Presenting a cultish non-film track from Lucky Ali sung and composed mega-hit album Sunoh. Beautifully weaved around Syed Aslam Noor’s words, the extremely catchy and hummable number also owes its success to some heart-warming instrumentation and accompanying vocals.
Shaam Sawere teri yaadein aati hain
Aa ke dil ko mere yoon tadpaati hain
O sanam mohabbat ki kasam
Mil ke bichhadna to dastoor ho gaya
Yadoon mein teri majboor ho gaya
O Sanam teri yadoon ki kasam
Samjhe zamaana ke dil hai khilona
Jaana hai ab kya hai dil ka lagana
Nazroon se ab na humko giraana
Mar bhi gaye toh bhool na jaana.
Aankhon mein basi ho
Par door ho kahin
Dil ke kareeb ho
Yeh mujhko hai yakeen
O sanam tere pyar ki kasam
Maqsood Mehmood Ali urf Lucky Ali happens to be legendary film comedian Mehmood’s 2nd of 8 sons! He started his career with jumping into the popular and much Indipop bandwagon in the 90s …and how! Sunoh tasted blockbuster success in 1996 and shot Lucky into fame overnight. The album won many of the top awards in Indian music, including the Best Pop Male Vocalist at the Screen Awards and the Channel V Viewer’s Choice Award in 1997. It stayed on the MTV Asia Charts in the top three for 60 weeks (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Ali). Next up, he came up with other popular non-film albums like Sifar (1998), Aks (2001) and Kabhi Aisa Lagta Hai (2004) among others (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Ali_discography). Lucky Ali has had a somewhat muted playback singing career willingly I guess but it has been ‘superb-in-parts’. He started off with the song Walking All Alone from the film Ek Baap Chhe Bete in 1978 and then sang Anu Malik composed Nasha Nasha from the film Dushman Duniya Ka (1996; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cys2hgLm5Z4). His moment of reckoning as a playback singer came in 1999 when he sang for Hrithik Roshan in Rajesh Roshan composed and very popular Na Tum Jaano Na Hum and Ik Pal Ka Jeena (both Kaho Naa…Pyaar Hai; 2000). The other noteworthy numbers of his career are MM Kreem composed Aa Bhi Ja Aa Bhi Ja (Sur – The Melody Of Life; 2002; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNfN2KfDORw), AR Rahman-composed Khuda Hafiz (Yuva; 2004; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2qZfzHRwJQ) and Safarnama (Tamasha; 2015; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mTDBsdfw88), Vishal Shekhar created Aahista Aahista (Bachna Ae Haseeno; 2008; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj9P6mmfCL4) and Hairat (Anjaana Anjaani; 2010; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqTQNs9sO6M). Lucky is known for his unique voice and ballad-style singing and is known to work on his terms. Sunoh and O Sanam did not find any takers to start with but BMG Crescendo agreed on the condition that Lucky shoot the video on his own. That’s when he used his other childhood friendship (the first one being the lyricist Syed Aslam Noor) – ad filmmaker Mahesh Mathai – who shot the popular video for the song! (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunoh). O Sanam has brilliant use of the guitar, percussion and some haunting backing vocals (female). Of the 3 antaras, the middle one (Samjhe zamaana ke dil hai khilona) has a different tune. You will find yourself humming the superbly catchy and lovely starting alaaps. I also like a couple of other tracks from the album like Sunoh (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpidJ9uAXfg), Tum se hi (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH16dwxKGtg) and Pyaar ka musaafir (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4hijKFzMzw). However, O Sanam is such a cult and unforgettable number that you will keep coming back to it. It’s a timeless beauty and you find yourself humming it again and again! Keep listening and humming in these unprecedented times. With best wishes, love and Luck(y) to you all!! 🙂
Harmony 