Rais Khan

Personal life

Rais Khan was born on 25 November 1939 in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, British India. He grew up in Bombay. His training began at a very young age, on a small coconut shell sitar. In 1986 he moved to Pakistan, seven years after marrying his fourth wife - a Pakistani singer named Bilqees Khanum. In 1979, the two met for the first time in a programme by the Sabri Brothers in Karachi. They have two sons together. Khan has four sons: Sohail Khan, Cezanne Khan, Farhan Khan and Huzoor Hasnain Khan.

Career

Rais Khan belonged to the Mewati gharana (lineage), which is connected to Indore gharana and the "beenkar baz gayaki ang" (singing style combined with rudra veena approaches) carried out by Rais Khan's father Mohammed Khan, a rudra veena player and a sitarist. Despite his extensive meend work and the gandhar pancham sitar style he uses, Rais Khan's alapi, gatkari and gamaki work was different in approach, pacing, and even technique, from the Etawah style. Amongst the khayal and dhrupad doyens, Rais Khan's gharana was a lineage containing the masters Haddu Khan, Hassu Khan, Nathan Khan, Bande Ali Khan, Babu Khan, Wazir Khan, Waheed Khan, Murad Khan, Latif Khan, Majid Khan, Nazeer Khan, Amanat Khan and Rajab Ali Khan of Dewas, Madhya Pradesh, India.

As Rais Khan's mother was a singer and his father was a beenkar, a unique combination of khayal (the most popular classical vocal style), dhrupad (the older and most orthodox classical form) and thumri (lyrical semi-classical form) – 'angs' (approaches) developed in his playing.

He gave his first public concert at Sunderbai Hall in the presence of the then Governor of Bombay Sir Maharaja Singh. In 1955, Khan was chosen to represent India in the International Youth Festival in Warsaw. He has also performed at the Kennedy Center. While in India, he played film music for Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi and Asha Bhosle. He had toured extensively throughout the world.

He was also a vocalist and was the first sitar player to record the super-hit song 'Ghungroo toot gaye' for BBC London in 1978 as an instrumental song with the sitar. This song was originally written by Qateel Shifai, music by Nisar Bazmi for a Pakistani film Naz (1969). Like his uncle Ustad Vilayat Khan, he often sang and demonstrated compositions by his accompanying sitar playing. Ustad Rais Khan and Ustad Bismillah Khan (shehnai player) used to collaborate and performed together in live concerts as a duo called Jugalbandi, like the one at India Gate in New Delhi on 23 November 2001.

For sometime, Khan had stopped playing concerts of classical music. He returned in the 1980s and was invited by Ali Akbar Khan to perform in California.

Khan sometimes performed with his son Farhan, as he did in a 2009 performance for Pakistan Television (PTV) produced TV show 'Virsa- Heritage Revived', accompanied by Ustad Tari Khan on tabla. In 2012, he performed at the Nehru Centre in Mumbai. In 2014, he performed Hans Dhuni in Coke Studio Pakistan (season 7).

Death

After a prolonged illness, Rais Khan died on 6 May 2017 in Karachi at the age of 77. On his death, Urdu writer Anwar Maqsood remarked that “God had given him a rare gift. His fingers had that rare touch.” In a tweet, Indian singer Lata Mangeshkar called Khan “sitar ke jaadugar” (lit. magician of sitar).

Awards

In 2005, Rais Khan was awarded the Pride of Performance by the President of Pakistan. In 2017, Khan was awarded the Sitara-i-Imtiaz (Star of Excellence) by the Government of Pakistan.