‘My Name is Lakhan’ fame singer Mohammed Aziz passes away

Kolkata: Veteran Bollywood singer Mohammed Aziz passed away in Mumbai’s Nanavati Hospital Tuesday afternoon following a cardiac arrest. He was 64.

Mohammed Aziz’s daughter Sana Aziz said, “We came to know around 1500 hrs. He was travelling from Kolkata to Mumbai. He was suffering from heart blockage, and he just collapsed at the airport.”

“His mortals remains will be brought to his home in Kandivali West,” she said.

Born July 2, 1954 at Ashoknagar in North 24 parganas district of West Bengal. A big fan of veteran singer Mohammed Rafi, Aziz started singing when he was a child.

Aziz made his film debut in a Bengali language film, Jyoti. He came to Mumbai in 1984, with references from a producer’s relative. His first Hindi film was Ambar (1984).

Aziz started out his musical career as a singer in the restaurant Ghalib in Kolkata. He got a break when the music director Anu Malik got him to sing the song Mard Taangewala for the movie Mard, starring Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan.

People thought it was a Shabbir Kumar’s song and the song became a hit and Aziz became a popular singer, and was patronized by leading music directors including Kalyanji-Anandji, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Rahul Dev Burman, Naushad, O. P. Nayyar, Bappi Lahiri, Rajesh Roshan, Raamlaxman, Ravindra Jain, Usha Khanna, Anand-Milind, Nadeem-Shravan, Jatin Lalit, Anu Malik, Damodar Raao, Anand Raj Anand and Aadesh Shrivastava.

Aziz worked in the Odia film industry and has sung several Odia bhajans, private albums, and Odia film songs since 1985. Some of his Odia bhajans (Lord Jagannath’s Bhajans) are famous.

He has performed stage shows in India and abroad, and has been nominated twice for best male playback singer award. Mohd. Aziz was very close to Laxmikant Pyarelal; After Laxmi-Pyare, his career went down and other music directors took to other singers such as Kumar Sanu, Udit Narayan.

At his peak, he was considered an heir to Mohd. Rafi. He is one of the rare singers who can sing at the 7th note (saatwan sur) - example being his song, “Saare Shikawe Gile Bhulaa Ke Kaho”. Laxmi-Pyare recognized his potential very early and repeated him in a lot of their movies.

He has done playback singing for famous actors such as Amitabh Bachchcan, Govinda, Rishi Kapoor, Mithun chakraborty and several others. In Bollywood, his duets with leading female singers like Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle, Anuradha Paudwal and Kavita Krishnamurthy have been immensely popular, the latter two in particular.

His collaboration with the musical genius duo Laxmikant Pyarelal has been most successful to the extent that he was considered an heir of Mohammad Rafi at his peak in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

This versatile singer has sung almost twenty thousand songs in different Indian languages. He has recorded hundreds of devotional Bhajans and Sufi songs as well. Though he has gelled quite well with other female singers, but his duets with Anuradha Paudwal, Asha Bhonsle and Kavita Krishnamurthy have been most popular during most of 1980s and early 1990s and are still heard and watched even on youtube video channel.

Some of his popular numbers include My name is Lakhan from the 1989 film Ram Lakhan, Tin Tina Tin from 1997 film Mahaanta, Teri Bewafai Ka Shikwa, Mitwa Bhool Na Jana, Lal Dupatta Mal Mal Ka, Ae Mere Dost Laut Ke Aaja, Saawan Ke Jhoolon Ne, Chand Gagan se Phool Chaman se and many more. His songs dominated the 80s and early 90s and are still popular. (UNI)