Hasina Mamtaz

Hasina humming to a tune while playing on the surmandol

Hasina's passion for singing goes back to her childhood when she used to sleep on her father's lap. She recalls, 'My father was deeply interested in music and he always wanted us to learn something positive.' She was also inspired by her elder brother as she used to listen to his rewaz. The songs she listened to were embedded in her mind until later when she took lessons from her ustaads. Slowly she developed her musical talent, though she never thought of building her career as a singer.

Her first ever performance was a modern song in the mid-'1960s, when she was a student of the Dhaka University. Later her live performance on television gave her the long overdue popularity she deserved. In those days there were few recorded programmes on television. She was enlisted with BTV and Bangladesh Betar with ease. To quote her: ' There were very few singers at that time but the quality was superior.'

She recalls the early days of her musical career when she sang a duet with Khondokar Faruk Ahmed, a prominent singer of the country.' The patriotic song had been played 15 times on a particular day on radio' says Hasina. Hasina's first playback number was Doley dol dolna of the movie Dakbabu back in 1966. Later her song Tandra hara nayan amar was also a massive hit. Her contemporaries were famous singers like Ferdousi Rahman, Shahnaz Rahmatullah and Sabina Yasmeen and others.

Hasina is a little disappointed with the current trend of vulgarity in music. She says that the visuals are given more importance than the music. She lays an emphasis on the quality of music, 'If the artiste is meritorious he or she does not have to attract the audience through other attention getting means. The depth of the singer's voice should be the basic essence of music.'

Hasina, however, is not against the remake and remix of modern songs. 'If the singers of the young generation remake songs with modern instruments and new dimensions, they are welcome. People like this music form and it is something new and creative as well. Personally her repertoire does not comprise remake songs. As she says,'I would rather sing my original numbers without borrowing the songs from other performers.'

In the near future, Hasina plans to release an album with the idea of bringing her best numbers in a single album. Besides, she would like to leave behind her work for posterity.