I FIRST heard Jagjit Singh at Amitabh Bachchan’s residence way back in 1976.
Amitabh had invited us and offered to play a newly- released LP named The Unforgettables , which had some melodious ghazals by Jagjit and his wife Chitra Singh. Suddenly, the room was filled with rich baritone. As Jagjit sang Baat niklegi toh phir door talak jayegi , we listened mesmerised. In a way that ghazal, which first popularised him long before he became India’s Ghazal King, was prophetic. Baat nikli, aur door talak gayi . The album gave ghazals a new meaning. The musical genre became popular among the masses. Jagjit’s simplicity of voice and lyrics was instantly liked by music lovers. Till then, ghazals were seen as cryptic Urdu poetry but Jagjit presented them in a way that the genre was understandable and yet never lost its essence. Jagjit was very honest with the genre though his compositions were attacked initially by the purists.
His stage shows used to be a huge success all over the world. Ghazal lovers remembered most of his compositions so well that they would sing with him when he performed on stage. His fans would go on requesting him to sing one hit after the other and he would never say ‘ no’. He would play his harmonium and encourage the audience to sing along with him during live concerts.
Despite such a huge fan following, Jagjit never took his success seriously. If he wanted to meet someone, he rarely called him or her home. Rather, he would make the effort to personally drop by at the person’s place. Many a time he would drop by just to narrate an interesting anecdote, share an album or just tell a joke! We worked together for the first time in the film Saath Saath in 1980. It was a lowbudget film and he never fussed over fees. We instantly developed a rapport. I worked with him again in Silsilay in 2005.
PEOPLE close to him are aware of his refined sense of humour. He would come up with subtle jokes that often made you mull over for a while before the impact actually hit you.
Another aspect of his life that many people are not aware of is his charitable side. He was extremely secretive about the charity work he did for various NGOs and needy people.
There were many who came up to him with requests to perform at charitable shows and he did so for free. He made sure these things were not mentioned in the media.
The untimely death of his son Vivek in a car crash shattered him completely.
His wife Chitra decided to totally withdraw from showbiz and kept herself away from public eye. But Jagjit never lost his calm. He had a strong will power and returned to singing, which according to him gave him strength. A lot of people spotted a spiritual streak in his music after the incident.
His bent towards spirituality could have been an outcome of his personal loss but life for Jagjit was always about exploring music.
I have lost a friend and the world has lost a fine singer.
Whenever I will think of Jagjit, I will think of his songs like Tum itna jo muskura rahe ho and Tumko dekha toh yeh khayal aayaa .
Hıstory
THE man with moonlight in his voice is no more.
Ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh breathed his last at 8.10 am on Monday in Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital where he was admitted following brain haemorrhage on September 23. He was 70 and is survived by his singer- wife Chitra Singh.
Widely known as India’s Ghazal King, Jagjit shot to stardom in the 1970s. He is regarded as the foremost among a band of artists who popularised the ghazal without compromising its art form in an era when the musical genre was patronised by the sophisticated elite.
When Jagjit arrived on the scene, the ghazal genre was dominated by the likes of Mehdi Hassan, Begum Akhtar, Talat Mahmood and Malika Pukhraj — legends who staunchly stuck to the classical roots of the genre.
Jagjit breathed new life into the ghazal by simplifying the essence of the musical genre. His meteoric rise after a brief struggle owes itself as much to his mellifluous voice quality, as to the trademark melancholy that touched the soul of countless fans.
Jagjit was born on February 8, 1941 in
Sriganganagar, Rajasthan, to government employee Amar Singh Dhiman and his wife Bachan Kaur. Realising his inherent musical talent, Dhiman sent his son to train under a visually- challenged teacher, Pandit Chhaganlal Sharma. Later, Jagjit would also pick up a few tips from Ustad Jamal Khan of the Sainia gharana . He married rising singer Chitra Dutta in 1969 after two years of courtship.
Soon, the husband- wife duo of Jagjit and Chitra Singh became a brand name in the world of non- film music. Live concerts and album deals followed, and in 1987, the duo notably became India’s first artists to use digital multi- track recording for their album, Beyond Time . By the eighties, when the ghazal was rapidly being integrated into mainstream Bollywood, Jagjit became a star playback singer, too. He first made a mark with the love song, Honthon se chhoo lo tum , in 1981’ s Prem Geet . A year later, his numbers in Arth and Saath Saath became a rage, paving way for a successful stint in the film recording studio.
JAGJIT’S Bollywood hits over the years include Hoshwalon ko khabar in Sarfarosh , Jhuki jhuki si in Arth , Chitthi na koi sandesh in Dushman , Dono ke dil hain in Nargis , Badi nazuk hai in Joggers Park and Koi fariyaad in Tum Bin . Urdu and Hindi apart, he also sang in Punjabi, Gujarati and Nepali.
The Padma Bhushan recipient considered K. L. Saigal, Talat Mahmood, Abdul Karim Khan, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Amir Khan as inspirations. Jagjit cut
‘ over 50 albums in a 35- year- old recording career that started with The Unforgettables in 1976.
His last studio album was Vakratunda Mahakaya , a devotional compilation released in 2009. The last song he sang in Bollywood was for Khushiyan , a small- budget yetto- be- released flick.
When Jagjit was hospitalised on September 23, he was scheduled to perform at a Mumbai concert with Pakistani ghazal legend Ghulam Ali. The fact seems ironic that the concert was never to be, considering Jagjit had at one point in time vehemently protested the entry of Pakistani singers in India.
Along with playback singer Abhijeet, Jagjit met the then- Deputy PM L. K. Advani in April 2003 to seek a ban on Pakistani singers from performing in India because the biggest Indian names such as Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle were never allowed to perform in Pakistan.
Fans would probably sum up the void he leaves behind with Anand Bakshi’s unforgettable line that Jagjit himself sang: Chitthi na koi sandesh, jaane woh kaun sa desh, jahaan tum chale gaye…
BY jawed akhtar