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SARDAR ALI TAKKAR
ENDEAVORING TO RAISE PASHTO MUSIC TO NEW HEIGHTS |
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By: Zafar Ali Usafzai |
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 Takkar,
a small village in District Mardan, may be known
to many of the Historians because of the Tragic
War that took place between the British Army and
the Villagers and which resulted in a mass
bloodshed of the innocent villagers. But almost
every Pakhtun around the world knew Takkar because
of a veteran personality, which opened her eyes in
this village. Long ago in the decade of 1960’s,
when this child used to play in the streets of his
village, perhaps none of the villager would have
thought that this child would become the identity
of their village, all over the world. This child
when grew, decided to adopt singing, not as a
profession but as a challenge to serve the Pashto
music and raise it to new heights.
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Today the world knows this personality with the
name of Sardar Ali Takkar. A veteran of the Pashto
singing scene, Takkar is practically a household
name almost all over the country among the
Pakhtuns. Every Pakhtun feels pride on having his
cassette with himself. He has been plying his
trade since early 1980s, and has earned his big
break by singing a veteran poets like Rahman Baba,
Khushal Khan khattak, Khatir Afridi, Hamza
Shinwari and of course the great Ghani Khan. Like
a wild flower, which sprouts from the virgin soil
and blossoms to full ambience untended, he became
one of the most sought after Pashto singer.
Born in 1956 at Takkar village (Thakt Bahi)
Mardan, he passed his metric examination from his
village school and did his F.Sc. from Government
College Mardan. He completed his graduation in
Mechanical Engineering from University of
Engineering and Technology, Peshawar. Aside from
this he has also attended special courses in U.K
and Canada.
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From the very beginning, he had developed a flavor
for music. Takkar had a natural flair for singing.
He used to take part in Naat, Qirat and singing
competitions during his school time. When he was
in class 8th, he played mouth organ on the stage
for the first time. He used to play different
musical instrument stealthily at that time. He
often used to play “Sitar” (a musical instrument)
at one of the peasants home, namely Anwar Khan in
the nearby village. Because of the social and
political affiliations of his family, it was very
difficult to play these musical instruments in the
traditional Hujra. While in college, he started
fiddling with the rabab, another stringed
instrument.
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At university level, when Takkar was away from his
family’s norms and values, he started giving full
intention to this art. As a first step he joined
the Abaseen Arts Council for formal musical
training. Here he learnt playing different
instruments like Rabab, Harmonium from Sardar
Ustad. He also learnt from some of the great
masters of the period: Khalid Haider Malik and
Sultani Sahib.
His University life provided him more chances to
exhibit his hidden talent. Initially he used to
present his skills before his friends, in
different musical programme in the university. But
it was in 1982 when Yar Muhammad Maghmum, a
professor at the historic Edward College Peshawar,
wanted to celebrate an evening with the great
legendry and dynamic philosopher Ghani Khan, but
was unable to find a singer who was ready to meet
the challenge of putting Ghani’s poetry in music.
When Takkar became aware of the situation, he
agreed to sing in that programme. Some people also
recorded this programme on audiocassette, which
got so prominence that even the music stores
started selling it on regular basis. In this way,
his debut album (solely based on Ghani khan’s
poetry) touched the market, so incidentally.
It was in those days when a programme for youths
named “Zalmey Kool” (Young Generation) used to
broadcast from the Radio Pakistan. Takkar for the
first time not only played different instruments
but also sang two ghazals in that programme.
After that, he also had the opportunity to record
a programme at the Peshawar Center of Pakistan
Television Vision (PTV). In 1984, Takkar left for
Afghanistan. His stay in Afghanistan helped him in
a way that he became able to sing poetry of those
poets who were banned in Pakistan and his singing
from Afghanistan also brought him prominence back
at home.
