Pages

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Muhammad Ali Shehki

Along with Alamgir, he set the trend of pop music in Pakistan. When he started his career, he was a young energetic student of NED University at Karachi, Pakistan. He is still loved by people for his contribution to music and his charming personality. His songs delivered a message of love, patriotism and sincerity.

His voice quality was thought to be much better than many other hit singers but he was not able to find good compositions at his peak time. His first song “Pyar kia mai ne dil diya” produced by Ghazanfer Ali was a big hit of its time. He then sang the famous patriotic song “Main bhi Pakistan ho” which is referred to as the most famous national song ever. Then Shehki produced another hit song “Allah Allah ker bhaiya” along with Allan Fakir. This song beat all previous hit records in Pakistan and surpassed all other Pakistani songs abroad as well. He also sang “Meray bachpan kay din” alongside Afshan Ahmed. Shehki has performed in almost all types of genre’s like classical, semi classical, pop and jazz as well. He has won many National and International awards for his songs. He also remained as a playback singer for some time. He was offered to sing as playback singer in bollywood but did not do so because of security reasons. Bal Thackeray, the Hindu extremist threatened Shehki and warned that if any Pakistani singer/actor comes to India, he will have him shot. Despite this, shehki’s song “Han pehli baar” was included in one of the Indian movies. He is now retired from the Pakistan Music Industry but still performs at charity and national functions from time to time. He is revered as one of the greatest singers in the history of Pakistan and is highly respected in the Pakistani Music Industry. He also tried his luck as an actor in Lollywood but was not much successful. He is compared today to such greats as Mehdi Hassan, Ahmed Rushdi, Mohammad Rafi, Kishore Kumar and Ustad Amanat Ali Khan.