Watch late Jagjit Singh come alive in a screen biopic that offers an intimate portrait of the legend, with archival content and narrations by icons like Gulzar and Ghulam Ali
Jagjit Singh with his beloved horse, Sound Affair, named after an album
A thunderous applause rises from the audience as the camera zooms on the Zen-faced Jagjit Singh, who tunes the keys of the harmonium and begins, ‘Yeh daulat bhi le lo, yeh shohrat bhi le lo’ at a live concert. As his bass vocals reverberate through the auditorium with the lyrics of his soul-stirring ghazal, Kaagaz Ki Kashti (1987), the shot cuts to Gulzar, who observes, ‘Woh ek samaa bana liya karta tha. Yeh badi khasiyat thi uss shaks ki... aur uski wajah uski shaksiyat hai... Shaksiyat ke mutabik uske alfaaz ka chunna, ghazal ka chunna... aur badi sehel tarah se baat pohonch jaye...’ The legendary writer, along with 20 personalities like Zakir Hussain, Ghulam Ali, Roop Kumar Rathod, Pankaj Udhas, Mahesh Bhatt and Subhash Ghai, his long-time associates and singer and wife, Chitra Singh, offer an intimate portrait of the late ghazal maestro in a 126-minute biopic, Kaagaz Ki Kashti. Directed by Brahmanand Siingh and produced under his banner, Mobius Biopics, the film premiered at New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) to a packed house this May. Tomorrow, it will be screened for the public, as one of the events planned for Singh’s 75th birth year (1941-2011), at Suresh Wadkar’s Ajivasan Music Academy.
Jagjit Singh with his beloved horse, Sound Affair, named after an album
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From films to ghazals
The film traces the journey of a small-town boy, hailing from a traditional Sikh family in Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan, who made his way to Mumbai to try his hand at playback singing and ended up finding ghazals his true calling. “He desperately wanted to try playback singing but that didn’t work out. Even for a man of his talent, it took him 10 years [from the time he landed in the city in 1965] to release the first album, The Unforgettables. During that time, he discovered his love for ghazal singing,” says the filmmaker, who has previously helmed the National Award-winning Pancham Unmixed (2010), a biopic on RD Burman.
(From left) Madan Mohan, Chitra Singh, Jagjit Singh and Sanjeev Kohli at the launch of the album, A Sound Affair, in 1985
With over 800 ghazals and bhajans, 5,000 concerts (in more than 40 countries) and memorable film songs like Tum Ko Dekha Toh Yeh Khayaal Aaya (Saath Saath) and Hoshwalon Ko Khabar Kya (Sarfarosh) to his credit, the Padma Bhushan awardee is also renowned for elevating the ghazal genre by adding western instrumentation, while making it accessible to the masses. In the film, Aziz says, “He was the first one to introduce saxophone in a ghazal.” The director adds, “He was a risk-taker — from landing in Mumbai without the knowledge of his parents to marrying outside his community — and that was evident in his unorthodox mix of instruments and lyrics. He added guitar, violin and drums and made his tunes evocative. In a live show, every audience member would feel that he is singing especially for you. That earned him fans world over.” The film’s narrative also weaves in archival footage from the concerts and videos of informal recordings with Singh.
Gulzar (with Brahmanand Siingh on set)
Of love and loss
The biopic also sheds light on the singer’s personal journey, his marriage to Chitra Singh, and later, the tragedy of losing their son, Vivek in 1990, in a road accident. “Chitraji recounts how she was, initially, horrified to sing a duet with him because she had a thin voice while he had a deep one. After they lost their son, she retired while he found solace in singing at concerts. Her shots are some of the most moving portions of the film,” informs the director, who also discovered one of Singh’s rare qualities while making the film. “I interacted with over 300 people who felt that he was closest to them. His ability to make the opposite person feel comfortable, without flattering them, is something we should strive to acquire,” says the filmmaker, who has planned a theatrical and DVD release, later this year.
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