Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs

This article is written by Avinash Scrapwala, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

#the Decade of Seventies – 1971 – 1980 #
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# The Special Voices of the decade – 3 # Jaspal Singh #
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Welcome all to the third article in this series.

So far, we have the following two articles posted earlier on this blog under this series, where we are discussing the ‘special voices of the seventies’ and the nostalgia and memories associated with the songs of these ‘special voices’ from Hindi Movies.

‘Maa ne kahaa thhaa o betaa’
‘Haseen haseen waadiyon o’

When I had decided to start this series, my plan was to post one article per month under this series. However, later I thought it was better to combine it with the anniversaries of the Singers if it too falls in the same month of my writing the article.

The song and the ‘voice’ of today was supposed to be covered to mark the end of this series, however there was a good development in the first week of this month (March’2018) which delayed this post and finally it is here today.

The voice that I am presenting today is a ‘’very very special’ and ‘nostalgic’ voice for me.
I can feel the fragrance of the soil of this great land – our country, the purity of green lush fields, a big river flowing with its natural beauty, a small beautiful remote village in the rural part of our country – India, the diversity of our culture and the sweetness of the dialects spoken in our country. In all of its way this voice takes me back to ‘my roots and my soil’ if I think I am able to correctly mention the feelings otherwise the feelings just cannot be expressed in words.

Just listen to this song ‘dharti meri maata pitaa aasmaan’ .

And for that matter take this another song ‘geet gaata chal o saathi gungunaata chal’ from this same movie ‘Geet Gaata Chal -1975’

And then this beautiful ‘bhajan’ ‘O o o mangal bhawan amangal haari ee ee’, again from the same movie – ‘Geet Gaata Chal-1975’, its so soothing and so divine that I can keep it listening again and again just going on.

I remember these songs were played on loudspeakers continuously in a marriage function in our neighbourhood in the colony we were staying then.

I was seven and half years then when the movie was released in 1975.

Since then this voice and these songs also were growing on me as I keep growing over the years.
And yes, I had not watched this movie till many years since it was released. I get to watch it, may be on a TV channel, in the later years of nineties I think. But its songs were there with me and they keep growing on me and with me in my journey of life.

I had watched ‘Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se-1978’, that too on TV around mid or later eighties if I remember correctly. But the ‘dohawali’ from this movie is as fresh ever and soothing whenever I listened to it even now.

I had also not watched ‘Saawan Ko Aane Do-1979’ when it was released or even after that for many years, but I had not and will never escape its magical title song because of the voice singing it and the range of this voice and its sweetness and its melody.

(after coming into contact with this blog I got an opportunity to share the following song from this movie sung by Jaspal Singh; ‘gagan ye samjhe chaand sukhi hai’ )

Those were the days when we were watching any movie coming our way and we were getting a chance to watch. But so far as I remember I didn’t get to watched all the above-mentioned movies then where this singer had his songs which were very popular during those years. But I did watch them when I was a grown adult and I think that was the right time for me to watch them.

One such movie is the 1982 movie ‘Nadiyaa Ke Paar’ of which the songs were so popular then. Those couple of years were the ‘most study focussed’ years for us the students (though I was still very casual in my approach and could not understand its seriousness then, which I can realize now  )
Well, coming back to the songs from this movie, all the songs from this movie were very popular then and all of them are my favorites too.

‘Saanchi kahen tore aawan se hamre’
‘Kaun disha mein leke chalaa re batohiyaa’

These songs from this movie and one of the voice i.e. the male voice of these songs is our ‘special voice’ of the ‘decade of seventies’ for this article today …

The voice I am talking about is none other than Jaspal Singh.

***

Jaspal Singh was born on 23rd March 1943 in Amritsar, Punjab. We wish him a belated “Happy Birthday” on this blog today and a healthy and peaceful life ahead!!!

However, yours ‘junior’ sincerely had already wished him personally over phone a ‘very very happy birthday’ and good wishes to him.

How I came to know about his birthdate also happens just by chance.

It so happened that, during my stay at Nagpur I came across this song (of today) which when I listened to it I liked it so much and immediately fall in love with it. I did share it then to Atul ji but for a different occasion.
(However, now I feel that this is the perfect song for me to share with this article here when I am presenting this voice under this series).

