KARACHI: Sajjad Ali is one of Pakistan’s leading singers whose popularity cuts across cultures. Almost every song that he composes and sings becomes an instant hit. Apart from his prodigious talent, the fact that he comes from the illustrious family of the great classical singer Ustad Bade Ghualam Ali Khan has enabled him to know the finer points of gaeki way better than many of his contemporaries.

So when a tribute was paid to him at Port Grand on Saturday night, none other than by his younger brother Lucky Ali, a good vocalist in his own right, the gig had to be one to attend.

Lucky may not be as popular as his elder brother, but since he too hails from a family of musicians, his singing is impressive. He kicked off the show with Yaad to aati ho gi, and it immediately got the crowd’s undivided attention. The first track was followed by the spiritual number Bolo Ali Ali. By that time the arena had attracted more people than expected because Lucky’s voice, does sound, a little bit, like Sajjad’s.

The tempo was immediately upped by the extremely popular Lari adda. The phrase ‘lari adda’ is one that music lovers can’t help but sing along. It was fun to hear them sing. Gear was shifted immediately with the rather pensive and poetic Panion pe chal rahi hain. The thing that Lucky did during the concert is that he didn’t sing complete lyrics of some songs and kept them short. It allowed him to squeeze in requests that were coming from behind the stage.

And how can any programme where Sajjad Ali’s songs are being played not have the ghazal Sahil pe kharey ho? Its melodiousness and melancholy are a lethal combination. Lucky did justice to it.

In between the tribute songs, including Baby, the young musician also sang a song by Ali Zafar (Rangeen hai to rango se zayadah) and some Bollywood hits.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2021