We went to the live concert of Ghazal Maestro Padma Bhushan Jagjit Singh, “sur with love” on sunday night (on 15 June 2008), the first live concert of my life. No there is nothing to laugh about. Now I have been a big spoilsport as far as the concerts are concerned. In the recent past, I have flunked quite a few of them. I tried for Pink Floyd in Mumbai, couldn’t get the ticket, tried for Parikrama, got the booking but couldn’t make it. Almost got the Dire Straits tickets, but this time he flunked. I finally managed this one and boy! what a concert this was.
“Sur with love”, as it was being called was staged at the plush Birla Matoshri Auditorium in Marine Drive, one of the posh locality in Mumbai (of course every one knows Marine Drive). Although I’m an ordinary fan of Jagjit Singh, I was surprised by the kind of audience they had for the show. The ever enterprising hostess Dolly Thakore mentioned that they had an audience ranging from 10 to 80 years. Whoa! quite a fan base Jagjit has, and rightly so. Excuse me for my audacity, but I think he has altogether a different genre of classical music. I’m not a classical fan but his silky voice leaves millions of listeners like me mesmerised. And Sunday was no different. So it started of with a relatively unheard ‘Kuchh na Kuchh to jaroor hona ha…’ ghazal and as usual ended with fast punjabi number ‘Dhai din na jawani nal chadhdi…’
In the process he sang ‘Hoshwalon ko…’, ‘Hothon Se chhu lo tum…’, ‘Hazaron Khwahishein aisi…’, ‘ Wo kaagaz ki kashti…’ amongst others.
Jagjit has been the famous, most loved and respected singer of the yester years. His silky voice and the sleek pronunciation of Urdu. Its more than commendable he draws such audience (BIrla Matoshri can accommodate over 1000 people, it was full well in advance). What should I say about him, I’m too small to comment on some one like him. We had this concert for close to 3 hours. But it felt like we could go on and on and on…
To end this post, I’m quoting 1 or 2 lines from his Ghazals.
“Mohabbat mein fark nahi hai jeene marne ka… Usi ko dekh kar jeete hai jis kaafir pe dum nikle. Hazaron khwahishein aisi ke har khwahish pe dum nikle”
“Muzko jonhone katl kiya hai, koi unhe batlaye naseeb… meri laash ke pehelu mein wo apna khanjar chhod gaye.”
Enjoy!
Update (23/6/2008): I see that lot of people are landing on this page after a google search on Jagjit Singh. Thank you for those who have read already. ANy of you wan’t to know more on the concert, please feel free to leave a comment and I’ll be more than happy to get back to you with more information, if you seek so.
Cheers!
Mayur's blog 
certainly it was a awesome concert. Great to see the papaji lines from you (as you said you are not a big fan of ghazals). I still cannot forget the violin played throughout as it was my first ghazal concert too. Great to see Papaji singing live.No doubt his voice is palpable by almost every age group. I have a video from the concert and a personal pic of Jagjit Singh too which he gave just after the concert.
http://www.doiphodesunny.blogspot.com/
Hi friends,
You ppl made me clear, there is another concert of Maestro in delhi on 11th oct, i will be there.
i have attended more then 5 concerts of jagjit sing in dubai
but i am looking for the video of the gazal KUCH NA KUCH TO ZAROOR HOONA HAIII ..
plz if u have just send to me
thanks
wajid
Hi all! i was planning to attend Jagjit-ji’s concert today at Connecticut, USA. But it got cancelled. I drove all the way from Boston after so much hassle but wat a bad luck! I felt like crying. His daughter, actually daughter from Chitra-je’s last marriage, died recently. So he cancelled this last concert during his USA trip. I have been to his concert before in 2004 so I know what I missed today! I hope, hope, hope that he will be doing more concerts and will come back again to USA for fan like me. I really hope so! This concert cancellation really ruined my day! 😦
hi FARMIN, I am a ghazal singer too and a student of Jagjit ji…liked ur love for ghazals..touched me..ok..plz contact me will share some rare collections …