Down memory lane with Jagjit Singh

CHANDIGARH, Nov 8: quot;Rukh se parda hata de8230;quot; this was his first successful composition and it set the tone of the evening as Jagjit Singh provided a rendezvous with nostalgia. It was going down memory lane in many ways, if it was through verses like quot;Yeh daulat bhi le loquot; that revived childhood memories, then it was through some compositions such as quot;Mainu tera shababquot; recollecting the old days spent with Shiv Batalvi.

The Durga Das Foundation was back with its prize catch and Jagjit8217;s versatility made today8217;s concert memorable as he took an unwinding path interlinking the various ghazals. In what he earlier called the sugar-coated pill, Jagjit showed his audience half of which belonged to the pre-thirties, how a Raaga, Durbari here, could emerge in different hues. So we heard the devotional and the classical aspects and then he brought it to that Kaif Bhopali couplet quot;Kaun aayega yehan, koyi na aaya hogaquot; before culminating it with the latest Javed Akhtar piece quot;Kabhi yun bhi toquot;.

It was also a journey from hopelessness to hope, as he said. The second half, after the quot;spirited breakquot;, saw the emergence of quot;farmaisheinquot; and from the sensuously romantic quot;Apni hothon par sajana chahata hoonquot; to the intense quot;Jhuki jhuki si nazar8221;, his own directed score from quot;Arth8221;, Jagjit Singh8217;s beautiful voice enthralled all and made getting up a tough experience. But the quot;maza8221; of a Jagjit Singh concert came in quot;Tera chehra kitna suhana legta haiquot; for here the musicians also bloomed with his quot;musical acrobaticsquot;, the play of the notes in his language. So we had a nice dance between Arshad Ahmed8217;s guitar and Abhinav Upadhyay8217;s tabla and between Aqlaq Hussain8217;s violin and Jagjit8217;s voice.