At that time, I do also search for a detailed biographic information about him and after getting his contact number from sources on internet I do make him a call and express my gratitude to him for giving us the treasure of many ‘unforgettable songs’ and for his voice being part of our (people like me who were in pre-teens and teens then) growing years. I had also expressed my wish to meet him sometime if I get a chance of it, which he appreciated whole heartedly and also assured that he can share all information about him whatever is possible and if one wants to go through it.

This happened immediately after the November’16 Mumbai Gang out, so I enquired with our respected Shishir ji, if he had interviewed this personality for this blog, which he told me that it is in his future plans.

Well, from the information available on internet then (even now) it came to my notice that none of the sources (which I came across) had mentioned the birthdate of this personality so I was curious to know about it.

Recently when Atul ji ‘Yippeeee’d’ this movie ‘Geet Gaaata Chal -1975’ on the blog and posted couple of the songs sung by Jaspal Singh ji, I thought I should also write up and complete my post under this series.

After a gap of almost one year and half I thought I should call Jaspal Singh ji and try to get this information directly from him. He was very happy that somebody from a long distance (now from Kenya) had called him and was interested to know about him. He readily shared the information to me which also had an interesting ‘thing’ associated with it.

As mentioned above he was born on 23rd March 1943 at Amritsar Punjab. However, on all official records his date of birth had been recorded as 28th March 1943.

(for the information of our readers I would like to share once again that yours ‘junior’ sincerely have already wished him personally on phone on his birthday on 23rd March itself – ‘thanks, and so nice of you’ was what he replied to me)

Jaspal Singh came from Amritsar where his father was having the business of Hotel and their Hotel was once situated just opposite to the famous ‘Golden Temple in Amritsar’ (which was later demolished and was compensated by the government, as mentioned by him in his interview on RSTV-Guftagoo).

Among the five siblings they are four brothers and one sister. (I hope I am correct as per what I can learn from his interview on RSTV-Guftagoo).

Jaspal Singh completed his graduation from Amritsar and later on persuaded LLB from Ghaziabad. However, he was neither interested in business nor doing the ‘advocacy’. His only interest was to sing and become a ‘play back singer’ which his mother and sister supported well.

Jaspal Singh, since his childhood was fond of singing and he was singing in his school and college functions and was popular among his circles in Amritsar and was invited for singing in functions.
He too (like other upcoming singers) was a great fan of Rafi Saab whom he admires a lot and later on he got a chance to sing with Rafi Saab in films which was a great day for him.

His journey to movies and becoming a play back singer was full of hard work and struggle and he succeeded only because he had this talent, passion and instinct to become a play back singer for movies.

It so happened that his Sister got married and was settled in Mumbai (Bombay) in those years. This came like a blessing for young Jaspal Singh who thereafter keep visiting Bombay, initially during the ‘summer vacation’ and thereafter very often to fulfil his ‘dream’ of becoming a ‘playback singer’ for movies.

His Sister knowing about his passion and intentions persuaded her husband to try that Jaspal Singh gets an opportunity to sing in movies.
There continued efforts resulted in Usha Khanna ji giving him his first break for playback singing in the movie ‘Bandish-1968’ where his first recorded song was a solo song ‘dekho logo ye kaisa zamaana sambhalo sambhalo tang libaada’ which went un-noticed.
Usha Khanna ji give him another chance in 1969 to sung in the movie ‘Anjaan Hai Koi’, this time a duet with Mahendra Kapoor which due to its tune and words was somewhat noticed and reach a larger audience.

However, he was still far away from the ‘big’ and ‘hit’ …

In the meantime, given to the pressure by his father to join the family business in Amritsar he keeps visiting Amritsar, but since he was not interested in Business he returns back to Mumbai.
Later on, his father also gives up to his wish and allow him to stay in Mumbai and even bought a ‘flat’ for him in Mumbai which he is still staying in.

Jaspal Singh also started taking lessons from his guruji Mahendrajeet Singh ji who always encouraged him a lot and always supported him and insisted that he should not leave Mumbai and ‘singing’.
As his struggle for singing opportunities and a major break continued Jaspal Singh also too on practicing as lawyer ship with a senior lawyer in Mumbai and started attending the court proceedings.

