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Biography
There is something about his eyes. It is difficult
to break contact as Lucky Ali tries to reach with in you. His debut
album, Sunoh, written off by some as 'sugary pop', has found plenty
of listeners. BMG Crescendo, the label under which Sunoh has hit
the market, claims that the album
has already sold over 100, 000 copies. It did especially well in
Delhi and Calcutta, with a predominantly female fan following.
It helps that Lucky is an extremely attractive man. Reserved, but
not unforthcoming, he does not behave like a sex symbol. Nor does he
come across as someone who wants to be one. "Women," according to
Lucky, "are proving a better audience because they are quieter and
gentler than men. Which, perhaps, is why they are better able to
respond to my music." He makes a big deal of the fact that he sings
not in English or Urdu or Hindi - the three languages he is
comfortable with otherwise - but in Hindustani. "Hindi is," in
Lucky's opinion, "a Sanskritised and sanitised version of
Hindustani." Most of Lucky's songs are lilting melodies and the
lyrics - though not as meaningless as other pop stars. What Lucky
does instead is to sing lighthearted, pretty songs that are upbeat and reflect the
new found hope and peace that he feels in his life
today. Lucky, born
Maqsood Ali Khan, is the second of Mehmood's eight children. He also
happens to be the nephew of Meena Kumari, one of the great actresses
to grace the Indian screen. Half-Bengali and from a family that has
been in the industry for years, he did not lack the requisite
opportunity to make his debut as an actor. "As far as doing
something was concerned," says Lucky, "I always assumed I would be
an actor. As did the people around me." And act, he did. First, in
Shyam Benegal's Trikaal, where he played Erasmo, the young
Portuguese doctor who comes home to get married. He worked with
Benegal again in Discovery of India, in which he played Ashoka's
brother Tissa, who was instrumental in drawing him towards a path of
non-violence. In more recent
times, he also acted in the television serial, Zara Hatke. "I didnot
enjoy the experience, though," confesses Lucky, "because of
production hitches, delays and other problems on the set." Ali is
not an actor in the sense of someone who pretends to be something he
is not. "I have always played myself on screen; this has always been
reflected in my choice of roles. When I played Tissa and Erasmo, I
was at a stage in life where I could identify with both these
characters." Shyam Benegal remembers Ali as keen and hardworking. He
not only acted in Benegal's projects, but also assisted the director
when he was making Susman. "Lucky," recalls Benegal, "was a good
actor but could not get into Hindi commercial cinema because, in
those days, he had one leg in movies and one in music." Lucky,
apparently, used to sing on the sets but was never taken
seriously. Though he has been
keeping a low profile about his famous father, Mehmood is not as
reticent about his second-born. Lucky's drug abuse problem, and his
consequent feeling of helplessness, apparently led Mehmood to wrote
the script of his film -- Dushman Duniya Ka (Enemy of the World).
The movie stars Ali's youngest brother, 21-year-old Manzoor. Then
called Lucky Boy, it is the story of the degeneration of a young man
-not surprisingly called Lucky - as a result of his drug addiction.
Mehmood saw only one suitable ending for the movie: Lucky debases
and destroys himself and everyone he loves for the fix he needs.
Eventually, he even kills his mother whom he loves very much. Lucky
Ali was furious with his father's vision and refused to act in the
movie. "I felt the story lacked hope," says Lucky. Mehmood, however,
felt that any other ending would weaken the impact of his
message. Meanwhile, Lucky
worked on a horse farm and an oil rig, acted in films and
television, and ran a carpet-cleaning business cleaning carpets with
his friend Aslam. The latter, incidentally, penned the lyrics for
Sunoh. All these activities kept Lucky on the move. As he talks of
himself, Lucky's eyes compel you to understand that this is not just
the story of uncertain talent waiting to find recognition. It is,
rather, an expression of the realisation that it is only too easy to
sit back and accept a life of mediocrity. This may have
been the reason Lucky ran away from his home on his father's farm in
Bangalore every once in a while. "But I would return," recalls
Lucky, "frustrated, again and again, because the answers were not out there but within me." This
search led Lucky Ali to a horse farm in Kentucky, to Bombay during
the riots, to literature - Kant and Nietzche and various religious
texts - to religion - he was a Jehovah's Witness for four
years. He is back home now and
seems to have found some measure of peace in the religion of his
birth. It is this faith that he reiterates in the S D
Burman-inspired song, Tum Hi Se in his album. Perhaps the seeds of
acceptance of orthodox religion were sown in him during his
early years at a Catholic boarding school in Mussoorie where he was
sent when he was only two-and-a-half years old. This is also what
made his eight year association with marijuana a guilt
trip. He calls himself a
social smoker on hindsight and, yet, he suffered guilt every time he
smoked. This, in the day and age, when the president of the United
States can admit to having smoked a reefer or two. Lucky attributes
the guilt to intent. "Smoking was," he says, "more of an act of
rebellion, than of recreation or escape." On the whole, the
experience confused Lucky and caused him to withdraw more and more
into himself.
Marriage, proved to be a stabilising influence. His wife,
Masoom, who features in the video of his first released song O Sanam, is a NewZealander who, it
seems, has embraced Islam and the purdah with equal fervour. Lucky,
today, is a keen Muslim and his faith is apparent in his choice of
name for his son Ta'Awwuz: I seek protection in Allah and a girl
named Tasmia. He is now settled in Oakland, New Zealand, where he
farms potatoes in between working on his new
album.
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