Tag: Jagjit Singh

mitti da bawa isn’t written by Shiv

Folk songs can be centuries old. They are passed from one generation to another. Many times, the areas of origin are known but who wrote it remains unknown. Yesterday I was in a ClubHouse room and someone sang mitti da bawa (Originally sung by Jagjit Singh & Chitra Singh). She also mentioned that it is written by Shiv. I had my doubts as Shiv was a recent poet and such a thing would of course be documented somewhere. I checked his complete poetry collection and as expected it was not there. That led me to turn to Google and all over the internet it was the same information that it has been written by Shiv.

Today I got a chance to spend some more time on this and came to know that it was originally recorded for a movie called Diva Bale Sari Raat. The movie was made by Harpal Tiwana and Chitra Singh sung it for that movie. The music was done by Jagjit Singh. The movie audio album covers attribute the lyrics to Harpal Tiwana. But it is well known that these lines are part of a lori and they are very old. This video by Deepti Naval mentions that it is a Balochistan folk song. So it could have been a omission on their part to not accurately attribute it. I put the same question to Amardeep Gill (Punjabi lyricist, poet and filmmaker) and he also confirmed that it is almost a century old folk. So it is very much a part of Punjabi Folk and most definitely not written by Shiv.

What I couldn’t understand is how could it have been attributed to Shiv in the first place. Shiv did write a poem with a similar title but it is different and goes like “sajjan ji asi’b mittRi de baawe”

pehle to apne dil ki raza jaan jaiye

Beautiful words and sung equally beautifully sung by Jagjit & Chitra Singh

pehle to apne dil ki raza jaan jaiye
phir jo nigah-e-yaar kahe maan jaiye

(raza – will, desire)

pehle mizaaj-e-rahguzar jaan jaiye
phir gard-e-raah jo bhi kahe maan jaiye

(mizaaj – temperament, rahguzar – path. gard – dirt, raah – street)

kuch keh rahi hain aapke seene ki dhadkanein
mera nahi to dil ka kaha maan jaiye

Few websites have written this as “meri sunein ton dil ka kaha maan jaiye” but Jagjit & Chitra and Noorjehan has sung it as “mera nahi to dil ka kaha maan jaiye” only.

ek dhoop si jami hai nigaahon ke aas paas
ye aap hain to aap pe qurbaan jaiye

shayad huzoor se koi nisbat hamein bhi ho
aankhon mein jhaank kar hamein pehchaan jaiye

(nisbat – relation, affinity)

पहले तो अपने दिल की रज़ा जान जाइये
फिर जो निगाह-ए-यार कहे मान जाइये

पहले मिज़ाज-ए-रहगुज़र जान जाइये
फिर गर्द-इ-राह जो भी कहे मान जाइये

कुछ कह रही हैं आपके सीने की धडकनें
मेरा नहीं तो दिल का कहा मान जाइये

एक धुप सी जमी है निगाहों के आस पास
ये आप हैं तो आप पे कुर्बान जाइये

शायद हुज़ूर से कोई निस्बत हमें भी हो
आँखों में झाँक कर हमें पहचान जाइये

 

 

muhabbaton mein dikhaave ki dosti na mila

Beauty of Bashir Badr saab’s poetry

muhabbaton mein dikhaave ki dosti na mila
agar gale nahi milta to haath bhi na mila

gharon pe naam the naamon ke saath ohade the
bahut talaash kiya koi aadmi na mila
(uhde-(job) title)

tamaam rishton ko main ghar pe chhod aya tha
phir uske baad mujhe koi ajnabi na mila

bahut ajeeb hai yeh qurbaton ki doori bhi
wo mere saath raha aur mujhe kabhi na mila
(qurbatein-closeness)

khuda ki itni badi qaynaat mein maine
bas ek shaks ko maanga mujhe wo hi na mila

 

मुहबतों में दिखावे की दोस्ती न मिला
अगर गले नहीं मिलता तो हाथ भी न मिला

घरों पे नाम थे नामों के साथ ओहदे थे
बहुत तलाश किया कोई आदमी न मिला

तमाम रिश्तों को मैं घर पे छोड़ आया था
फिर उसके बाद मुझे कोई अजनबी न मिला

खुदा की इतनी बड़ी कायनात में मैंने
बस एक शख्स को माँगा मुझे वही न मिला

बहुत अजीब है ये कुरबतों की दूरी भी
वो मेरे साथ रहा और मुझे कभी न मिला

And here is a rendition by Jagjit Singh

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oECbJYXtMEs

RIP Jagjit Singh

“kaun sahab nu aakhe ke inj nahi inj kar”

(Literal translation is: Who can dare tell God that do it like this, not like that ?)

How truly someone has put it in just a few words.

A very very sad day for music and the music lovers. The “one man army”, the captain of Indian Ghazal singing Jagjit Singh is no more. And even sadder is the thing that there is no-one to carry forward his legacy. His untimely demise marks the end of an era in the Indian music. There is no one like him, of the same status, same repute. In our sub continent also, there are very few names; Mehdi Hasan already stopped singing due to his health. At this moment the singing in 2 countries was being headed by Ghulam Ali & Jagjit Singh and one of them just left us. I can’t describe in words what a tremendous loss it is. Only a month back, we saw him perform live with Ghulam Ali and I was not at all happy with his performance and complained a lot about it. Because I wanted him to sing the classics he created. I feel lucky to have seen him perform live thrice in my life. I can’t just accept that he is no more with us.

Whose live show we are gonna attend now ?

Who will sing ghazals like Jagjit Singh ?

Posting some of my most favourite ghazals sung by him. Let us remember our hero and pray for the peace of his soul. Rest in Peace Mr Jagjit Singh !

agar hum kahein aur woh muskara dein

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qGNwdLVpt8

suntay hain ke mil jati hai

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2-dzGfcZbA

sar jhukaoge to pathar bhi devta ho jayega

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7mJ44aYjvo

kabhi yun bhi to ho

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuzZ5rXw6DE

Ghulam Ali & Jagjit Singh live in concert

Just got back after watching Ghulam Ali & Jagjit Singh live in concert at Talkatora Stadium, New Delhi. It probably was for the first time that both were coming together on a single stage. The concert started with Ghulam Ali and as usual he was amazing. He started with faasle aise bhi honge and then went on to sing dil mein ek lehar si uthi hai abhi, chupke chupke, legendary Ahmed Faraz’s phir kisi rahaguzar par shayad, hungama hain kyon barpa and so on. And believe me it was an amazing performance. If someone is there after Mehdi Hasan, he is Ghulam Ali. After one and half hour Ghulam Ali freed the stage for Jagjit Singh

and

now comes the sad part 🙁

Jagjit Singh was totally disappointing. It was nothing more than playing a CD. He sang some idiotic ghazals that were sung in some movies. He almost didn’t speak anything, no interaction with the audience; just kept on singing one ghazal after another. By the time he was going to finish, it became bit ok but just a “bit”.

Then Jagjit Singh called Ghulam Ali on stage again and they started with a jugalbandi on Ghulam Ali’s lag gaye nain avede. One guy from Jagjit Singh’s orcehstra and then another one from Ghulam Ali’s orchestra also joined. That was totally awesome. Then they went on to sing a classical composition (I can’t recall the lyrics) and it was amazing too ! And that was the end of the show.

Ghulam Ali totally stole the show and Jagjit Singh was totally, absolutely disappointing and I don’t think I will ever go to watch Jagjit Singh again. It was totally a lifeless singing.  And by the way why doesn’t he use a mic with harmonium ? So that harmonium’s sound is not heard ? #FAIL