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Kundan Lal Sehgal (1904-1947) had remained a great
source of inspiration for Takkar. The sphere of
K.L. Sehgal’s recorded music was very vast, as he
had sung in Hindi, Urdu, Pashto, Punjabi, Bengali
and Tamil. Takkar was so much inspired by Sehgal
that at very young age he used to listen a music
programme comprising of one of the Sehgal’s song,
which was broadcasted from the radio daily in the
morning. Such was the power and mystique of
Sehgal's singing that Takkar too started his
career singing in the 'Sehgal style' before
etching out his own identity. Aside from Sehgal,
he also got inspired from Jugjeth Singh, Punkaj
Udhas and Mehdi Hassan.
The major feature, which became the hallmark of
his singing, was the selection of Ghani Khan’s
poetry. From the very beginning, Takkar had an
inclination towards Philosophy and used to read
the Poet of the East i.e. “Allama Mohammad Iqbal”
when he was in class 8th at his village school.
After that he had also studied the poetry of
Rahman Baba and Khushal Khan Khattak, but when he
read Ghani Khan he felt him as the one whom he was
searching for. This is due to the reason that in
Ghani Khan’s poetry, he had found so many shades
-- ranging from freedom, love of God, land and
people, nationalism, fate, the mysteries of life
and death, the joys of communion, and the woes of
separation to beauty. Ghani khan was a true poet
of modernism who was at home in variety of
subjects like mysticism, romanticism, nationalism,
skepticism, aestheticism, and philosophy.
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Terming his stance and love towards Ghani Khan, he
often narrates an interesting story. He recalls
that one day while roaming in the hostel at
University, he got a verse of Ghani Khan written
on one of the door. Which was
Che Da Taqwa Zaar Sajde She Jama, Da Ishq Yo Saat
Thre Jor She.”
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[One thousand prostrations (bows) when combined,
give birth to a lone moment of love]
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Seeing this verse gave birth to a motion and zeal
in him, compelling him to search out for Ghani
Khan’s poetry. As in those days, the government
had banned Ghani Khan, therefore Takkar found it
difficult to get any book comprising of his
poetry. But this did not force him to stop there
and he continued his search. At last, he succeeded
in finding a book of Ghani Khan in the library of
Area Study Center, University of Peshawar.
Although this gave an extreme happiness to him,
but to his sheer disappointment he was not allowed
to borrow that book, being a reference book. For
this Takkar had a novel solution, he used to stay
till evenings in the library, noting down Ghani’s
Poetry in his diary.
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Takkar is the first well-educated Pashto singer.
Before him, the sphere of Pashto music listeners
was very limited in which the educated class was
next to none but it was Sardar Ali Takkar who not
only compelled the educated people to listen
Pashto music, but also paved the way for educated
ones who wanted to adopt Pashto singing. The main
reason for which is that before him, the Pashto
singers were mostly uneducated who did not paid
much heed towards the selection of poetry for
songs. They used to sing in those few traditional
styles, which were prevalent from centuries. They
also did not tried to expose the great poets to
general masses through music, which resulted in
the immature and bad taste for Pashto music.
Contrary to them, Takkar having inclination
towards literature, selected genre like philosophy
and mysticism and that too were presented in an
innovative style that is why these trends were
acknowledged by the masses immediately. They
started listening him, not only for his melodious
voice but also for his selection of the best
poetry. Takkar had always focused on the content
of poetry along with music, as he believed that
quality poetry is must for quality music.
Takkar has strived in almost all the genre of
Pashto poetry, which include ghazal, rubayi,
charbeta, tappa, nemake and badala.
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Takkar has also strived hard in selection and
singing of ghazals, which has a special place in
the literary universe. He has got a matchless
style for presenting rubayi, which is developed by
him lonely. His rubayi style had remained a
striking force in shooting his fame.
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But the most laudable and inimitable aspect of
Takkar singing is “Azad Nazam” which he put in the
musical tones. Although Azad Nazam has proved too
difficult to be understand but it was Takkar’s
tireless efforts, which resulted in recognition of
Azad Nazam in the general public. Regarding “Azad
Nazam”, Takkar opines that until the singer gets
over the original message contained in it, it is
impossible to sing it. All it need is great
willpower and mindset. In his opinion, the singer
must strive to put his mind behind each word he
renders. Even now when the moment he sings Azad
Nazam, the clamor in the surrounding gives way to
complete silence.
