Mohammed Aziz death: Anu Malik recalls how he found the singer to sing the famous Mard song

Veteran singer Mohammed Aziz died today of a heart attack at the age of 64.

Aziz sang around 19,000 songs in his career. But his earliest claim to fame was the song ‘Mard Tangewala’ from Manmohan Desai’s blockbuster Mard (1985).

Composer Anu Malik gave him the big break. Malik became nostalgic about Aziz during a conversation with Cinestaan.com. 

Like many in the film music world, Malik was taken aback by news of Aziz's death. “This is such bad news," the music director said. "It’s very sad. I pray to god to let his soul rest in peace and provide strength to his family to overcome this tragedy.” 

Malik then recalled the dramatic situation in which he found Aziz to sing the Mard song. “Manmohanji loved [Mohammed] Rafiji’s voice a lot. So he was searching for someone with a voice resembling Rafi's. He asked me to find someone who could remind us of Rafi saheb,” he said.

The composer had heard about Aziz but did not know how to contact him. "I didn’t have his phone number or his address,” said Malik. “Somehow I found out that he lived somewhere behind a buffalo shed between Jogeshwari and Goregaon. At around 12:30 or 1 am I went through the area and somehow located his house.”

Aziz was overwhelmed when Malik said he wanted him to sing a song in Mard. “He just hugged me. And then we made him sing, ‘Mard Tangewala’."

Aziz became famous after singing the Mard title song. "He worked with all the big music directors of that time," Anu Malik said. "He did a lot of films with me too in the 1980s. People used to call him Munna Aziz with affection.” 

Malik also wondered why a number of great Hindi film singers have died relatively early. “It is quite shocking for me to know that he left us so soon," the veteran music director said. "All our great singers like Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukeshji also passed away quite young.”