***
‘Geet Gaata Chal’ …

Luckily, he got a chance to meet Ravindra Jain who also staying in the same locality and who was aware of his singing.

A ‘big break’ was already waiting for Jaspal Singh when Rajshri Productions were looking for a ‘new singer’ for their upcoming new movie starring Sachin.
Ravindra Jain was the music director of this movie and he thought to give Jaspal Singh a chance for singing.
And, after going through the ‘tests’ Jaspal Sing was given a chance to sing ‘dharti meri maata pitaa aasmaan’, which also was his first recorded song for the movie.

The main title song of the movie came to him only after lot of consultations between the producer of the movie Rajkamal Barjatya and the music director Ravindra Jain who was initially reluctant to give him this song, which he thought was the main song of the movie and he thought a new singer would not be able to do justice with it and had it been gone a wrong way would have spoiled the movie and the music of this movie.
Finally, he was called to sing this ‘title song’ of the movie and after recording of that he was also offered the remaining songs of the movie to sing. (one song of the movie viz. Shyam abhimaani o Shyam abhimaani was already recorded earlier in Rafi Saab’s voice)

However, the title song ‘geet gaata chal o saathi gungunaata chal ’sung by Jaspal Singh went on to create a ‘magic’ for him and for the movie and for the ‘history of ‘Hindi film music’ and this song even today after so many years is as fresh as it was when the movie was released.

This was the first major break he got and which opened for him many avenues further, though he mainly sung for Ravindra Jain (I think so, till we arrive at the total statistics of songs sung by him.)

Thereafter he got to sing in many movies mainly for actor Sachin and many of his songs went on to become very popular and they are as fresh as they were then in the minds of the movie goers and HFM lovers.

***
Here it will be interesting to know if he got to sing in movies after ‘Bandish-1968’ and ‘Anjaan Hai Koi-1969’, because his next song was in 1975 for ‘Geet Gaata Chal’.

Well, after ‘Geet Gaata Chal-1975’ he left his ‘practice in lawyership’ and went on to singing in around one hundred fifty movies (to be authenticated).
However tragically or unfortunately for the history of ‘HFM’ the so-called ‘big banners’ didn’t offer him to sing in their productions.
Nevertheless, the songs that he got to sung so far cannot be forgotten and some of them will remain immortal in the memories of HFM lovers.

The song ‘jab jab tu mere saamne aaye’ from ‘Shyam Tere Kitne Naam-1977’ sung for Sachin is his personal favourite.

On this blog I got the opportunity to share few of his songs (few I mentioned above) and viz. ‘yaar dagaa de gaya dulhan ko le gaya’

His active years in singing last till 2009-2010 (as mentioned by him in his interview on RSTV).
By then already HFM had gone many changes and seen many new singers making entry into movies and singing, so naturally Jaspal Singh also got forgotten by Music Directors.

However, given the quantity of songs he sung, and his not so frequent appearing in movie songs credit some keep wondering that ‘where did he vanish?’😊.

On our blog we have so far only fifteen of ‘Jaspal Singh Songs’ posted, so all those who wondered where he was vanished can try to search for his songs also can try to get them posted here 😊 sharing them with their memories associated with his beautiful songs.

From his interview on RSTV (which is also the main source for this article) and as mentioned by Jaspal Singh himself he is living a happy and contented life with his family (wife, a daughter and a son) and continuing with his riyaaz and readings.
He had been doing stage shows as per demand and whenever he got opportunities for that. (the interview was done in 2014 i.e. only four years back).

***

That brings us to the today’s song being presented here on the blog and the movie it is from …

“Paayal Ki Jhankaar-1980” was directed by Satyen Bose for Ruchi Films, Bombay.

It had Komal Mahuwakar, Alankar, Surinder Kaur (new discovery), Arun Kumar, Shail Chaturvedi, C.S. Dubey, Virendra Gaud, Shrikant Moghe, Anand Joshi, Brijendra Mohan, Pardesi, Master Abhitabh, Deepak, Sudha Shivpuri, Ranjana Sachdev, Bandini, Namrata, Asha Sharma, Rajraani and Nisha.
Master Mayur and Master Sandeep make a guest appearance in this movie.

