Watch Ghar Wapis Jab Aao Ge
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The Story Behind Ghar Wapis Jab Aao Ge
Asad Amanat Ali Khan brought the Patiala Gharana's classical training to the ghazal, and he first drew notice singing his father Ustad Amanat Ali Khan's Insha Ji Utho. This recording comes from Asad Amanat Ali Khan Sings Altaf Gauhar, the 1988 album of eight ghazals he set entirely to the Urdu verse of Altaf Gauhar, the civil servant and journalist who went on to edit Dawn and wrote poetry alongside a career in government. The reading is unhurried by design. At close to nine minutes it runs roughly three times the length of the film songs his brother Shafqat Amanat Ali would later be known for, which is the room a semi-classical ghazal needs if the tune is to be developed rather than simply stated. Khan received the Presidential Pride of Performance on 23 March 2007, a fortnight before his sudden death in London at the age of 51.
Meaning & Translation
The title is a half sentence: ghar wapis jab aao ge means "when you come back home", and Urdu is content to leave the rest of it hanging where an English lyric would resolve it. Everything the ghazal wants sits in that gap. The line is addressed to somebody who is not there to hear it, which makes it less a question than the shape a long wait takes once it finally finds words. Ghazal form suits that exactly: each couplet stands alone and settles nothing, then hands the thought back to the same returning phrase, so the song keeps circling a homecoming it never quite reaches.
Details
- Artist
- Asad Amanat Ali Khan
- Category
- Single
- Collection
- Asad Amanat Ali Khan Sings Altaf Gauhar
- Released
- 1988
- Language
- Urdu
- Mood
- Melancholy, Romantic
- YouTube Views
- 1.11M
Artists & Credits
- Asad Amanat Ali Khan singer
- Altaf Gauhar lyricist