This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2010)

Khyal (or Khayal, Hindi: ख़्याल, Urdu: خیال) is the modern genre of classical singing in North India. Its name comes from an Arabic word meaning "imagination". It is thought to have developed out of the qawwali singing style.^[1] It appeared more recently than dhrupad, is a more free and flexible form, and it provides greater scope for improvisation. Like all Indian classical music, khyal is modal, with a single melodic line and no harmonic parts. The modes are called raga, and each raga is a complicated framework of melodic rules.

Characteristics[link]

Khyal bases itself on a repertoire of short songs (two to eight lines); a khyal song is called a bandish. Every singer generally renders the same bandish differently, with only the text and the raga remaining the same. Khyal bandishes are typically composed in a variant of Urdu/Hindi, and sometimes in Persian, Marathi or Punjabi, and these compositions cover diverse topics, such as romantic or divine love, praise of kings or gods, the seasons, dawn and dusk, and the pranks of Krishna, and they can have symbolism and imagery.^[2] The bandish is divided into two parts — the sthayi (or asthayi) and the antara. The sthayi often uses notes from the lower octave and the lower half of the middle octave, while the antara ascends to the tonic of the upper octave and beyond before descending and linking back to the sthayi.^[2] The singer uses the composition as raw material for improvisation, accompanied by a harmonium or bowed string instrument such as the sarangi or violin playing off the singer's melody line, a set of two hand drums (the tabla), and a drone in the background. The role of the accompanist playing the melody-producing instrument is to provide continuity when the singer pauses for breath, using small variations of the singer's phrases or parts thereof. While there is a wide variety of rhythmic patterns that could be used by the percussionist, khyal performances typically use Ektaal, Jhoomra, Jhaptaal, Tilwada, Teentaal, Rupak, and Adachautaal.^[3]

A typical khyal performance uses two songs — the bada khyal or great khyal, in slow tempo (vilambit laya), comprises most of the performance, while the chhota khyal (small khyal), in fast tempo (drut laya), is used as a finale and is usually in the same raga but a different taal.^[2] The songs are sometimes preceded by improvised alap to sketch the basic raga structure without drum accompaniment; alap is given much less room in khyal than in dhrupad.

As the songs are short, and performances long (half an hour or more), the lyrics lose some of their importance. Improvisation is added to the songs in a number of ways: for example improvising new melodies to the words, using the syllables of the songs to improvise material (bol-baant, bol-taans), singing the names of the scale degrees — sa, re, ga, ma, pa, dha and ni (sargam) — or simply interspersing phrases sung on vowels, usually the vowel A, akaar taans. Taans are one of the major distinguishing features of the khyal.^[2] Now and then, the singer returns to the song, especially its first line, as a point of reference. Besides the vilambit (slow) and drut (fast) tempos, a performance may include ati-vilambit (ultra-slow), madhya (medium speed) and ati-drut (super-fast) tempos. Song forms such as taranas, thumris or tappas are sometimes used to round off a khyal performance.

History[link]

Khayal was popularized by Niyamat Khan (a.k.a. Sadarang) and his nephew Firoz Khan (a.k.a. Adarang), both musicians in the court of Muhammad Shah Rangile (1719–1748). It seems likely that khyal already existed at the time, although perhaps not in the present form.^[2] The compositions of Sadarang and Adarang employ the theme of Hindi love-poetry. The khyal of this period also acquired the dignity of Dhrupad and the manner of the veena in its glide or meend, plus a number of musical alankars that were introduced into the body of the composition^{[citation needed]}. The gharana system arose out of stylistic rendering of the khyal by various subsequent generations of musicians. The gharanas have distinct styles of presenting the khyal — how much to emphasize and how to enunciate the words of the composition, when to sing the sthayi and antara, whether to sing an unmetered alap in the beginning, what kinds of improvisations to use, how much importance to give to the rhythmic aspect, and so on.

