If readers don’t mind another sudden lurch to the present (and to the northern part of the Subcontinent)… I’ve been “discovering” Tina Sani for the past couple of days. She’s actually been performing for over 25 years, but I’m finding that I am more impressed by the older Tina Sani (that is, newer Tina Sani) than by the younger one. And that applies to watching as well as listening…
Tina Sani is best known for singing the poems of Faiz Ahmed Faiz… And judging by these performances, I can certainy see why. Of course, I am “Urdu challenged,” but I have taken a few looks at translations of two of the poems below (i.e., the first one and the third one), and I find her voice alone to be very moving, whether or not I know the meanings of the words. She also puts on a good performance visually – she’s very expressive, conveying a lot of emotional involvement in these songs.
I was quite moved by the first performance below, of Faiz’s poem about exile, Mere Dil Mere Musafir. The second poem performed below (apparently in the same place) is one I don’t really know, but I’ve learned from the comments that it was a tribute to the Urdu poet Makhdoom Mohiuddin, who was a revolutionary Marxist involved in the mid 1940s Telengana rebellion in Hyderabad state. (Mohiuddin’s poems were also sung in some films… There is actually a poem written by him with the same title that was featured in a film, but it is a different poem from the one below.) The third performance is of Hum Dekhenge, everybody’s favorite poem about toppling kings and tyrants and ending oppression. That one was performed at a Faiz Centennial celebration in India this past February. (By the way, Sani has been active in benefits, etc., that aim to promote peace between India and Pakistan.)
I like quite a few songs and ghazals sung by Tina Sani. In one of the tributes to Faiz, I remember Shabana Azmi paying tribute to him and also that she loves the following ghazal sung by Tina Sani
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbwcUsWTy_I&fs=1&hl=en_US%5D
Sorry the above link didn’t work, here it is “Bol ke lab azaad hain teray”
One of my favorite ghazals by Tina Sani is “Koi baat karo”
and this one “Aap ki yaad aati rahi”
Thank you, Mister Jinx. These are really nice. I especially like “Aap Ki Yaad Aati Rahi,” and the performance you added here is just as good as the one that I posted above. :)
P.S. Yes, I took away the silly “P.S.” No, I don’t mind at all using the word “beautiful” again here…
Beautiful!!!
I nearly missed this post.
Love the first one very much ‘mere dil mere musafir’ and the last ‘aap ki yaad aati rahi’.
Love the elegant movements of her hands.
Thank you, Pacifist. Yes, the hand gestures are good; there’s something very precise about them. Wonder if she ever took up classical dancing too…