Jagjit Singh aka 'The King of Ghazal', His Music and How He Popularised Urdu

In this episode of Urdunama we pay a musical tribute to the ghazal-master Jagjit Singh on his death anniversary.

Jagjit Singh was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award for helping to popularise Ghalib's work.

(Photo: The Quint/ Aroop Mishra)

Born on 8 February 1941 in Rajasthan, Jagjit Singh has contributed a lot in making Urdu ghazals reach the masses. The music of Gulzar's TV series Mirza Ghalib and Ali Sardar Jaffrey's Kahkashan was given by Jagjit Singh.

First aired on Doordarshan, Kahkashaan (1991) was a series that aimed to tell about the legends of Urdu poetry and their lives. The stars of that story included Hasrat Mohani, Firaq Gorakhpuri, Jigar Moradabadi, Josh Malihabadi, Mirza Ghalib, etc.

In 1998, Jagjit Singh was awarded the Sahitya Akademi award for helping to popularise Ghalib's work.

In this episode of Urdunama, The Quint's Fabeha Syed reads and explains some of the famous ashaar from Urdu ghazals once performed by the 'King of Ghazal', Jagjit Singh.