Spotlight on urban poet Hashim Mahmud as Coke Studio returns with ‘Baaji’

When the opening chords of ‘Baaji’ rolled out on Coke Studio Bangla’s Season 3, marking the return of the platform after more than a year - listeners expected another reimagined track that fused folk lyricism with modern instrumentation.

What they didn’t expect was a moment of quiet revelation - a glimpse of the poet himself, whose words had long travelled beyond him.

At the 4:12 mark of the song, the camera shifted, and there he was: Hashim Mahmud. Not just a name in the credits, not just a ghost behind beloved verses, but a living presence, lending his own fragile yet resonant voice.

Sometimes, a song finds its way into the world long before its singer does. It drifts across radios, lingers in conversations, seeps into crowded streets, carrying the echo of a name - and still unfortunately remains unknown to many.

For decades, that was the story of poet-lyricist-singer Hashim Mahmud. His words travelled far, his melodies endured, but the man himself seemed to slip quietly into the shadows.

For years, Mahmud’s poetry has coursed through Bangladesh’s cultural bloodstream. Around Dhaka University’s Faculty of Fine Art, popularly known as Charukala - and other places in the campus including the popular Chhobir Haat, he was once a familiar figure, scribbling in notebooks, crafting songs that married the rawness of folk with the grit of his urban bohemian life.

Speculations and curiosity around artist Hashim Mahmud began through the massively popular song ‘Sada Sada Kala Kala’ from Mejbaur Rahman Sumon’s 2022 film ‘Hawa’.

Hashim Mahmud’s long-time friend, teacher at the Faculty of Fine Arts and its current Dean, Professor Dr Azharul Islam Sheikh Chanchal, first published the now widely discussed song ‘Baaji’ on Facebook in 2019. It was recorded on mobile at the veranda of the Department of Ceramics, Faculty of Fine Arts, featuring his friend Hashim; and from that Facebook post, Hashim Mahmud once again gained recognition at home and abroad.

Peers call him a 'modern urban poet' and for good reason; his words bear an edge, transforming everyday speech into haunting lyricism. Songs like ‘Kotha Koiyo Na’ from Coke Studio Bangla’s second season and the crowd favourite ‘Sada Sada Kala Kala’ etched themselves into the memory of Bangladesh’s cultural circles.

Yet while his words resonated, the man himself receded into the margins. A cruel illness of forgetting began to erase what he had created.

At first it was lines misplaced, then verses forgotten, until even in conversation he drifted into silences.

By the time journalists tracked him to Narayanganj in 2022 after the success of 'Sada Sada Kala Kala', he was frail, cared for by his mother, unsure of his surroundings. For an artist whose entire being was bound to memory and language, the forgetting was devastating.

Although his illness may have tried to stop him repeatedly, his songs refused to fade.

In 2022, Mejbaur Rahman Sumon’s film 'Hawa' used 'Sada Sada Kala Kala', propelling Mahmud’s words into a nationwide phenomenon. Its biting imagery, sung with raw force, captured the spirit of the times.

A year later, Coke Studio Bangla brought 'Kotha Koiyo Na' to a new generation, turning it into a viral anthem. 

Each time, Mahmud’s words electrified audiences; but his own voice—his presence—was absent.

That absence ended with 'Baaji', the song through which Coke Studio Bangla resumed its Season 3 after a year. Written in 1996, first during a stay at Boga Lake and later completed at St. Martin’s Island, the song emerged as a testament to Mahmud’s wandering, piecemeal creative process.

Now, nearly three decades later, it has been reintroduced through Coke Studio Bangla’s collaboration with composer Emon Chowdhury - a constant name behind the rejuvenated glory of the beloved urban poet.

The new version layers lush arrangements over Mahmud’s uncompromising lyricism, making the song both contemporary and timeless; but the true power of ‘Baaji’ lies in the moment Mahmud himself appears. His contribution is not polished perfection, but with an innate beauty.

A voice weakened by age, a body bearing illness, but a spirit unbroken.

In those fleeting bars, audiences felt more than music; they witnessed reclamation. A poet who risked being erased by his own memory was, for a moment, remembered in the most powerful way possible—by remembering himself.

"Hashim Mahmud is someone we all love. We used to see him at Dhaka University campus, Charukala, Chhobir Haat when we were students - but I got connected with him for the first time through Mejbaur Rahman Sumon bhai for the ‘Sada Sada Kala Kala’ track in his film ‘Hawa’. I don’t know why, but I feel a strange connection with Hashim bhai somehow,” Emon Chowdhury told UNB, reminiscing his introduction with the artist.

“From the very beginning, I wanted Hashim Mahmud bhai to be in any part of the song ‘Baaji’. Finally, when he came on set, and sang with us, it became a full circle moment for me. As soon as he came on set, the entire environment changed and this, I can’t explain in words," Emon told UNB.

The song itself has a wide range of cultural offerings from hill to the sea, just as Hashim Mahmud imagined when he made the song.

The 16-minutes Behind The Magic video (which Coke Studio platform across the world releases a few days after releasing their tracks), released on August 28, shedded its spotlight on those elements - but one has to study Hashim Mahmud first, to know this song accurately.

“My brother has reached today’s recognition largely because of director Mejbaur Rahman Sumon. When his song ‘Sada Sada Kala Kala’ was used in Sumon’s film, he came into the spotlight, and later Coke Studio Bangla performed ‘Kotha Koiyo Na’ - and now, ‘Baaji’ has made him even more widely known,” Hashim Mahmud’s younger brother, Belal Ahmed, reflected on this revival to UNB.

“This song was first composed in 1996 when Hashim Mahmud went on a trip with friends in Bandarban, where he finished half of the song and chorus, and later finished the song when he went on a trip with his friends again in Saint Martin 6-8 months later."

"That’s how he usually works, never completing a song in one sitting. Now years later through Coke Studio Bangla, audiences at home and abroad are listening to it,” according to Belal.

Informing that he is truly happy and doing well, his brother also said: “Since he doesn’t use a mobile phone, I pass along all the compliments he receives. We are grateful to Coke Studio Bangla for bringing his music to such a big platform.”

‘Baaji’ is more than another hit track for Coke Studio Bangla—it is an act of cultural preservation. By centering Mahmud rather than sidelining him, the platform has ensured that the poet himself shares in the glory of his creations; and without fanfare or pity, it offered him a stage that illness had nearly stolen away.

For Mahmud, who has endured the slow erasure of memory, this moment carries a resonance beyond performance. It is proof that while memory falters and bodies weaken, art endures.

At the beginning of the aforementioned Behind The Magic video, Hashim Mahmud stated: “When working on this song together, many thoughts crossed my mind. Will this song last forever? If a song doesn’t last forever, what’s the point of singing it?"

"Singing just commercially, that doesn’t have or add any value; but if a song lives on forever, then it’s worth singing. If every artist starts thinking this way, the performance will be better; it won’t just be commercial,” according to Hashim Mahmud.

“For the sake of our music, this man needs to be celebrated. He should have been celebrated long ago, but I feel happy that he is being celebrated now - and it has been an honor to work with him,” Emon Chowdhury told UNB.

In ‘Baaji’, the forgotten poet is no longer hidden. He is here, his voice trembling but unbroken, his words alive once more.