Rao Dilshad Hussain

Pakistan is a culturally rich country and has produced hundreds of legendary artistes in the field of music and many other fields who help to project a softer image of the country by giving remarkable performances across the globe. Unfortunately these legendary artistes have managed to get worldwide recognitions ian many countries where they have performed but to our dismay they have failed to get their due respect and acknowledgment within their own country. Renowned veteran sitar-player, Ustad Abdul Latif Khan, is one such unfortunate legend. He has been performing for the last five decades and despite of his deteriorating domestic conditions, he is still struggling to promote our culture through this performing art of sitar.

After more than fifty years of his services for the music sector in Pakistan, the government has eventually accredited him with ‘The Pride of Performance Award-Tamgha Imtiaz’ on 23rd March 2010. On the other hand, he has already been bestowed with ‘Gandhi Samadhi Hindustani Sangeet Ratna Award’ for his lifetime contribution in the field of Indian classical music.

“To be honestly speaking, I knew nothing about this instrument and I did not like it in the beginning. Later when I was in 5th class, my maternal uncle, Ustad Sharif Khan, convinced my mother to teach me sitar. He then took me to meet the legendary musician of the sub-continent, Ustad Raheem Buksh Khan, who taught me the art of sitar-playing. He was also the teacher of Ustad Sharif Khan. But after the demise of Ustad Raheem, I accompanied Ustad Sharif Khan who taught me the art of sitar-playing. Eventually I became a professional sitar player and served as sitar player for the last forty years at Radio Pakistan,” he told in an exclusive interview with Sunday Plus.

Sharing his memorable occasions, he said, “For the very first time when I performed for consecutive six long hours in Peshawar University, Vice Chancellor Mohammad Ali offered me to join the University as a music instructor but I refused to accept it.”

On a query he deplorably said, “Because of the dying art of sitar nobody including me is ready to get his children into this profession while earlier the artistes could acquire jobs in PTV and Radio Pakistan. But now the situations have become worse as state owned television no longer promotes classical music because there is no such programme that is being aired and gradually the classical music cultural is vanishing.”

He was once invited to perform at Delhi University where he was urged to deliver lectures on music specifically on sitar-playing. During his tour to India in 2007-08, he performed in a number of live shows which were aired on ‘Doordarshan TV’.

“During my live interview on Doordarshan, I discouraged the defence budgets of the both Pakistan and India because billions of rupees have been spent to manage mass weapons. In fact, there is no need to combat with each other but peace and prosperity is the need of the hour. The Indo-Pak governments should overcome the grievances of the masses. People of both the country love each other and they should be free to visit without any visa restrictions. In India I composed a raag called ‘Rusbatti’ which meant that I wanted to see both Pakistan and India share cordial relations and overcome grievances,” he hopefully said.

“It was told to me that Doordarshan had received thousands of messages and emails in which people were demanding my performance,” he said with the blink in his eyes.

Ustad Latif has composed hundreds of ghazals for Radio Pakistan including the national song ‘Ey watan key surelay jawanoo’ that was sung by the legendary singer Noor Jahan during the war of 1965.

He went to South Korea to participate and perform in the ten day cultural festival, where he was the only Pakistani artiste to perform on the opening and closing ceremonies. When his name was asked, he said, “I am Pakistan.”

Similarly, he went to Turkey to perform in the Turkish Food Festival in 1997. The first series of concerts were held in the city of ‘Izmeir’ for seven days and then in Ankara University where people from all walk of life appreciated his remarkable performances.

He went to India again in 2007 to perform in the ‘Summer Musical Festival.’ After the ending of the festivity he was invited to perform for an hour live show for the Akash Wani Delhi Radio, India.

He believes to preach the peace. He has also performed extensively in Kuwait, Dubai, Sharjah, Bahrain, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. In Bahrain, he performed terrifically before the Royal family along with the cabinet ministers were also there.

He has to his credit a solo album entitled ‘Magic sounds of sitar’ that comprises of classical, folk, and national songs and many tracks from the Pakistani films. This is the only sitar album that exists in India and Pakistan.

“Currently there is no one who works to promote the culture of the country besides the artistes while it is the real duty of the cultural institutions to preserve the culture. You see, our culture is rapidly vanishing because the cultural institutions are run by uncultured institutions like the. Since its birth, it has failed to produce good musicians as nobody thinks about it,” he deplored.

“But now Mohammad Ali Baloch, one of the directors of Al-Hamra and Deputy Director, Zulfi, are striving to reinstate classical music of the country,” he said appreciating them.

Talking about the invention of sitar he confided, “Sitar is a Muslim musical instrument and Hazrat Ameer Khusroo invented this instrument. But unfortunately now we have only six or seven sitar-players and we have failed to promote this art because of the lack of government support and negligence of the cultural institutions. While India possesses hundreds of sitar artistes like Pandit Ravi Shankar who is highly appreciated. He is admired by the worldwide audiences.”

“In Pakistan, we just have Radio Pakistan where artistes can perform while state-owned television PTV is not organising any events to promote the dying art,” he informed. He further added, “If the government provides me space within the Al-Hamra premises, I can bring forth many artistes who not only would learn but also perform across the globe to preserve our cultural,” he maintained.

Ustad Latif always engages to educate and transfer this art to his students. He has taught Zara Sulman Cheema, Uzma Bukhari and Ahsan Kamran Cheema. They all have now performed across the world and have helped to project a softer image of the country. He is also teaching Laila Kamran Cheema.

Finally he asked, “People have told me that nobody can teach the art of sitar-playing but in fact I have never seen anyone who wants to learn it. If anybody wants to learn, within two years I can train anybody.”