Sad news for Pakistani music industry as Muhammad Ahsan Papu, the flute player from the critically acclaimed ‘Mekaal Hasan Band‘ has been recently diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis. This disease has made it difficult for the flute master to play his instrument of life. But showing resilience to this deadly disease, Mr. Papu has been recovering speedily that is a really good sign from himself as well as for his wide fan base. Mekaal Hasan Band is one of those very few bands in our industry who have kept themselves unique and closer to their identity in all these years. Due to which they have some very passionate following not only in Pakistan but throughout the world.
And one would not hesitate to say that Mr. Papu has made huge contribution to MHB’s name and its success by adding his own skills of music that he has been practicing for past good 40 years. But the recent developments in the past couple of months really left Ahsan Papu in a state of shock that even threatened an end to his musical journey as it became very difficult for him to move his fingers on the flute due to the disease. It has been a very depressing time for a person like Mr. Ahsan, to keep himself away from playing the instrument that he once used to play even 20 hours a day. But thankfully he is once again on a road to recovery and is said to be in good state of mind specially when he talks about the upcoming album of his band that is going to be released soon.
“When it hits the market, people will enjoy the flute and guitar solos. The audience will hear how lengthy and improvised the parts are,” he says. The talent of this musical maestro can be gauged from the fact that he has the honour of closely working with some all-time legends such as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Alam Lohar and Attaullah Khan Esakhelvi. Even in today’s age and time, he is one of those musicians who really has got the element of fusion in his style and knows well both the classical and popular music. We wish Mr. Ahsan Papu a very speedy recovery and the best of health in future. Hope he continues to churn out some amazing tunes for us.