While you may not argue with the brilliance of Mehdi Hasan Khan Saheb, I would opine that Ustad Amanat Ali Khan’s singing voice had a most bewitching decibel that was better than Mehdi Saheb! Mehdi Saheb understood ghazal singing to the point of intuition, but the voice pitch of Ustad Amanat was quite a few notches better. That is precisely the reason that anybody who listens to him becomes an immediate fan of Ustad Amanat!

Of course, it came from continuous kharaj practice, needed to sing classical songs. It tells you a lot about those times, when you find that Ustad Amanat Ali Khan and Ustad Fateh Ali Khan used to present thumri and dadra numbers for the immense enjoyment of the audiences in the Sixties and Seventies. The common understanding of the general public, regarding classical music was way above what the people have knowledge today! Their hit numbers were mostly thumris, like Kab aaoge tum aaoge, Pyar naheen hai sur se jisko, Data torey dwar main gaoonetc. You can imagine what standards people had at that time that they remembered those semi-classical songs by heart.

As for Amanat Ali Khan, mostly ghazals, who can forget numbers like Ik khalish ko hasil-e-umr-e-rawan, Aa mere pyar kee khushboo, Yeh aarzoo thee tujhe gul ke, Mujhe apni khata pe yaas, Mausam badla rut gadrai, Insha jee utho, Mah-e-nau ko kya pata hai,Aksar shab-e-tanhai mein etc. One recalls these numbers on his death anniversary, which fell in September.