“Hamare bade bhai-jaise Bhupinder Singh ki smoky, original awaaz hi pehchaan hai,” composer-singer Anup Jalota... By Chaitanya Padukone

Last night when I got messages and calls from many music-industry people that maestro guitarist and soulful playback and ghazal singer Bhupinder Singh (82) had exited into immortality I was initially shocked with disbelief As is now known, the down-to-earth ‘Bhupinder-jee’ passed away last night, after battling multiple health complications.

As a film-journalist-columnist, I had the privilege and pleasure to personally know both Bhupi-jee ( known for his distinctly different-- soulful tonal vocals) and his talented singer-wife Mitali, since the mid-‘80s. .

As is widely known, versatile Bhupinder has sung memorable playback tracks under various legendary composers including Khayyam, Madan Mohan, Jaidev, S D Burman and even Bappi Lahiri .

But his frequent close rapport-bonding was with legendary Bollywood composer-singer R D Burman and with ghazal-bhajan singers like Pankaj Udhas, Hariharan, Talat Aziz and especially Anup Jalota..

In fat I would invariably meet ‘special guest’ Bhupinder-jee almost every year at singer-composer Anup Jalota’s private birthday Jashn-e-Jalota party-musical mehfil. When I spoke to Anup-jee, he was emotionally upset as he said, “ Bhupi-jee was more like family to me , like an elder brother.

Almost every year, whenever he was in Mumbai, he and his singer-wife Mitali would join us at my birthday celebrations in the month of July. With his royal presence and extempore brief lively mesmerizing performance, Bhupi-jee ( along with Mitali) would make it a memorable musical mehfil,” laments Jalota who considers Bhupinder a unique singer.

Explains Anup, “ That’s because Bhupi-jee had this smoky, resonant soulful vocal tones. Which I felt was an original distinct voice. The moment you hear any song sung by him, within a few seconds you know its Bhupinder.

In fact the evergreen duet song sung by him ‘Meri Awaaz Hi Pehchaan Hain’ from movie Kinara composed by R D Burman is an appropriate mukhdaa that signifies his vibrant unique voice., “ shares Jalota whose association with the late veteran singer is over four decades old.

Recalls Anup, “ Some 40 years ago, I remember Bhupi-jee was initially a bit nervous-hesitant to perform at ‘live’ concerts. That was when I asked him to come with me for a concert at Patna where his debut live show got encores (‘once more’) loud applause and the audience was not willing to let him leave the stage.

After that, there was no looking back, as he became a fabulous live singer-performer, besides being an innovative maestro-guitarist who could perfectly play various string-instruments especially the 12 strings guitar both at song-recordings and at live concerts regale the live-audiences,” informs Jalota who along with various other celebrity-singers had visited Bhupinder around six months ago at his residence, as he was not keeping well.

“ It was yet again an impromptu memorable mehfil at Bhupi-jee’s residence with all of us singing. Even Bhupi-jee later joined in the live singing. Little did we know that this would be the aakhri-baar we would all be jamming together, “ signs off Anup with tears in his eyes.