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“Etodin pore proshno jaage, Shudhui ki herechi ami
Hridoy bhangar shei nipun khelay, ektu ki haroni tumi?”
Boom, Millennials! Suddenly this song pops up in your mind and you find yourself lost in your childhood, no?
These were the days of getting relinquished in the world of Hasan, a singer and songwriter of Bangladesh, who crazed the youngsters of ‘90s with his mellifluous hymns.
‘Sweety tumi ar kedo na,’ ‘Ekaki,’ ‘Eto shukh,’ ‘Guru,’ ‘Emon ekta,’ ‘Ontohin bedona’ used to be on loop in the teens' audio cassettes.
Music cannot be limited to a particular era or time, although, like all artforms, music changes over time.
However, the admirable thing is that sentiments remain the same while metaphor, language, vocalist and jingle change.
Chances are high that ‘90s songs won’t interest today’s generation mostly. But that doesn’t nullify those songs or their singers’ efforts as still there are plenty who listen to those.
The recent unfortunate event that Hasan faced in Feni at a concert shows exactly the same thing. A video of Hasan facing backlash on stage, trying to sing, went viral on social media. Audiences were seen booing the veteran singer chanting ‘Vua Vua’ which culminated in Hasan leaving the stage.
While millennials are humming ‘Sweety tumi ar kedo na,’ there is a tendency among the Zen G youths to humiliate Hasan just because his songs seem outdated. But Hasan is still there, among the music lovers, and he deserves respect.
Md Masudur Rahman, a middle-aged businessman, has been a fan of Hasan ever since his youth.
“I used to go to every Hasan bhai concert and guess what, I still got all his music cassettes. No one can sing in a voice rich in an incredible melody with a completely different mouthpiece like him.”
Mesmerised by the class of ARK as a band and Hasan’s melody for 20 years, the recent event is hard to digest for Mr Rahman.
“I don’t know what is wrong with this community. How they can find relaxation disrupting an artist. They may not be familiar with these songs but that really doesn’t make it intolerable.”
When asking Luchi Rahman, a housewife from Dhaka's Uttara, she proudly said,
“I got a chance to attend one of his concerts in Sheraton (Intercontinental) and the craze was huge. He was perhaps not the best at that point, but definitely achieved his place in top 3 best promising musicians,” shared Luchi Rahman, a housewife from Uttara and another Hasan fan.
For Luchi, Hasan is the best singer she has seen and his ability to sing on a higher skill is unmatched.
Nahidul Islam on the other hand, a private bank MTO from Narayanganj, doesn’t want to bring the discussion about whether Hasan was a great singer or not.
“See, I am not a fan of him and his songs do not attract me. That doesn’t mean I should belittle his music. Hasan or any artist, do not deserve such treatment in any way.”
Recently a video from BUET campus got viral on the social media where Hasan is seen passionately singing ‘Proshno,’ one of his famou songs. The video showed he is still pretty much the singer he was.
And the public reaction to that video makes it clear that people still love him. The incident that occured in Feni was an isolated occurrence and people of all ages expressed their support for him on social media.