Sunjay Dutt enters the fray in Dhurandhar and a familiar tune immediately starts playing – a song that has won hearts for nearly 40 years now: Hawa Hawa. Today we tell you about the fascinating yet tragic story of its OG creator.
In 1987, young Pakistani singer Hassan Jahangir became a household name with his chartbusting song – Hawa Hawa. The song became such a rage that Jahangir earned the nickname – ‘Michael Jackson of Pakistan’.
The eponymously named album sold 15 million cassettes in India – making Jahangir and Hawa Hawa a household name on both sides of the border.
Over the years, Hawa Hawa has been remixed and remade several times in Hindi films – with Dhurandhar’s version being the latest, making the song darling to Gen Z listeners as well.
While Hasan Jahangir’s name is synonymous with Hawa Hawa, to trace the true genesis of this song one needs to go back to Iran of the early 1970s. It was here that Hawa Hawa was truly born.
Kourosh Yaghmaei was born in 1946 in Shahrud city in the Semnan province of Iran. At the age of 10, Kourosh received a santoor as gift from his father, beginning his tryst with music.
He taught himself to traditional Iranian music. At the age of fifteen, he bought an electric guitar and started getting interested in western music. Shortly after, Kourosh formed his first band – The Raptures.
The Raptures played music by western rock bands like The Ventures, The Kinks, The Monkees and of course, the Beatles. Kourosh was lead singer and guitar for the Raptures.
In the early 1970s, Kourosh formed a new band with his brothers Kamran and Kambiz. Kourosh’s music was a unique blend of traditional Iranian and Western music.
In 1973, Kourosh released his first solo single – Gol-e-Yakh. The song, penned by Iranian poet Akhavan Langeroudi, became incredibly popular – making Kourosh a well-known name.
The same year, Gol-e-Yakh album was released to great acclaim. One of the thirteen songs of this album was “Havar Havar”.
The lyrics went:
Havar havar, ya havar, yarom miayad
Havar havar, ya havar deldarom miayad
In del, azizom, ze dooriyat bizara
Del hasrat kesheom dige taghat nadare
Yarom miayad Deldarom miayad
Yarom miayad, deldarom miayad
Translated, the words mean:
Hail! Hail! Hail! My beloved is coming!
Hail! Hail! Hail! My sweetheart is coming!
O’ my dear, this heart hates your departure
My sorrowful heart cannot wait any longer!
My beloved is coming! My sweetheart is coming!
It was this song that inspired Hasan Jahangir’s immortal Hawa Hawa. However, while the song got a new lease of life, the creator’s life was engulfed in darkness by then.
After the Islamic Revolution that led to the overthrowing of the Shah rule in Iran, Kourosh’s songs were banned due to the Western influence in them. Kourosh was debarred from releasing albums and performing to a live audience.
During the early 1980s, many Iranian singers and musicians emigrated to western nations. Kourosh however, declined to leave his motherland and stayed back.
Banned from his music, Kourosh worked for children and published books and music cassettes for them. In 1987, he released an album without any western instruments as per the government diktat.
In the 1990s, after some relaxation, Kourosh released several albums and also performed in concerts in Norway and Sweden. In the early 2000s, Kourosh started working on his till date last album “Malek Jamshid”.
Despite trying for over a decade, the album was not allowed to be released in Iran and released in the USA in 2016.
Today, Kourosh Yaghmaei lives in Tehran, running a music school. The enduring popularity of Hawa Hawa proves once again that music can never be suppressed by authoritarian regimes.
Sources:
Wikimedia Commons
