Singh Is King, Jagjit Singh - The Ghazal King & More Options

[swarapriya]

Jagjit Singh - The Ghazal King

Jagjit Singh. He was a true legend in his own time. In a span of nearly 35 years, by several estimations, he released 80 plus discs. But during the same time, along with his singing wife Chitra (see the attached pictures below), he released nearly 400 albums. These included, apart from the individual albums, various collections of songs from his released albums. This number is truly an astonishing achievement.

Jagjit Singh, though popularly known for his ghazals, also had numerous devotional albums to his credit. He also was active in many films. He was occasionally participated in composing music for TV shows. He sang in many languages, but mostly in Hindi and his mother tongue, Punjabi.

He was decorated with innumerable awards. Prominent of these include Padma Bhushan, Sahitya Academy Award, Sangeet Natak Academy Award, Sahitya Kala Academy Award, and host of others.

I was encouraged by several members of this Forum to start a thread on Jagjitji. Finally I decided to take the plunge.

Jagjitji, who passed away in 2011 at the age of 70, left us with a legacy of overwhelming song contributions. Singhji was affectionately known as the Ghazal King. Because he lives through his work in our hearts forever, Singhji is still the King.

I will start this thread with Singhji’s discography. I split this into various parts, sorted alphabetically. Each part of the discography lists 20 albums. I will upload these parts below.

I will follow up this with a devotional album of Jagjitji.

Next, the discography…

[swarapriya]

Bahuroopi (1969) - A Gujarati Film

We have already seen two facets of Jagjitji; devotional albums and ghazal albums. The third facet he made himself name was in films and television. He either sang one or two songs for them, or composed music for them, or both. Here are some of the details of his first movie...

Jagjit Singh’s first break as a singer came in this Gujarati movie. In this 1969 film, he sang a beautiful song “Laagee Raam” composed by Ajit Merchant. At this time Jagjit was still a bachelor and had typical Sardarji’s looks. After this he changed his image by removing both his pagdi and beard. He later married Chitraji who was from Bengal. She was a divorcee and already had a daughter by her first marriage.

Jagjitji remembered his Gujarati connection throughout his life. He visited Ahmedabad at least twice a year and performed there numerous times.

Even though this film was the first one for which he sang, it was not the first time he sang a Gujarati song. He sang a Gujarati song that was composed by Avinash Vyas for a gathering in 1968 at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Bhavan used to encourage young singers to perform at its gatherings. The occasion where Jagjitji got the opportunity to sing was for Bhavan’s “Song of the Month” gathering. For his efforts Singhji received a sum of 250 Rupees.

“Laagee” is the only song Jagjitji sang for the film “Bahuroopi”. I don’t have other songs from the film to share with you. If any one of you can share, please kindly do so. Thanks.

Now for the only song from this film I have…

This post has been edited by swarapriya: Jun 7 2012, 08:58 AM