It’s been a month since his unfortunate death, yet, this columnist, along with millions of other fans world over, can’t quit mourning the silence of ghazal’s soothing yet tragic voice because we relate our lives to his songs.
My earliest memories of listening to ghazals albeit without then understanding their beher (meter), are of those at parties my parents threw for their Gujarati theatre artist friends in our Bombay home. As the evening grew on, the LP would play out some soul stirring fare by Jagjit and his partner in rhyme - Chitra. Occasionally, the late and very handsome Pravin Joshi would hum along gently as one hand held a cigarette and the other hand gestured in the air while his eyes welled up. His wife, the original drama queen -Sarita Joshi ( now a television star) would go a step further and give a shot at a few light hearted graceful dance moments. The Ghazals lent their intensity to the ambiance with lilting lyrics like Nida Fazli’s,“Duniya jisse kehtey hai jaadoo ka khilona hai” and Firaq’s, “Bahut pehle se unn qadmon ki aahat jaan letey hai,tujhey ae Zindagi hum duur se pehchaan letey hai”
Later, we shifted base from Mumbai to Surat and the parents loved entertaining the locals at terrace dos (they still do, since old habits die hard).It is with much nostalgia and a very heavy heart that we reminiscence all afore heard songs now.
The magic of the maestro’s renditions lay in the fact that his compositions unpretentiously put convoluted Urdu poetry into simple harmonious tunes; which found way to the lips of the common man . So, you would have a Surti businessman swooning to the poetry of Faiz or that of the mellifluous Mirza Ghalib, totally oblivious of the ‘takhallous’, yet in perfect sync with Ghazal’s rules of 'Matla', 'Maqta', 'Beher', 'Kaafiyaa' and 'Radif' .Who could have imagined a Surti lala lisping, “unnke dekhe se jo aajaati hain muh per raunaq, woh samajhtey hai ke bimaar ka haal achha hai”, had it not been for Jagjit Singh.
It was his ear for well penned verse that made him stick to his guns when he insisted on recording as his first LP, the skillfully scripted “Baat niklegi toh duur talaq jayega,log bewajah udaasi ka sabab puchengey”, a nazm that he had chanced upon in the Urdu magazine ‘Shama’ ;even though previous efforts to record it had run out of luck, the LP version went on to become one of his greatest masterpieces. Who can forget the effervescent charm of “Teri khushbu mein basey khat mein jalaata kaise?” or the jugalbandhi of two ghazals sung as one,with genius tact – Sudarshan Faakir’s“ Ishq mein ghairratey jazbaat ney roney na diya” along with Khwaja Hyder Ali’s “ Yaar ko mainey mujhey yaarne soney na diya “
Lyrics for Singh’s first Gujarati ghazal album “Jeevan Maran Ek Chey “were verses of Gujarat’s Ghalib aka Mareez of Surat. Jagjit made sure his audience understood him well, he never missed an opportunity to take time out in between live concerts, to explain the lafz that he was going to sing, and this bonded him to his listeners’ big time. Be it Surtis at Indoor Stadium or The Royal Albert Hall, with its prim and propah crowd, none would hesitate to sing along in chorus, ’ahista,ahista’ to ,’shabe furkat kaa jaagaa huun farishton ab to sone do/ kabhii fursat mein kar lenaa hisaab ahista ahista’.
From Punjabi renditions teamed with humorous anecdotes to the tear jerker “Kagaz ki kashti ,woh baarish ka paani”, there was something for everyone .Other than his commercial cinema hits, his ghazals were for all of love’s seasons .Be it Sahir Hoshiyarpuri’s flirty,” Kaun kehta hai mohobbat ki zubaan hoti hai, yeh haqeeqat toh nigahon se bayaan hoti hai -the intoxication of new found love, to a lover’s yearning, from a jilted lover’s lament to love lost for ever.
I distinctly remember a comment by one of Surat’s popular surgeons, Dr Piyush Khanna, all starry eyed at the riverside lawns of a local five star hotel where Singh performed to an awestruck audience.” He is the real doctor alright, a doctor of broken hearts which he miraculously cures instantaneously.” Said the surgeon.
One of my favourite Jagjit – Chitra number is “Sunntey hai ke mil jaati hai hurr cheez dua se, ek roz tumhey maangke dekheyngey Khuda se.”
Alas! If only we could just ask him back from the Almighty.
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