Jagjit Singh was unhappy with his singing in 'Koi Fariyaad' from 'Tum Bin'

Legendary ghazal vocalist kept coming back to improve the song because he was not satisfied

Jagjit Singh’s Koi Fariyaad holds a special place in the hearts of his fans but it seems the iconic song from Tum Bin wasn’t as easy to croon for the legendary ghazal singer.

The making of Koi Fariyaad has an exciting story, its director Anubhav Sinha told The Indian Express. Nikhil Kamath, the co-composer of the song first shared, “It was a sad song. So we decided to go for Jagjit Singh. We created a track which was very trendy, not the typical Jagjit Singh track. If you notice, it is a very modern track without any tabla. Anubhav Sinha was very clear that he’ll shoot it in Calgary. So I could visualise the whole thing. We decided on A minus scale. There were about 12 mukhdas and 13 antras. It’s a very long song, and Jagjit ji dubbed it several times, he wanted to make it better.”

Anubhav added that Jagjit kept coming back to improve the song because he was not satisfied with his singing. “Jagjit ji had his arm around my shoulder. He asked me, ‘You don’t like what I did, right?’ Now look at my audacity. I told him I don’t, and he agreed that he didn’t sing it well.” The director added that Jagjit then recorded the song in portions, in three sessions. “That’s the version you guys hear and love so much,” he told the outlet.  

Anubhav shared that he also gave Faaiz Anwar – the lyricist – a tough time with the song.

“Ghazal was to play a very integral part in telling the story. Faaiz Anwar was essentially a shayar and not a lyricist but I told him to write a ghazal for Tum Bin. I’d approve one sher (couplet) and then he would write the song around that. He would tell me a sher every now and then, and I’d keep refusing. Finally, I was at some shoot and he called me and recited the lines ‘Ek lamhe mein simat aaya hai sadiyon ka safar. Zindagi tez bahut tez chali ho jaise.’ I jumped at it and said this is it! He started laughing and asked me if I was aware that it was the 82nd sher, which means I had already rejected 81 shers,” he concluded.

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