After almost stumbling into a singing career,
Takkar quickly touched the apex of success and his
soulfully rendered Pashto rubahis and specially
Azad Nazams of the great Ghani Khan, touched
responsive chords among music buffs in the
province. The mellifluous quality and timbre of
his natural voice have a special appeal for the
serious folks and students specially.
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In the beginning, Takkar was very selective
regarding his selection of poetry and mostly
serious people enjoyed it, but when in one of the
TV programme, he sang tappe, majority of the
common folk also liked him and wished him to
continue singing for common folk also. It is
pertinent to mention here that tappa is the lone
genre of Pashto poetry, which does not exist in
any other language. He had also attributed to the
great singers of the past whose aura and charisma
still remains intact including Muzaffar Khan,
Gulnar Begum, Rafiq Shinwari etc by remixing their
legendry songs.
Being, himself a candidate of mysticism, it
credits for Takkar who not only went for Rahman
Baba’s mystic poetry but also acknowledged the
elegant mysticism of Ghani Khan. Of the two, he
terms the poetry of the later as the best
regarding mysticism, which according to him is
nothing but the acquaintance to the GOD Almighty.
Regarding services for music, Takkar does not seem
happy with most of the past singer who although
bestowed with melodious voice, left singing but
did not tried to serve their language in real
meaning. He also feels uneasy with the present day
Pashto music, prevailing in the market place,
where by no heed is given to the selection of
poetry and mostly substandard poetry is selected
for singing. He considers it a serious threat to
the Pashto music, which instead of promotion is
causing huge loss to it.
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Looking in to the history of Pashto music, it
become obvious that up till now none of the singer
worked with proper planning for the development of
Pashto language and music i.e. most of them have
not taken this profession as a mission. They
adopted it merely as their source of income. But
when it comes to Takkar, he kept on doing new
experiments in the Pashto music. He has
intentionally tried to add the musical flavors of
different languages in to the Pashto music. He has
added the Arabic, Turkish, Spanish and African
beat to his compositions. At the same time,
Takkar’s outwit is that he has kept the identity
of Pashto music intact.
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Takkar keeps on doing new experiments in the
Pashto music with a missionary zeal. For instance
he has recently come up with a new album (No.81)
containing classical Pashto songs. The most
interesting part is that he developed different
tones (Raygs) and presented the poetry of the
great mystic Rahman Baba in it. These raygs
consists of Darbari, Shankara, beharwi, Meaig,
Peelo Tumri, Classical Tarana and Istahani Antyra.
It was his these efforts which led a Denmark based
organization to confer him a special award for
singing Rahman Baba’s poetry.
In order to produce a quality music and carry
forward his musical skills to the new generation,
Takkar has established a studio named “Takkar
Rhythms” where he keeps on doing new experiments
regarding music. Presently he also participates in
the “Khyber Beats- Classic” (a musical programme)
of the lone private Pashto TV Channel. He also has
intends to establish a video studio for making
videos of songs. In his opinion, the videos, which
are prepared presently, are not in conformity with
what the singer sings. The singer sings something
while the video comprises of totally different
thing. According to him, a successful video is the
one, which is made according to the urgency and
spirit of “subjective music”.
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Unassuming, friendly and down-to-earth Takkar is a
born and self-taught vocalist whose vocal
resources have equipped him to also fluently
render songs in languages other than Pashto like
Farsi and Urdu. He had also held concerts not only
in Pakistan, but also in Dubai, Britain, Canada,
Germany and Afghanistan.
In recognition of his unforgettable services to
Pashto Music, the government of Pakistan awarded
him with the Pride of Performance. He is also a
recipient of numerous awards and certificates from
a number of cultural organizations.
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