Ya Mohammad Mustafa (ﷺ) | Ghulam Hassan Sofi | Kalam-e-Samad Mir | Kashmiri Naat

𝗚𝗵𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗺 𝗛𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗻 𝗦𝗼𝗳𝗶 - The undisputed Melody King of Kashmir.
Melody, meditation and melancholy: A tribute to Hasan Suif
Ghulam Hassan Sofi (8th July, 1932, Dalgate-Srinagar - 2009, Srinagar was a singer and harmonium player of traditional music of Kashmir.
Sofi began his career from Radio Kashmir, local station of All India Radio, in the early 1950s. He also sang for the station Doordarshan Kendra Srinagar, and for the Cultural Academy, besides being part of the staff in the Song and Drama Division from 1967 to 1994. Sofi, who also performed in other states of India, received the lifetime award from the Union Information Ministry and the Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah award from the State Government in 2006. Sofi sang the lyrics of the noted Kashmiri poets Ghulam Ahmad Mehjoor, Abdul Ahad Azad, Wahab Khar, Rasool Mir and Rajab Hamid. His own compositions often dwelt on spiritual and mystical themes.
With no formal training was divinely ordained. He had been given his voice, as if in lieu if the visual impairment that he was born with.
This should not come as a surprise considering that his father had sought him from the darbar of Hazrat Moin-ud-din Chisti. The greatest Sufi saint of the land seems to have blessed the unborn Hasan Sofi. After his birth, going toAjmer sharif, along with his father, became an annual pilgrimage. He owed his spiritual allegiance to the chisiti silsila and in this his murshid was Zia sahib of Pampore. It is during the visits to Ajmer that he was exposed to music through qawaalis which seemed to have forged a lasting association of sufism and singing in him.
The singer in him was awakened by his surroundings. This was a period in Kashmir when Hafiz nagma was at its peak. His initiation into singing was done by Mohamed Subhan. Every evening Mohammad Subhan would conduct a mehfil, singing with him till late hours. Eventually, Sofi got hold of singing in rhythm.
However, it was Ghulam Mohammad Tanki from the neighbourhood who recognised the prodigious talent when he was just about 20. Tanki introduced him to the legendary Amrit Lal Maini, Officer on Special Duty in the Radio Kashmir. Maini gave him a break in Radio Kashmir, in early 1950's and the rest as they say is history.
He married a widow and adopted her daughter from the first marriage and continued to live in the Dal.
His greatest assets as a singer was that he was quite at home rendering the mysticism of Shams Faqir, the romantism of Rasool Mir, the revolutionary zeal of Mahjoor, the radicalism of Nadim, and the devotion of Wahab Khar. All this was done only with just style and intonations; not supported by music. Can anyone else even try this!
He didn’t merely sing songs, he vocalized the cultural philosophy of the Kashmir Valley. Not only his style his sensibilities too were deeply Kashmiri.
As a singer and artist, it seems that Sofi found his spirituality through his songs and will live forever as part of our rich musical heritage and folk andromantic lore- a heritage dating back and underpinning a local, syncretic musical-mystical tradition that cuts across the religious, gender, class and rural urban divides.
Incidentally, Sofi was not completely blind as most people tend to believe. In his younger days, he used to go for movies and many old timers remember seeing him bicycle regal cinema to Lal-chowk.
It is a great tragedy of our society and a shame that for the last few years of his life, Sofi was living in oblivion. After his throat lost grip on tunes and his heath deteriorated, he was deserted by his fans and even family. The culture entrepreneurs, who have mushroomed in Kashmir after 1994, also left him in lurch. A close but impoverished relative in Rainawari pocket of downtown offered shelter to the legend during his hard and testing years.
He often complained and legitimately so, that nobody was coming forward to help him despite his pleas. He accused several composers of plagiarising his songs and tunes. I am sure he must have dawn solace from his own song, Dil khot aath thaze kole, zahan kaa mainsih kahan aav, nile-wat lalnow laali.
As an artist, he could be very temperamental. Even though he was visually impaired, he could gauge the mood of audience - whether they are attentive or not. And at times he would refuse to sing just because he would feel that the gathering was not quite up there.
One evening when he was performing at a private party, one of the guest asked him to sing a foot tapping folk song, Dimyo dilase gande valase, partho gilas kulnee tal he felt offended to be asked to sing a light song sung by someone else and got up and went away!
One of his personal favourites that gives you an insight into what his own innermost beliefs and philosophy was, kam kam sikender ayi matyo kati chhu haetim tai dourah karith tim drayi matyo jaai katyu chhai. His eyes would get moistened while singing it, showing how he had imbibed the transitory nature of this life and its glory.