On lazy weekend while njoying a cup of 'chai' with a old friend he told me about this album by Jagjit Singh in Gujrati... back home I had my hands on this album... It simply reminded me of those 10 days of backpacking and roaming in Gujarat from Ahmedabad - Mehsana - Baroda - Ankleshwar - Bhavnagar - Una, the gujrati people their hindi accent, the food, the roads... listen to the album it's again a nice work from maestro himself or let me say would sound good to all you people...
Today, I thought to listen the album on-line before. All the gazals in the album were penned down by Gujarat’s Galib, Abbas Vasi ‘Mariz’ and sung by the legendary singer Jagjit Singh.
After listening it, I felt my expectations were, too high. I was, rather, bit disappointed that it was, for me, just an “average” album. If you listen Jagjit Singh’s last 3-5 albums in Hindi/Urdu gazals, this album was kinda “routine” – same electronic key boards, same instruments and almost same kind of compositions (I don’t know even a single RAAG, but I do trust my ears). Moreover, ‘Mariz’ saab has so much depth in his gazals that even reading ‘em drag us inside his psyche, and I believe, the composition must do more to justify the words (and Jagjit Singhji has done it with “Mirza Galib” – no doubt). But some how, I did not feel the depth and emotions in most of gazals in this album except one or two gazals.
I must give a credit to his wonderful and soothing voice for the gazal “mane evi rite..”. I can listen that track over and over – especially last 3 sheyrs. It was just nice to hear “mein taji taari tamanna” – a different composition. I would rather prefer to listen Gujarati Gazal King Purushottam Upadhayay for “bas eTali samaj..”, “mein taji taari tamanaa” [both in Album: Anmol -- na, not "Anmol Moti", just "Anmol". It's bit hard to find this album. Many thanks to a dear friend that he gifted this album to me], “jeevanbhar na tofaano..”[Album: Irshaad].
Any way, it doesn’t matter what I think about the album. My 2 cents worth opinion is not going to affect album’s sales (by the way, who has time to read this blog, too! ). So chill out!
