Remembering the ghazal king

Jagjit Singh, whose 80th birth anniversary falls tomorrow, continues to live in the hearts of millions of his fans across the globe

S D Sharma

Santoor maestro Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma once said about Jagjit Singh “Volumes can be written about his music, and again it will not be enough.”

Very few performers have been as gifted and blessed as to induce a reverie in their audience in all musical genres. Music maestro Jagjit Singh’s singing merits this distinction.

Coming from a modest Dhiman family of Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan, Jagjit Singh trained in classical vocal music for 12 years under Ustad Jamal Khan Saheb of Seniagharana there, and later by Guru Sohan Singh ji of Agragharana at Jalandhar during his college days. The celebratedustadsput him through rigorous and strenuousriyaaz of classical ragas and compositions.

As a prodigious youngster, he performed with his elder brother Jaswant Singh at a largely attended religious function in Sri Ganganagar and won prize money. At the age of 15, Jagjit shared the stage with Surinder Kaur and Asa Singh Mastana at Sri Ganganagar where he presented a self-composed song “Ki tera etbaar ve rahiya”.

Jagjit Singh also brought laurels to DAV College, Jalandhar, winning medals in youth festival competitions in all formats: classical,sugam sangeet and Punjabi folk. He also composed and performed a welcome song for Dr Rajendra Prasad, when the then President of India visited his college. It was during this time that he also attained the grading of AIR Jalandhar and frequently composed and sang for AIR broadcasts. His prized composition of Sudershan Fakir’s song, “Ham sab bhartiya hain” remains the official song of the National Cadet Corps.

“Jagjit Singh was a better composer than classical singer, though he opted to sing ghazals later. He used to sing classical and light music from AIR Jalandhar as a graded artist,” says his senior at Agragharana stalwart guru, Pandit Yashpaul. The many songs he composed and performed at college became popular not only with his college mates but also music lovers around the world. One such composition, “Dhuan utha tha deevane ke jalte ghar se”endeared Chitra Singh to his music, and eventually himself.

It was in 1961 that Jagjit Singh had gone for a performance at Ooty where actor Om Prakash was shooting for a film. Mesmerised by his singing, the actor invited Jagjit to Bombay. The senior actor introduced him to certain music directors. However, nothing worthwhile happened. He simply watched and observed the singers there. In his second attempt in Bombay in 1965, he was able to not only establish his supremacy as a composer, singer, but also as music director of feature films and TV serials in Punjabi as well as other regional films. The rest, they say, is history.

When Dr Manmohan Singh, the then Prime Minister of India, launched a set of postal stamps to commemorate his 73rd birth anniversary on February 8, 2014, he pointed out that the understanding and depth of Jagjit Singh’s musical knowledge was unparalleled, and he ably applied it across all genres of Indian music to great effect, whether it was classical, devotional, ghazal or folk.

The musical virtuosity of the legend can be measured by the spectrum of his work and his contribution to music. If connoisseurs of Hindustani classical music cherish his bandishes in Raag Darbari, Lalit, Bihag, Bhairavi and more on the one hand, the lovers of ghazals consider his interpretation of Mirza Ghalib as definitive. Those who are immersed in devotion, rely on his recital of the Gayatrimantra, Guru’sbani andshabads to find inner peace. Similarly his compositions of Shiv Kumar Batalvi carry the iconic Punjabi poet’s pain to millions of poetry lovers around the world.

During his career spanning five decades, Jagjit Singh amassed a massive fan following, including fellow great music maestros like Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Pandit Vishwamohan Bhatt, Ustad Ghulam Ali Khan and Anup Jalota.

It is a commonly held view that the scale and significance of his contribution to Indian music and culture merits the Bharat Ratna.