Lucky Ali – The Magician!
I heard Lucky Ali’s voice first in ‘Ek Pal Ka Jeena‘ from Kaho Na Pyaar Hai. His voice was very different from the likes of Sonu Nigam and Udit Narayan. I and my brother, Gaurav were fascinated with his voice and hence immediately bought audio cassettes of his albums. Yes, it was that age when we listened to music on audio cassettes! Our fascination with him soon evolved into love and it has been the same for past 12 years now. Lucky Ali is not just one of my favourite singers, my connection with him is deeper than that. His songs have been my companion in my teenage years when I felt like the whole world was against me. On so many sleepless nights, his songs have given me solace. So, let me introduce you the Lucky Ali I know.
Lucky Ali is son of Mahmood, the famous Bollywood comedian. However, his childhood was not rosy like a normal star kid. Due to his busy schedules, Mahmood could never give enough time to Lucky Ali and the relationship between them never blossomed. Lucky Ali’s first album – Sunoh came out in 1996, at the age of 38. He did lot of things in the first 37 years of his life, including working on an oil rig! I am definitely very glad that he decided to take music more seriously!
I and Gaurav have many times sworn that there is not a single song of Lucky Ali that we do not like and that remains true to this date. So, it is very hard for me to pick up favourite songs, but still I will try to select songs of his that I like better than others and talk about them in this post.
The most commonly heard song of Lucky Ali is ‘O Sanam’ from Sunoh. The song has a very simple but melodious tune. Like Lucky Ali’s almost every song, this song also has great guitar work. The video is excellently shot too.
Another song I love from Sunoh album is ‘Main Hoo Pyaar Ka Musafir’. Very simple tune again and the song is heavy on lyrics.
‘Aap par Arz’ from the same album is a very different song from the normal Lucky Ali style people know about. A romantic song with beautiful Urdu laden words.
‘Milegi Milegi’ – a song which will tell you about rich texture of Lucky Ali’s voice. The song has minimal instruments, letting you concentrate on his voice. This song always used to inspire me, it gave me confidence that I might be different from others in many ways but I will still find my goal, my own place in this world.
Music Reviews and nice articles about the most unusual songs!
Let’s move on to his next album – ‘Sifar’ which came out in 1997. The most famous song from this album is ‘Dekha Hai Aise Bhi’. I don’t think I need to say anything about it, it speaks for itself!
‘Nahi Rakhta Dil Mein Hai Kuchh’ is not really a well-known song unfortunately. The song is typical Lucky Ali with great tune and simple lyrics.
There are a lot more songs of his which I want to write about but this post won’t be enough to make justice to them. Nevertheless, I urge you to explore his music in more detail and look beyond his famous songs.
As I have said before, Lucky Ali means more than a singer to me. He is also an example of how one can resist money and fame to follow one’s own heart. Lucky Ali had many playback singing offers after Kaho Na Pyaar Hai and he could have taken them up and led an easy life. But he chose not to. He chose to keep creating his own music. And I cannot thank him enough for that decision!
Lastly, here’s an old interview of him on Movers and Shakers , shot somewhere around 1997-1998.
