Hyderabad: In an unexpected turn of events, Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) has changed its anthem (tarana) from that written by famous poet-lyricist Gulzar to one which is written by Vice-Chancellor Prof Syed Ainul Hasan.
The new tarana has the ring of songs from Aligarh Muslim University and may be Jamia Millia Islami. It has an old ring to it that represents resistance to change. The voice of not-so-famous Vakil does not give any zing to the song.
Gulzar who has been conferred with Honoris Causa (doctorate) by MANUU for his contribution to promoting Urdu language agreed to write the song when the then Vice-Chancellor Mohammad Miyan approached him. Gulzar took on board multitalented filmmaker and music director Vishal Bhardwaj and famous playback singer Sukhwinder Singh on board to write an present the song in 2014 to the students and staff of the University. The tune and the voice of the song made it immediately popular.
According to talk among some sections of the staff and students in the campus Ainul Hasan was unhappy with the Gulzar-written song since he arrived at the campus in July 2021. He is an expert in Central Asian history and literature who also dabbles in writing poetry in Urdu.
After writing the new anthem he is said to have called a meeting of the senior staff members where he sought the opinion over the tarana.
Some of those who had the inkling that Ainul Hasan has already written a new song began criticising the tarana written by Gulzar.
One of them reportedly described Gulzar written tarana as “a cheap film song.” As expected none of the seniors opened their mouth to say anything nice about the Gulzar’s song.
Taking the views of the staff ‘democratically’, Ainul Hasan chose to launch his own song on the University Formation Day on Tuesday (January 9). May be to avoid any controversy, the new song is being called, ‘Silver Jubilee’ tarana. A press note from the University said that the tarana was prepared by the Instructional Media Centre team under the supervision of the Director, Dr. Rizwan Ahamd.
Siasat.com is presenting the link to both the taranas for the public to decide whether there was any need to change the University song.
