ye kaisi ajab daastan’ sung by Suraiya, ‘Phir Thumari Yaad Aay’ by Mohammad Rafi, Manna Dey and Sadat Khan and Ai Dilruba sung by Lata Mangeshkar. 

Listening to Ai Dilruba, one can find that the music composer was evolving into more ambitious composition idioms. Sajjad Husain smartly used Indian based raga for organising melodic material with Iranian system of Dastagah and Arabian system of Makam in the song. Therefore, this song is engrossing or absorbs all attention of listeners.  Similarly, one can enjoy the song, ‘Yeh kaisi ajab dastan ho gayi hai’ which was sung by Suraiya. She had sung this song in full command over her voice at the age of 34. Music composed for the song Yeh Hawa Yeh Raat Yeh Chandani is tantalizing or attracting composition. In the beginning you feel it is on slower tempo but actually is not in slow tempo. He used seven-beat Rupak Tal with its un-emphatic first beat and singing of Talat Mahmood, song liners in the mind. I would like to mention one teasing song Mujhe bawari bawari log kahen which was sung by Geeta Dutt for the film Mere Bhagwan made in 1947.

Sajjad Hussain decided not to compose any films after Rustom Sohrab which was made in 1963. Even this was the last film of Suraiya as an actor and singer. It is really a coincidence that the birth day of Sajjad and Suraiya was on 15th June and both stopped working for the film industry after this film. Sajjad tried to come back but did not materialise. After that, he started performing concerts of Hindustani Classical Music. He lived an eremitic life in isolation at Natawala building in Mahim after leaving the film Industry.  If the film industry would have given him a chance to do more composition for films, he could have composed more songs.  It is a pity that this did not happen. He died on 21st July 1995. All his five sons, Mustafa, Yusuf, Noor Mohammad, Nasir Ahmmad and Abdul Karim became musicians and continued his legacy of music. 

I am finishing this writing on Sajjad Hussain by quoting the words of great singer and musician  Lata Mangeshkar. She said, ”Sajjad was her favourite composer and she had sung fourteen songs for him. He never liked loud singing. He insisted that all musical instruments were perfectly tuned and never compromised on that. He was a genius and perfectionist and misunderstood by the industry and deserved far more than what he got while less gifted music directors were flourishing. Even many years his songs are pleasant to hear".

Mumbai

16/01/2021