With India united into a country from various scattered princely states, with royal courts and the zamindari system abolished, and with modern communications and recording technology, stylistic borders have become blurred and many singers today have studied with teachers from more than one gharana. This used to be uncommon, and a few decades ago teachers used to forbid students to even hear other gharana singers perform, not allowing them to buy records or listen to the radio^{[citation needed]}. Today, as always, a singer is expected to develop an individual style, albeit one that is demonstrably linked to tradition.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Some words about Khyal Retrieved 2007-06-10
• Khyal - Fantasy in Music Retrieved 2007-06-10

v t e Hindustani Classical Music Concepts Swara · Tala · Laya · Raag · Shruti · Bandish · Alankar · Riyaz · Gharana Instruments Sitar · Sarod · Veena · Bansuri · Santoor · Shehnai · Harmonium · Sarangi · Tanpura · Tabla · Violin · Pakhawaj Genres Dhrupad · Dhamar · Khyal · Tarana · Sadra Semi-Classical Genres Thumri · Dadra · Tappa · Kajri · Chaiti · Sawani · Hori · Bhajan · Abhang · Natyageet · Qawwali · Ghazal Thaats Bilawal · Khamaj · Kafi · Asavari · Bhairav · Bhairavi · Todi · Purvi · Marwa · Kalyan

Jagjit Singh
Jagjit Singh performing at Jaidev Hall, Bhubaneswar, on 7 September 2011
Background information
Birth name	Jagmohan Singh
Born	(1941-02-08)8 February 1941 Sri Ganganagar, Bikaner State, India
Died	10 October 2011(2011-10-10) (aged 70) Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Genres	Ghazal, Classical, Devotional, Folk
Occupations	Composer, Singer, Music Director, Activist, Entrepreneur
Instruments	Vocals, Harmonium, Tanpura, Piano
Years active	1965–2011
Labels	EMI, HMV, Saregama, Universal Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Polydor, TIPS, Venus, T-Series, Magna Sound, Big Music, Times Music

Jagjit Singh, born Jagmohan Singh); (8 February 1941 – 10 October 2011) was a prominent Indian Ghazal singer, songwriter and musician. Known as "the Ghazal King", he gained acclaim together with his wife, another renowned Indian Ghazal singer Chitra Singh in the 1970s and 1980s. Their combination album comprising music from the films, Arth and Saath Saath is the HMV's largest selling combination album of all time.^{[citation needed]} Sajda (An Offering, 1991), Jagjit Singh's magnum opus double album with Lata Mangeshkar holds the same record in non-film category.^{[citation needed]} He had sung in numerous languages. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the government of India in 2003.

Singh is credited for the revival and popularity of ghazal, an Indian classical art form, by choosing poetry that was relevant to the masses and composing them in a way that laid more emphasis on the meaning of words and melody evoked by them. In terms of Indian Classical music, his style of composing and Gayaki (singing) is considered as Bol-pradhan, one that lays emphasis on words. He highlighted this in his music for films such as Prem Geet (1981), Arth and Saath Saath (1982), and TV serials Mirza Ghalib (1988) and Kahkashan (1991). Jagjit Singh is considered to be the most successful ghazal singer and composer of all time in terms of both critical acclaim and commercial success. With a career spanning over five decades and a repertoire comprising over 80 albums,^[1] the range and breadth of his work has been regarded as genre-defining. He is the only composer and singer to have composed and recorded songs written by Prime Minister - Atal Behari Vajpayee - also a critically acclaimed poet - in two albums, Nayi Disha (1999) and Samvedna (2002).

Singh's 1987 album, Beyond Time, was the first digitally recorded release in India.^{[citation needed]} He was regarded as one of India's most influential artistes. Together with sitar legend Ravi Shankar and other leading figures of Indian classical music and literature, Singh voiced his concerns over politicisation of arts and culture in India and lack of support experienced by the practitioners of India's traditional art forms, particularly folk artists and musicians. He also lent active support to several philanthropic endeavors such as the library at St. Mary's School, Mumbai, Bombay Hospital, CRY, Save the Children and ALMA.

