I have heard from many people that they love ghazals (including myself). In India, probably what they mean is that they are fan of Jagjit Singh. Other popular ghazal maestros from India and Pakistan include Mehndi Hassan, Ghulam Ali, Talat Aziz, Hariharan, Pankaj Udhaas etc. But I am pretty sure that only 1% of people actually know what ‘ghazal’ means or is. Well, even I did not till sometime back. Lets take a look at exactly what ghazals are.
Ghazals are a special form of poetries but with certain rules and restrictions that separate them from other form of poetries. Ghazals are collection of ‘shers‘ or couplets, each should have two lines of equal ‘beher’ or length as seen in –
har shab-e-gham ki seher ho, ye zaruri to nahin
(my fav by Jagjit Singh, a must for ghazal fans)
neend to dard ke bistar pe bhi aa sakti hai magar
unki aaghosh me sar ho, ye zaruri to nahin
chashm-e-saaki se piyo ya lab-e-sagar se piyo
bekhudi aathon peher ho, ye zaruri to nahin
sheikh karta to hai masjid me khuda ke sajde
uske sajdon me asar ho, ye zaruri to nahi
- Why is ‘rang aur noor ki barat’ by Rafi not a ghazal?
- It is 3 lines each stanza
- A random collection of uneven couplets is not a ghazal either
- Each line ends in a similar set of words. These repeating words are known as ‘radif‘ of the ghazal. eg. ‘ho, ye zaruri to nahin’ in above example
- ‘Kaafiya‘ is the rhyming pattern of words previous to the radif. eg. ‘basar’, ‘seher’ in our example
- A ghazal must have a radif and a kaafiya
- The first couplet must have radif in both the lines and this couplet is called the ‘matla‘. The following shers may have the radif in only the second lines.
- Maqta is probably the most interesting concept in which a shayar uses his alias or ‘takhallus‘ in the last couplet to produce some amazing effects. eg
jaise sehra me raat phoolon ki jab bhi milte hain, to kehte hain, “kaise ho ‘Shakil‘”,
iske aage to koi baat nahin hoti hai
Tu yeh na samajh ke Firaq teri Firaq mein hai
Firaq uski Firaq mein hai jo teri Firaq mein hai
kaabaa kis muh se jaaoge ‘Ghalib‘
sharm tumko magar nahin aati
So that was a brief touring of the concept of ghazals, which are one of the most famous and elegant form of poetries. The word ghazal etymologically stems from ‘gazelle’ which means ‘kastoori hiran’. These have been used since time immemorial to express romance. However modern day ghazals vary from literary brilliance to reflection of day to day life. Interestingly, Jagjit Singh has redefined the audience of ghazals by singing some simple to understand ghazals which made him famous among the average crowd who dont understand complex urdu. Mehndi Hassan and Ghulam Ali belong to the higher end of spectrum with more sophisticated and difficult language usage. The experts no doubt prefer them.
Bas itna hi kahungi ki ghazal sukoon se sunne wali cheez hai. Khoobsurati to ye hai ki jitni baar bhi sunte hain, har baar aur zyada khoobsurat lagti hain.