Music for this movie was composed by Rajkamal and its songs were written by Maya Govind.

This movie had total eleven songs in it and it was passed by Censor Board on 23.08.1980.
Aarti Mukherjee, Alka Yagnik, Anand Kumar C., Jaspal Singh, Purushottam Das Jalota, Sulakshana Pandit and Yesudas gave their voices to the songs of this movie.

Interestingly the song being presented today is the only song sung by Jaspal Singh in this movie and the only male solo too. The other male voices are appearing in duets song only.

Though I had not watched this movie its name was in my vague memories so I had been waiting for sharing of a song of this movie to introduce it on the blog. And it also serves the purpose of bringing ‘movies having same titles’ on the blog.

There was a movie with the same title “Paayal Ki Jhankaar” in 1968 which has already made an entry on the blog.

Today ‘Paayal Ki Jhankaar-1980’ makes a debut on the blog …

***
Let us now enjoy the today’s song in the unique and amazing voice of Jaspal Singh …
Lyrics are by Maya Govind and music is composed by Raj Kamal ji.

Song-Jin khoja tin paaiyaan gehre paani paithh (Paayal Ki Jhankaar)(1980) Singer-Jaspal Singh, Lyrics-Maya Govind, MD-Rajkamal

Lyrics

Jin khoja tin paayiyaan aa aa
Gehre paani paithh
Jo baawraa dooban daraa aa
Rahaa kinaare baithh
O Shyaama aa
Jin khoja tin paayiyaan aa
Jin khoja tin paayiyaan
Jin khoja tin paayiyaan aa aa
Gehre paani paithh
Jo baawraa dooban daraa aa
Rahaa kinaare baithh
O Shyaama
Jin khoja tin paayiyaan aa
Jin khoja tin paayiyaan

Man ki saanchi lagan hamesha
Manzil tak pahunchaati
Behte behte jaise nadiyaa
Saagar se mil jaati
O Shyaama
Jin khoja tin paayiyaan aa

Tulsi Meera aa Soor ke jaisa
Milaa na khojanhaaraa
Karke tapasya laaye Bhageerath
Ganga ki jal dhaaraa
O Shyaama
Jin khoja tin paayiyaan aa
Jin khoja tin paayiyaan

Baiju ne Guru khoja
Swaami Hari Das ko paaya
Baalak Dhruv ne sach khoja
Ho Shyaama ho o o o o
O o o o
o o o
Baalak Dhruv ne sach khoja
Dhruv taara ban muskaaya
O Shyaama aa
Jin khoja tin paayiyaan aa aa
Jin khoja tin paayiyaan

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(Lyrics in Devnagri Script) (Provided by Avinash Scrapwala)

जिन खोजा तिन पाईयाँ आ आ आ
गहरे पानी पैठ
जो बौरा डूबन डरा आ आ
रहा किनारे बैठ
ओ श्यामा आ
जिन खोजा तिन पाईयाँ आ
जिन खोजा तिन पाईयाँ

जिन खोजा तिन पाईयाँ आ आ आ
गहरे पानी पैठ
जो बौरा डूबन डरा आ आ
रहा किनारे बैठ
ओ श्यामा आ
जिन खोजा तिन पाईयाँ आ
जिन खोजा तिन पाईयाँ

मन कि सच्ची लगन हमेशा
मंजिल तक पहुंचाती
बहते बहते जैसे नदिया
सागर से मिल जाती
ओ श्यामा
जिन खोजा तिन पाईयाँ आ

तुलसी मीरा आ सुर के जैसा
मिला न खोजन हारा
करके तपस्या लाये भगीरथ
गंगा की जल धारा
ओ श्यामा
जिन खोजा तिन पाईयाँ आ
जिन खोजा तिन पाईयाँ

बैजू ने गुरु खोजा
स्वामी हरिदास को पाया
बालक ध्रुव ने सच खोजा
हो श्यामा हो ओ ओ ओ
ओ ओ ओ
बालक ध्रुव ने सच खोजा
ध्रुव तारा बन मुस्काया
ओ श्यामा आ
जिन खोजा तिन पाईयाँ आ आ आ
जिन खोजा तिन पाईयाँ