Chalo bulawa aaya hai… Chanchal no more

Neha Saini

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 22

During his childhood, Narendra Chanchal gathered neighbourhood kids to sing devotional songs and Bulleh Shah’s poetry, using wooden toys as his mike. “My first audience comprised people from my mohalla who encouraged me no end,” Chanchal shared in an interview in 2018.

The 80-year-old singer, who rose from humble beginnings to become a popular bhajan singer, died in Delhi after a long illness. He is survived by his wife and three children.

Born on October 16, 1940, in Amritsar’s Shakti Nagar locality, Chanchal hailed from a middle class family. Despite his interest in singing, his family never encouraged him to become a singer. But when his father suffered huge losses in the share market, Chanchal took up singing to support his family.

“He began performing at weddings and other functions. He also worked with playwright Gursharan Singh, composing music for his plays. Gradually, his popularity grew and he started getting invitations to perform in other cities as well,” says Kewal Dhaliwal, theatre director and art historian. In 1972, one such invitation to perform in Mumbai changed Chanchal’s life forever. Raj Kapoor spotted him and offered him work in his film “Bobby”. The rest, as they say, is history. The song “Beshak Mandir Masjid Todo” from the cult movie became immensely popular and won him the Filmfare Award for Best Male Singer. He received Rs 12,000 for the song from Raj Kapoor.

Chanchal’s film career as a playback singer was short but notable with songs like “Do ghut pila de saakiya” in “Kaala Sooraj”. His songs like “Tune mujhe bulaya” from “Aasha” and “Chalo bulawa aaya hai” from “Avtaar” firmed up his career as a devotional singer. With a four-decade-long career in music, Chanchal changed the genre of devotional music with his unparalleled popularity.

Despite his fame, Chanchal never lost touch with his roots. “He visited his home in Amritsar every year, and distributed Vaishno Devi parshad from his annual visits to the shrine to the entire neighbourhood,” recalls Inderjit, his immediate neighbour in Shakti Nagar

Vicky Datta, the organising head of the Maa Durga Welfare Society started by Chanchal in 2010, says the singer never skipped the religious events organised by the society every April in Amritsar.

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