Pankaj Udhas, who poured his coronary heart into these lyrics by Anand Bakshi in Mahesh Bhatt’s Naam (1986), passed away after months of battling pancreatic cancer, at Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital on Monday. He was 72.

Udhas is survived by his older brothers Manhar and Nirmal, spouse Farida, and daughters Nayaab and Rewa.

“With a very heavy heart, we are saddened to inform you of the sad demise of Padmashri Pankaj Udhas on 26th February 2024 due to a prolonged illness,” his daughter Nayaab wrote in an Instagram publish. The singer’s final rites will probably be held Tuesday.

President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have been amongst those that mourned the singer’s dying.

“He was a beacon of Indian music, whose melodies transcended generations. I recall my various interactions with him over the years. His departure leaves a void in the music world that can never be filled. Condolences to his family and admirers. Om Shanti,” Modi wrote on X.

While it could appear exaggerated in right this moment’s instances, after Chitthi aayi hai, there have been a number of tales these days of individuals returning residence from overseas, whereas many others have been steered in the direction of a sense of craving to see their family members. It was this ‘Chitthi aayi hai effect’ that propelled Udhas, regardless of his comparatively quotidian voice, to a major stature at a time when the world of ghazals was dominated by Mehdi Hasan, Ghulam Ali and Jagjit Singh amongst others.

Born in 1951 in Jetpur, Gujarat, Udhas got here from a music-loving household. His father, a farmer, performed the dilruba and inspired his three sons Manhar, Nirmal, and Pankaj to imbibe a deeper understanding of music early on.

At 12, Udhas started to be taught tabla on the Sangeet Natya Akademi in Rajkot. It was right here that he felt inclined to be taught vocal classical music. By then his elder brother Manhar, a mechanical engineer and a singer, had moved to Mumbai and was aiding composers Kalyanji Anandji of their recordings.

Since Manhar was in Mumbai, the household additionally moved there, and Udhas started studying from Master Navrang Nagpurkar, a widely known vocalist and guru from the Bhendi Bazaar gharana, who additionally taught Asha Bhosle, Suman Kalyanpur and Pandit Jitendra Abhisheki, amongst others.

While finding out science at St Xavier’s, Udhas was uncovered to the ghazals of Begum Akhtar, masterpieces within the ghazal circles and regarded the epitome of this gayaki nonetheless. Fascinated, Udhas determined to be taught Urdu and its diction and pronunciation from a ‘Maulvi saab’ who was additionally instructing his brother, who by now was singing in Hindi movies.

Before his first ghazal album Aahat hit the market in 1980, Pankaj together with Manhar and Nirmal shaped a band, Fabulous Three Brothers, performing throughout Mumbai together with an orchestra. One of those reveals was attended by veteran composer Usha Khanna who prompt Udhas’s title to filmmaker BR Ishara, identified for Rehana Sultaan starrer Chetna (1970), who needed a brand new voice for his upcoming movie. Udhas cleared the audition and sang Tum kabhi samne aa jao, a ghazalnuma piece for Ishara’s Kaamna (1972).

While the tune was well-received, this was the time when filmmakers weren’t amenable to new playback singers and relied on huge voices of the time akin to Mohammad Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar, and Manna Dey for the success of their movies. These have been strenuous instances for Udhas, who at one level determined to go away all the things and transfer to Canada.

But two issues stored the singer of longing and heartache going – his affection for ghazal, and the large viewers for the artwork kind within the US, UK and Canada, the place he stored performing repeatedly.

In the early 80s, when ghazal as a style was at its peak, typically discovering extra appreciation than movie music, Udhas launched two ghazal albums – Aahat (1980) and Nayaab (1985) — which discovered a lot consideration, however the pinnacle of fame got here with Chitthi aayi hai. Jeeye to jeeye kaise in Saajan (1991), Mohra (1994), Chandi jaisa rang hai tera (2001), and quite a few concert events everywhere in the world, solely stored this reputation in place. In 2006, Udhas was awarded a Padma Shri.

Udhas additionally created Ahista, a mild ditty that discovered consideration within the 90s indie pop section, which ended with the arrival of the web and a resurgence of Bollywood music. He was additionally the founding father of a ghazal competition, Khazana, and carried out at ghazal concert events repeatedly till final 12 months, when he stopped owing to his sickness.

In Udhas’s passing, the nation has misplaced a voice that “evoked millions of emotions,” stated Yash Raj Films.