Sajjad Hussein was a famous Indian music director who composed many hit Indian film songs. He was also a fantastic mandolin player. He had the honor of being the only musician in the world able to play classical Indian music on the mandolin, an almost impossible task because of its limitations. Sajjad Hussein was a genius . However he never witnessed the glory or fame that he deserved because of his unwillingness to compromise on the smallest of details.

Sajjad Hussein was born at Sitamau, Madhya Pradesh in the year 1899, Sajjad Hussein was born into a musical family. He had mastered the Sitar, Veena, Jaltarang, Accordion, Violin, Spanish and Hawaiian Guitars, Clarinet, Flute, Piano, Banjo and the Harp when he was yet a young man.

When you shock people like Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Ahmadjan Thirakawa, Pandit Nikhil Ghosh, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and the greatest of them all Ustad Baba Allaudin Khan on their home turf, it can be only talent that screamed at them.

He came to Mumbai in 1940 to make a career in music.His debut film was Gali in 1944. Unfortunately Sajjad Hussein dis not tasted success commercially inspite of being an undisputed genius. His body of work might be small, but it ranks as one of the best that Hindi film music has ever produced. What proved his undoing was his inability to accept any suggestion from any quarter.

This inability to accept any 'suggestion', interpreted variously by different musicians was based on the secure knowledge of his musical strength. Anil Biswas, one of the greatest musicians of the film recalls that Sajjad Hussein was the only original composer they had. Every note of his was an original. His compositions were given voices by great singers including Lata Mangeshkar and Talat Mehmood , ‘Yeh Hawa Yeh Raat, Yeh Chandni’.

He lived till the age of seventy - nine always sure that some people were never able to understand and some never able 264 to sing his compositions as per his orders. Lata Mangeshkar on her part would never forget his terse commandments and taunts (Yeh Naushad Ka Gana Nahin Hai) or the seventeen takes for a single song ‘Yeh Hawa Yeh Raat Yeh Chandni’ because one off - key instrument. His son Mustafa Sajjad is the famous international mandolin player .