Padmabhushan awardee Jagjit Singh breathed his last at 8 am at Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital on Monday morning. He was 70.
The man on whose ghazals entire generations of Indians grew up on, had been admitted to hospital on September 23 after he suffered brain haemorrhage. He is survived by his wife Chitra Singh.
Social networking sites have been flooded with music industry experts, afficionados and lay people alike posting their favourite Jagjit ghazals and remembering the man with the golden voice.
Shabana Azmi tweeted, “Kisi ki nazar lag gayi hai kala ki duniya ko..Jagjit Singh no more. His contribution to the ghazal in India is unparalleled. Big loss.” Mahesh Bhatt also posted on Twitter, “My film ARTH would not have touched the hearts of millions of people without the contribution of Jagjit Singh. Thank you friend.Thank you!
Singh, who cut 50 albums during his lifetime, was a music label’s dream. Former Music Today head Gurmeet Singh posted, ghazals will never be the same. RIP Jagjit Singh. Every music label’s dream album was a Jagjit Singh album.”
He was the first Indian composer and, together with wife Chitra, the first recording artist in the history of Indian music to use digital multi-track recording — for the album “Beyond Time” (1987).
Ghazal singer Mitali of Bhupinder-Mitali Singh duo believes the maestros death is huge loss to the music industry. She reacts while speaking to SoundBox, “I couldn’t register the news when I heard about his demise this morning. He is a strong person and has bounced back from his health problems earlier so I thought he would be fine this time as well. With him not being around, there is a big vacuum in the ghazal space. There are few singers in ghazal genre and we have seen rise and fall of this genre but he was a invaluable gem and we have lost it now. Although ghazal didn’t take off, he stuck to his guns and didn’t waver from his style.”
While Singh’s non film albums were as popular, his songs used in Hindi films were also major hits. Songs like “Honthon se chhoo lo tum”, “Koi ye kaise bataaye”, “Woh kaagaz ki kashti”, “Chitthi Na Koi Sandesh”, “Tum itna jo muskura rahe ho”, “Yeh daulat bhi le lo, yeh shohrat bhi le lo”, “Tumko dekha toh ye khayal aaya”, “Jhuki jhuki si nazar”, “Shaam se aankh mein namin si hai”, “Badi nazuk hai”, “Hoshwaalon ko khabar kya” and “Kiska chehra” have been immortalised in Singh’s voice.
