Vijay Arora
CHICAGO: Hindi Club of Illinois (HCL) mourns the death of a Popular bhajans and devotional songs singer Narendra Chanchal who passed away on Friday, January 22 in New Delhi. He was 80 years old.
The Condolence meeting scheduled for Sunday January 31 was postponed due to extreme bad weather. It is now rescheduled for first week February on Sunday 6 2021 at the Ganesh temple in Chicago, with expected participation of all Bhajan lovers in Chicagoland.
Chanchal was born in a religious Punjabi Hindu family in Namak Mandi, Amritsar on October 16, 1940 and was one of the eight brothers and sisters. He grew up in a religious atmosphere, which inspired him to start singing bhajans and aartis from an early age.
Since playing music at home was considered a taboo, as a child he would sing film songs and bhajans among his friends and women outside in the neighborhood. He would then return home – invariably to his angry parents. A schoolteacher gave him the name Chanchal, which stuck with him through out his life.
He dropped out of school after 10th grade and worked at a dry cleaner’s shop for a while. Since there was no radio or gramophone at home, Chanchal, craving for music, would go to a nearby shop and sit there for hours listening to Mohammad Rafi and Manna Dey songs on radio. He would memorize these songs and present them at the next available opportunity at various gatherings.
It was a Baisakhi concert in April 1973 in Mumbai where Narendra Chanchal, then still a young, undiscovered singer from Namak Mandi, Amritsar, sang a famed 17th-century kaafi (Sufi poem) — Ni main kamlihaan — by Baba Bulleshah. He had come across the poem in a newspaper that the neighborhood halvai had used to wrap his food in.
What Chanchal did not know, during that performance the famed filmmaker Raj Kapoor in the audience. Raj Kapoor was enraptured by his shrill, high-pitched voice and crisp diction. After a quick backstage meeting and a tight embrace, Chanchal found himself in a recording studio three days later, crooning for composer duo Laxmikant Pyarelal. After years of struggle and hard work, Chanchal sang a Bollywood song ‘Beshak Mandir Masjid’ for a 1973 film Bobby. That song became a run away success and went on to win Filmfare Best Male Playback Award. After Bobby, he sang ‘Main benaam ho gaya’ for R D Burman in Benaam (1974). There were also songs in Gujarati, Bengali and Marathi besides Punjabi.
After his Bollywood success Chanchal began to make a mark in the world of devotional songs. Chanchal was soon known for his religious songs and bhajans. But what made Chanchal, a jagran and wedding singer from Amritsar, a household name was a song from the film Avtaar – ‘Chalo bulawa aayahai’ and ‘Tune mujhe bulaaya’ – a duet with his idol Mohammad Rafi in Aasha (1980).
Chanchal travelled all over the world to perform live Mata Ka Jagrans and Chowkis. Packed temple halls and auditoriums became common scene in his Jagran and chowkis singing outside India too. He made several trips to the USA and Canada and performed in all major cities. He also earned honorary citizenship of the US state of Georgia. Chanchal has released a biography called Midnight Singer, which narrates his life, struggles and hardships leading to his achievements.
According to Chanchal’s colleague and playback singer Anuradha Paudwal, it was the intensity of his voice and the emotional quality that made him special. “There is no one who can compete with him in singing devotional ‘maatakibhent’. The genre remains synonymous with him. Chanchal has sung more than 10,000 bhenten.
After he lost his voice for a few months, the singer said in a Rajya Sabha TV interview, Chanchal concentrated on devotional songs only, especially at jagrans, where he rendered bhajans at night. His rousing performances were an enlivening experience.
Chanchal’s last known public appearance was as a special guest for lamp lighting via Zoom to open Hindi Divas on September 12, 2020 event for the Hindi Club of Illinois. He also enthralled the special audience by singing in his unique signature voice. Hindi Club will forever revere the special moments.
Hindi Club of Illinois will host an online shradhanjali on Saturday, February 6 starting at 3 pm Central time. The event will be held in Shri Ganesh Temple on Devon Avenue. All are invited to join in this special ‘shradhanjali’. Or you can follow it live on Facebook at /Hindiclubil. Dr. Avi Varma of Jagran TV and Acharya Narender, famed devotional singer will join in paying tributes.
On his death condolence messages on social media poured in from all over, notably by PM Narendra Modi, President Ram Nath Kovind, HM Amit Shah, and UP CM Yogi Adityanath.
Lata Manageshkar also tweeted her condolence message. Famous Bollywood personalities Raj Babbar, Shatrugan Sinha, Manoj Bajpai, Madhur Bhandarkar, singer-composer Dallani, Daler Mehndi and his brother Mika Singh and Master Saleem shared their condolence messages too. Cricketer Harbhajan Mann and Comedian Kapil Sharma also expressed their grief via twitter.
(Reported by Puneet Chhibber and Vijay Chopra)
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