The Nazia Hassan phenomenon

Feroze Khan had derring do. He used to do things in his films that others never thought about. He cornered the kitsch Western films market like no one before, Khote Sikke, Chunaoti, Dharmatma and a few more. Then he went and did car racing across Europe with Mumtaz in tow in Apradh, a film that I liked very much, at least till when he's singing his way through the geography with Mumtaz. Not when he starts to make a living. But his biggest contribution to Hindi cinema came in 1980 and with Qurbani when he introduced Nazia Hassan to us. I mean, look at his ear for a good thing. There's a chit of a girl, a Pakistani, somewhere in London. He discovers her, offers her a song in his film. Gets her to record. Gets an independent music director Biddu just for that song (it didn't happen those days) and makes it an anthem hit across the nation. Biddu himself was a struggling musician till then doing cover versions in UK till then. It's very hot in Chandrapur and we are at the school bus stand. Anna, our trusted hair saloon meters away, put on the music early in the morning as he opened up his shutters. And I heard. Aap jaisa koi meri Zindagi mein aaye. It was instant love. The whole school bus started to talk about the song. The song itself was so easy to hum that I hummed it right through the maths, social studies and Hindi classes in the morning. Those days, we didn't see films as they released. So the romance of what could have happened in the film, with the song and with the actors stayed in stills garnered from LP VInyl covers and newspaper cinema ads. The romance with Nazia Hassan lived on. A few years later she was back with the epynomous Disco Deewane. How would we classify it? Disco it was, but slow. Even the Disco unabled with two left legs could dance to it. I was in hostel those days. And I had been invited over to our English teacher's home for lunch when she'd thoughtfully put this cassette on. Picture this, we are sitting in sofas with a plateful of rice in hand and there is Disco Deewane on the player. Only our feet can tap out the rhythm. Gawky teenagers listening to Disco Deewane solmenly. But that was the romance of Nazia. Around then, there was that other big hit from a flop film, Star. Boom Boom. Nazia, by then was making waves in her own country. And what a star she became. Tall, lissome, good looking. Even had a great looking brother, Zoheb. Yeah, well, girls in our class collected his posters. So, can vouch for that. Thank you Sayantan Mondal, you got me to remember early morning. It's a shame that we have to listen to Sufi cum Kabir cum Ghalib cum something that we cannot understand as it's being warbled by indulged singers with tinpot interludes that have only one meaning, don't listen to us, run along.