‘Aap ka gaana hai, aap jis tarah usko perform karein.’ That's the brief to her on the sets of Coke Studio in Pakistan. The eighty-year-old singer listens with rapt attention, nodding at instructions. Farida Khanum has sung the song so many times that she practically has sole proprietorship of it.
Lyricist Fayyaz Hashmi wrote Aaj Jaane Ki Zid Na Karo for a Pakistani film titled Badal Aur Bijli (1974). It was sung by Habib Vali Mohd to music set by composer Sohail Rana.
But the world has learnt to love the song only after it began to be sung by Farida Khanum. She recounts, "I initially sang it for a film that disappeared from the theatres within three days of its release. Later, when I sang it at a private function, the audience appreciated it. Word spread and it became popular."
There have been several covers of the song by artistes from around the world. In India, AR Rahman and Asha Bhosle have tried to jazz it up. However, no one sings it like Mallika-e-Ghazal Farida Khanum.
The band Strings recomposed the song for the finale of Coke Studio recently, and when she took the stage, she owned it all over again. Starting in the 1980s, Farida Khanum has sung the ghazal on numerous occasions – concert-goers and dinner parties have been enthralled by her rendition.
The texture of her voice grows richer with age. The most interesting aspect of her singing style is that she controls the length of the ghazal, which is covered by other artists in roughly 4 to 5 minutes. She can sing it for over 11 minutes – using her virtuoso control over the taan and the sargam.
Here's how Farida Khanum has sung the ghazal live.
Aaj Jaane Ki Zid Na Karo has given Farida Khanum the kind of immortality few singers can dream of. But it wasn’t this Yaman Kalyan raga that shot her to fame. She considers it an accident of a trajectory, which started with another scorcher.
She says, "A special dinner was held at Hotel Nido’s (now Avari hotel) in Lahore where the cream of society – barristers, philosophers, poets, musicians – were invited. I was asked to perform there. My sister told me that if I sang well, I would get noticed by the who’s who of the industry. I sang Shaam-e-firaaq Ab Na Poochh in Yaman. That was the first song that made heads turn and changed my life. My life is almost a journey in Yaman."
This one is another Faiz Ahmed Faiz ghazal that she completely owns in her inimitable style.