Pankaj Udhas: Sonorous voice, gentle persona that made ghazal accessible to all

Nonika Singh

Yet another melodious voice has fallen silent. Renowned ghazal singer Pankaj Udhas breathed his last on Monday. The world would certainly remember Jagjit Singh as the Ghazal Samrat. However, the contribution of Pankaj, a Padma Shri recipient, in popularising ghazals was no less significant.

If in the heyday of ghazal singing his incredibly hummable ghazals reverberated in every nook and cranny of the country, more than one film’s music became richer with his musical presence. Chitthi aai hai from film “Naam” remains evergreen and continues to touch an emotional chord, especially among those separated from their loved ones.

While critics might have been tempted to dismiss his “maikhana” songs like Sharaab cheez hi aisi hai as attention-seeking gimmick, the singer often reminded how Urdu poetry has always been teeming with references to intoxication and that the poets aren’t literally talking about sharaab, but using it as a metaphor for life itself.

Besides, ghazals such as Thodi thodi piya karo are only a tip of the vast repository of exhilarating melodies he leaves behind. Whether audiences understood the deeper meanings of Urdu poetry or not, he made ghazals accessible to all.

What was remarkable about the singer with an easy persona and affable manners was that from the living rooms of the elite to the nukkad paanwala, his melody-soaked yet fuss-free voice touched one and all.

Through his television programme “Aadaab Arz Hai”, a platform dedicated exclusively to ghazals and nazms, and later “Khazana — A festival of ghazals”, he tried to keep the flame of ghazals alive. His affaire d’amour with the lyrical beauty of Urdu began in 1969 when he his elder brother Manhar Udhas (playback singer) would take Urdu classes from a maulavi.

As long as Pankaj lived, he remained smitten by the sheer lyrical beauty and depth of Urdu poetry. His impressive discography includes innumerable albums, including “Yaara” for which music was composed by none other than sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. In 2018 came album “Nayaab Lamhe” with Gulzar and his singing stint in cinema continued for decades and he sang some memorable duets with legendary Lata Mangeshkar too.

Hailing from Charkhadi, a town near Rajkot in Gujarat, he may not have been born into a musical family. But if he was shaped by musical aura that prevailed at home, his talent was honed by Master Navrang Nagpurkar, who was also the guru of Asha Bhosle.

Aap jin ke kareeb hote hain woh bade khushnaseeb hote hain… undisputedly fortunate are we to have lived and heard the singer whose voice was sonorous and persona gentle and genteel. Aur aahista kijiye baatein… he sang in dulcet tones and spoke in an equally tender cadence.

Impeccably attired, his voice soared and feet were firmly on terra firma. In an interview with us many years back, the mellifluous singer had quoted Ghalib, “Na tha kuch to khuda tha, kuch na hota to Khuda hota, Duboya mujh ko hone ne, na main hota to kya hota,” to drive home how man is inconsequential in this universe. Only Pankaj was not just another speck in the musical verse. The world of singing would have been infinitely poorer had he not been around to delight us with unforgettable songs such as Chandi jaisa rang hai tera. The silver in his voice will forever shine. With his debut album “Aahat” he knocked at the doors of music and how. Listeners will always be cajoled to utter Mukarrar.

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