Dil Se Dil Tak - A Meeting Point

If one remembers the magical Lagan Lagi performance by Raja Hasan during the Ek Se Badhkar Ek performance, you would remember that Raja made it a point mention a word about the rhythm section - the musicians who played  an important role in the performance, as he mentioned. What Raja said was because he understands the important role of these musicians -  afterall, his family is the one that has dominated Bollywood’s rhythm musicians for decades now.

We did talk about Raja being related to legendary composer Ghulam Mohammed in the past. Apart from being a master composer, Ghulam Mohammed was probably one of the finest percussion specialists that the Indian film industry has had. (If you have heard his composed Yeh Na Thi Hamaari Kismat from Mirza Ghalib, you’ll be amazed at the pace at which the song moves, which is very unusual for a song composed on a Ghalib poetry).

Ghulam Mohammad was the first person to introduce the Dholak in film music. For long the Dholak was never used - as composers thought of it as an instrument that found use only in mujras. But Ghulam Mohammad brought in the dholak to recordings in 1934. He also the first to introduce unusual instruments like the matka, khanjari, chimta, kharkaal, manjeere and the lota.

Ghulam Mohammad was probably the first from the family that made it big in the Indian film industry, but the rest that followed were amazingly talented too.

Madhuban Mein Radhika Naache from Kohinoor is supposed to have one of the finest tabla recitals in Bollywood history. And the man behind the tabla in this particular song happens to be one of Bollywood’s tabla legends - Abdul Kareem. Not many people, including many music historians, know that fact that Abdul Kareem happens to be Ghulam Mohammed’s younger brother - and someone who Raja Hasan often mentions as Kareem Baba.

Each of Ghulam Mohammed’s six sons - are masterful exponents of the dholak and tabla - which made Pyarelal (Of the Laxmikant Pyarelal duo) term the family as the Dholak gharana.

Even today, most of the family is involved with Bollywood’s rhythm music - someway or the other. Of Ghulam’s sons, Aziz has done a number of bollywood recordings. Mohammed Iqbal has played an aide to leading qawwals like Aziz Nazaan and Altaf Raja. Yusuf Mohammed also has been in the industry for a long time, being a favourite of Laxmi-Pyare, Anu Malik and Aadesh Shrivastava. Khalique works with his percussion skills on live shows across the world. Mumtaz Mohammed, who  has directed musicals, is now an instructor in Dubai.  And if I am not wrong, Raja Hasan’s brother too is a very sought after percussion musician.

It really doesn’t come as a surprise that Raja Hasan comes from a family which has already made a mark in the Indian music industry - the Dholak Gharana.

To end things- here’s an interesting bit of trivia. Tabla legend, Kareem Baba (Or Abdul Kareem) was a long time faithful assistant of the Shankar Jaikishan duo. His name is even mentioned in the list of SJ assistants mentioned here. Interestingly the same list also has a gentleman in the violin section called “Bipin Reshamiya”.  I have no idea if Himesh’s father and Kareem Baba have worked together before, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a bit of history to all this.