October 6, 2005

Lutfullah Khan’s penchant for collections dates back to his childhood when his foremost passions included collecting coins, stamps, shells and buttons. As a teenager, his interests matured to collecting pamphlets of the American and British films that made their way into our cinema halls. Thanks to his years of movie watching, not only did Khan accumulate a vast collection of pamphlets but also became a seasoned film critic, writes Marylou Andrew

Writer, photographer, collector, musician and classical music connoisseur, whichever way you look at it, Mohammed Lutfullah Khan is a man of many talents. At the ripe age of 90, Khan has engaged in more hobbies over the last 50 years than most people will dream of pursuing in several lifetimes. The fact that he has been a professional adman is almost sidelined when he talks about his ‘extracurricular’ activities.

Khan’s frail gait is deceptive; hiding behind it is a sharp and agile mind, and a memory for names, places and dates, which is truly incredible. Perhaps his exceptional memory should not come as a surprise; he admits that he has never thrown away a paper in his life, including purchase receipts, bus tickets etc..

Born in Madras (now Chennai) in 1915, Khan’s penchant for collections dates back to his childhood when his foremost passions included collecting coins, stamps, shells and buttons. As a teenager, his interests matured to collecting pamphlets of the American and British films that made their way into the Indian cinema halls, and he still has a collection of over 600 pamphlets. Thanks to his years of movie watching, not only did Lutfullah Khan accumulate a vast collection of pamphlets but also became a seasoned film critic.

However, this was merely one of the occupations of his young mind. Another interest that Khan cultivated from a tender age was his love for classical music, a direct result of a gramophone and a trio of records he received as a present when he was seven. Although the music was beyond his limited understanding, he was still genteel enough to appreciate the beauty of the instruments and the voices.

In time, his appreciation for classical music grew in equal proportion to his collection of records, pamphlets and other paraphernalia. Music became such a large part of his life that he started copying the singing style of classical masters such as Khan Sahib Abdul Karim Khan. Encouraged by family and friends, Khan decided to learn classical music with a music master and eventually went on to perform on Radio Madras.

It was at this time (1933 to be exact) that he also developed an interest for Urdu literature and decided to try his hand at writing. Although he initially wrote movie reviews, Khan quickly graduated to writing fiction and by 1941 he had already published his first collection of short stories titled Pahloo. He fondly remembers that while the book was not successful, it received an extremely favourable review in the monthly magazine, Nigar, edited by Niaz Fatehpuri, and he still insists that this remains, to date, the book’s greatest achievement.

In 1945, Khan moved to Bombay where he found work with the government’s war petrol rationing department and later on as an assistant in a cine laboratory. Forced to make a living working in decidedly mundane jobs, his interests continued to mature and in 1946, he added photography to his already vast portfolio of hobbies.

In October 1947, after the monotony of his nine to five job got the better of him, Khan made the decision to move to Pakistan. Realizing the need to establish a career for himself, he set up an advertising company and pursued a long and successful career. In spite of his illustrious association with advertising, he does not speak about it quite as passionately as his other interests; in fact, he does not speak about it at all.

It occurs to me that while advertising may have only been a means to a monetary end, it certainly provided the launch pad for Khan’s current claim to fame, his treasured and cherished audio library.

As is usually the case with all great ideas, Lutfullah Khan’s passion to document voices began by accident. It is entirely possible that the entire project may never have been initiated had it not been for one of his advertising clients. Having recently imported the first tape recorder, Khan’s client asked him to produce an advertising campaign. So enamoured was Khan, that he immediately purchased the device himself, along with 21 recordable tapes. The date of the purchase was June 29, 1951. That he remembers this is yet another testament to his excellent memory.

After buying the tape recorder, his first instinct was to record his mother’s voice, along with the voices of his wife and children. These family recordings continued for a period of five days, but unfortunately, only one of the 21 tapes had been consumed. Khan grew increasingly agitated as he tried to figure out just how to use the recording device to his advantage. As he continued to record his friends’ amateur singing efforts, he was hungry for his next big idea, an idea that would change his life forever.

Once again, almost by accident, he heard a radio show one morning that caught his attention. Always alert to any opportunity to use his tape recorder, Khan immediately set the device to record the programme and continued to record a number of interesting shows on religion, literature or music, over the next couple of weeks. Hence, another collection began to grow. But this was just the beginning of Khan’s incredible journey to document the voices of the subcontinent.

Realizing the need to diversify, Lutfullah Khan used his long association with Urdu literary giants to add a new dimension to his audio library. Poets, musicians, literary geniuses and religious scholars were invited into his home studio to preserve their works and voices. Khan recollects his experiences with Faiz Ahmed Faiz with astonishing clarity. “He came to my house for exactly 20 years to record his works, not a month more, not a month less.”

As he preserved their voices, Lutfullah Khan’s literary friends encouraged him to renew his passion for the written word. The year 1977 proved to be a fateful in this regard and Khan penned his first book, an autobiography, titled Hijraton Kay Silsilay. The book was a sleeping giant until the 90s’, when it unanimously won the Prime Minister’s literature award. After his initial foray into writing, Khan continued to publish one book a year for the next several years and some of his popular titles include Tamasha-e-Ahl-e-Qalm, Sur Ki Talash and Zindagi Aik Safar.