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Rekha Bhardwaj may be a force to reckon with today, but she was once told she doesn’t have ‘chamak’ (spark) in her voice, by none other than late legendary ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh. His comments dampened her spirit, but also prompted her to prove herself to him a few years later. “He said, ‘Aawaz mein chamak nahi hai’ (There’s no spark in your voice). I respect him a lot. If he said it, there must be an element of truth in it. But of course, at that time, I couldn’t take it. I felt embarrassed. I doubted myself,” said Rekha in an interview with Shubhankar Mishra.
She recalled that Jagjit Singh was a true mentor, as he met aspiring singers like her very patiently. As a mentor herself, she herself pushes her proteges to work harder, as a well-wisher.
“I cried throughout my way back home. The most beautiful thing is that Sudarshan Fakir (author-lyricist), who was in the car with me, didn’t say a word to me. He let me cry. That’s such a nice thing. We often console others and stop them from crying. He’s written such great poetry and ghazals. He’d have been so sensitive,” added Rekha.
Rekha said that she took Jagjit Singh’s words in her stride and eventually worked with the ghazal maestro. She released her debut album, Ishqa Ishqa, in 2002, which she revealed Jagjit Singh loved a lot. Rekha met Jagjit Singh through her husband, filmmaker-composer Vishal Bhardwaj.
Rekha Bhardwaj made her Hindi film debut with the song ‘Ek Woh Din’, composed by Vishal, in Kamal Haasan’s 1997 comedy Chachi 420. She broke through in 2006 with ‘Namak Ishq Ka’ in Vishal Bhardwaj‘s crime drama Omkara. She went on to croon memorable tracks like ‘Genda Phool’ (Delhi-6, 2009), ‘Pehli Baar Mohabbat’ (Kaminey, 2009), ‘Ranjha Ranjha’ (Raavan, 2010), ‘Darling’ (7 Khoon Maaf, 2011), ‘Phir Le Aaya Dil’ (Barfi!, 2012), ‘Ghagra’ and ‘Kabira’ (Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, 2013), ‘Mileya Mileya’ (Happy Ending, 2014), and ‘Judaai’ (Badlapur, 2015). She also lent her voice to the ghazal ‘Aise Kyun’ in Akarsh Khurrana’s 2022 romantic comedy show Mismatched, on Netflix.
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