Images

Love, longing and Arooj Aftab's 'Mohabbat'

Love, longing and Arooj Aftab's 'Mohabbat'

The song uses three couplets from Hafeez Hoshiarpuri's famous ghazal but is entirely Aftab's.
29 Jul, 2021

'Mohabbat' opens beautifully to the sound of gentle guitar strumming, accompanied by the harp, in a manner that gives the impression that the sound is meant to mimic a collaboration between the former stringed instrument with a sitar. In her husky pitch, Arooj Aftab croons the opening lines to her latest song: Mohabbat karnay walay kum na hongey/ Teri mehfil mein lekin hum na hongey [You will never be short of lovers/ But I will not be a part of your gathering].

Yes, it’s the famous ghazal by Hafeez Hoshiarpuri rendered to great acclaim by the likes of Mehdi Hasan and Farida Khanum. Whereas Mehdi Hasan sang five couplets and Farida sang four from the ghazal (the full ghazal has nine couplets), Arooj limits herself to only three couplets. But she makes the song entirely her own and the rendition is very much a modern one that has Arooj’s signature ambient sound.

“People ask, ‘Is this an interpolation? Is this song a cover?’ No, it’s not. It’s very difficult to do this, it has taken a lot of time and energy as a musician, so it’s not a ******* cover. I’m taking something that’s really old and pulling it into the now,” said the artist in a recent interview to Pitchfork an online music magazine.

While other instrumentation is gently introduced into different sections of the song, the sound structure largely remains the same as it was when the song started. It’s a beautiful, minimalist, unplugged track that is haunting both for its ambient sound as well as Arooj’s elongated vocalisations of longing and separation.

Arooj Aftab is far away from home but connecting with her desi roots by reinventing and reimagining how South Asian music can be done

'Mohabbat' is from her latest album, Vulture Prince, where she experiments ‘fearlessly’ with South Asian sounds. Arooj Aftab is currently based in New York, a melting pot of different cultures, and it provides her with both the environment needed to do the kind of music she wants to and the audience for it. I’m not entirely sure if this kind of new age experimentation would strike a chord with audiences back home. But you never know.

The track has managed to get attention from high places in her adopted country: 'Mohabbat' has also been listed by Barack Obama as one of his favourite songs from his summer playlist for 2021.

Listening to 'Mohabbat', I’m taken back to when Arooj Aftab first hit the airwaves — on the radio on City FM89 in the early 2000s along with independent releases online on SoundCloud. Her covers of Jeff Buckley’s 'Hallelujah' and Aamir Zaki’s 'Mera Pyaar' had an unplugged, raw, dark and hauntingly beautiful quality to them. Fast forward a little more than 15 years later and you can notice the difference in her voice — now well-practised, more powerful, more in tune; as an artist, she sounds surer of herself.

There is still that evocative quality to her music. There’s still that element of sticking to unplugged sounds and not going the electronic way — but not entirely. We have the minimalist synthesiser (played by Shahzad Ismaily) but that can hardly be considered ‘electronic’ by today’s standards. This lends an authenticity to her music, as if each sound created from the strumming of the guitar strings (Gyan Riley), the gentle boom of the flugelhorn (Nadie Noordhuis) or the soft, lilting plucking of the harp strings (Maeve Gilchrist) will never be the same again each time the song is performed. In a time where a song that goes above the three-minute-thirty-second mark is considered ‘long’, 'Mohabbat' is a whopping seven-minutes-42-seconds long epic track.

'Mohabbat' and other songs by Arooj Aftab, including tracks from Vulure Prince, are available to listen on both YouTube and Spotify.

Originally published in Dawn, ICON, July 25th, 2021

Comments

Chrís Dăn Jul 29, 2021 01:11pm
After listening this ghazal from Mehdi Hassan,I am unable to enjoy it in Aroojś voice. Furthermore,Aroojś voice is untrained while taking the turns in verses. She can not carry the same pitch also for more than a second or two & breaks down in melody. A lack of good classical antras practice and voice control. Our singers should follow Noor Jehan who all her life did 2 hours riaz in the morning. If someone wishes to take singing serious ghazals seriously-she/he needs to know her ground. The practice/riaz is the only and only key to save grace of our myths like Mehdi Hassan,Farida Khanum,Roshan Ara,Naseem Begum etc& top of all Noor Jehan.
Recommend (0)
Jonathen Jul 29, 2021 02:21pm
nothing special , move on
Recommend (0)
Ahmad Jul 29, 2021 02:34pm
I have been listening to it on repeat since my brother recommended it, The chord has struck it appears. Also I wish the admin of Facebook wrote posts like this instead of opening new tabs every sentence as if he/she is suffering from ADHD. Beautifully written, Thank you!
Recommend (0)
Kashif Baloch Jul 29, 2021 04:19pm
Hope to see her in 50 years like Mehdi Hassan and Farida Khanum. Not! I mean seriously?
Recommend (0)