ankaj Udhas who died last week was a popular ghazal vocalist in India.

Though much sought-after he represented the side of ghazal singing or style that was doused in emotion. It was essentially an outpouring of sentiments that characterised this ang of vocalisation.

In the Twentieth Century, ghazal gaiki received a great boost as it evolved to become a respectable form of music in the subcontinent. During the Nineteenth Century, ghazal was only sung in the salons by women and it was considered less of an autonomous form of music and more as an allied one, or tied to or a parallel narrative to dance. The early ghazal vocalists too were not particularly interested in selecting quality ghazals; rather the preference was for raunchy stuff that was more in synch with the atmosphere prevalent in the salons. It was KL Saigal who elevated the ghazal. He was followed by others who honed ghazal gaiki to a serious level of musical rendition.

Pankaj Udhas was closer to sentimental rendition than he was to ghazal as an expression of high music. The mushy lilting was part of the understanding of ghazal particularly in the Indian subcontinent. If kheyal was considered to be the epitome of serious music, then ghazal was far below that and was not meant to achieve the same level of dispassion. The partition of India resulted in the ghazal being viewed differently in two parts of the subcontinent. In Pakistan, as the classical forms went into disfavor, the ghazal emerged as a serious form of music and the likes of Ejaz Hussain Hazravi, Ustad Barkat Ali Khan and much later Fareeda Khanum, Iqbal Bano and Mehdi Hassan infused it with the virtuosity of classical forms and totally transformed the way it was performed.

Pankaj Udhas was trained to be a classical vocalist. It is said that his elders had some musical connection with Ustad Abdul Karim Khan. More than one brother being in the field strengthens this claim.

Bhai Chella, Muhammed Hussain Nagina and Afzal Nagina were also instrumental in bringing the ghazal into focus as mainstream musical expression. It was also given a great fillip by Mukhar Begum as ghazal became an expression in the theatre popular at the times in Bombay and Calcutta. These ghazals were heard by the theatre audiences as pieces of music rather than being integrated to the main action of the play. The emphasis zeroed down to the rendition as major vocalists became the leading actors of the time. This tradition continued in the early films as well – the vocalists were the leading actors of cinemas well, Noor Jehan and KL Saigal being prime performances at that time.

Akhtari Bai Faizabadi was the most prominent ghazal gaik of the subcontinent. She was also sucked into the films in her early day in the 1930s and 1940s but later developed her own ang by specialising in ghazal gaiki. Marrying the thumri ang with the ghazal, she developed it hugely by exploring the lower and the middle registers as compared to the upper one as it was done by the early exponents of the form.

In India, Jagjit Singh carried the tradition of the ghazal inspired by the likes of Mehdi Hassan and but the over-sentimentalisation of the lyrics had started and continued. The balance between the lyrics and musical virtuosity was sacrificed along the way harking back to the early days of ghazal gaiki. Perhaps the emphasis on the kheyal being the more serious form of expression left the leftover for the ghazal. After Mehdi Hassan the syrupy rendition started getting appreciated by a younger generation of listeners.

Pankaj Udhas was trained to be a classical vocalist. It is said that his elders had some musical connection with Ustad Abdul Karim Khan. More than one brother being in the field strengthens this claim. He was educated at the Sangeet Natya Academy, Rajkot, and by ustads like Ghulam Qadir Khan and Navrang Nagparkar of the Gwalior Gharana. He became popular, as it happens, when he sang for the films. His numbers were subservient to the mood of the film development and never outshone it had happened with some other vocalists like Ghulam Ali with Chupkay chupksy raat din ansoo bahana yaad hai. For many years, he continued to sing even when his days as a film vocalist were over due to the changing musical taste in the films.

He also won many awards including the Padma Shri.

The writer is a culture critic based in Lahore