Early life and career[link]

Jagjit Singh was born on 8 February 1941 in Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan, India. His birth name was Jagmohan but this was changed to Jagjit after his parents sought the advice of a member of the Sikh Namdhari sect.^[2] His parents were themselves Sikhs, called Amar Singh and Bachan Kaur, and had several other children, with sources variously reporting the number between six and eleven.^[3][4]

Educated initially at Khalsa High School and Sri Ganganagar Government College, Singh obtained an arts degree from DAV College at Jalandhar and then a post-graduate degree in history from Kurukshetra University in Haryana. Throughout this time, and as a consequence of a natural talent that was spotted by his father, Singh learned music both in Sikh temples and from musicians such as Pandit Chaganlal Sharma and Ustad Jamaal Khan, both of whom were trained in classical Indian music. He performed on radio and on stage, as well as composing some material, although he subsequently claimed that his father, who was a government employee, had hoped that he would become an engineer.^[5] On another occasion his memory was that his father aspired for him to become a bureaucrat, and that his siblings also were encouraged musically.^[3]

In March 1965, and without the knowledge of his family,^[5] Singh moved to Mumbai, where there were many opportunities for music artists because of the Bollywood film industry. He obtained work initially as a singer of advertising jingles and later progressed to playback singing.^[2] In the same year he persuaded the record company HMV to produce an EP, and he also altered his Sikh image by abandoning his turban, shaving and cutting his hair.^[5] His first film role was in Dharati Na Chhoru, a Gujarati production by Suresh Amin.^{[citation needed]}

Fame[link]

Singh was still struggling to make a living in 1967 when he met the Bengali-born Chitra Dutta.^[5] She was also a jingle singer, and was unhappily married with a daughter. She subsequently divorced and then married Singh in December 1969.^[3] Following the birth of their son, Vivek, the couple performed as a singing duo but it was not until the 1976^{[clarification needed]} release of an album entitled The Unforgettables that they found significant, and surprising, success. In the interval, the primary difficulty for them had been that the ghazal music genre was dominated by Muslim artists,^[5] and especially those from Pakistan.^[6]

The Unforgettables, which was the couple's first LP,^[3] was an unconventional recording and it turned them into stars. The song Baat Niklegi from the album achieved great popularity for Singh and his wife.^[4] The Independent described it in 2011 as "ground-breaking ... it became a transformative, before-and-after milestone in the history of Indian popular and ghazal music. It remains that." Using modern arrangements, it consists of ten tracks that include two on which they sang as a duo and the remainder equally split between Jagjit and Chitra singing the lead. The Independent further noted that "This format of solo and duet performances from the first commercially successful husband-and-wife team in Indian popular music proved astonishingly successful."^[2] Jagjit explained that "I was determined to polish up the genre and make it more acceptable to modern tastes, so chose simple poems and set them to simple tunes. I also introduced western instrumentation to make them livelier." Thereafter, the couple worked both on solo and joint musical projects and performed concerts worldwide. There was also success from involvement with the film industry and they amassed a considerable wealth,^[5] while Jagjit became known as "the Ghazal king".^[6]

Jagjit Singh's work in film^[7] encompassed playback singing for productions such as Arth, Saath Saath and Premgeet. He also composed all of the songs for the latter, as well as for the TV serial Mirza Ghalib that was based on the life of the eponymous poet, Mirza Ghalib.^{[citation needed]}

Among their subsequent duo recordings of the 1970s were Shiv Kumar Batalvi – Birha da Sultan (1978), Live in Concert at Wembley (1979) and Come Alive (1979). Of those released in the 1980s, Ecstasies (1984) has been described as "one of their finest".^[2] The joint projects ceased in 1990 when their eighteen year-old son, Vivek, was killed in a road accident. Chitra felt unable to sing following these events. Monica, Chitra's daughter from her first marriage, committed suicide in 2009.^[2][5]

Although Jagjit continued to work and to have success after Chitra withdrew from public life he, too, was affected by the death of Vivek. The Guardian notes that he "suffered from deep depression and his anguish was often evident in his live performances." Aside from occupying himself with solo projects, which he performed in several languages,^[6] he also collaborated with Lata Mangeshkar on an album entitled Sajda, an Urdu word meaning "prostration".^[2][5]

On 10 May 2007, in the presence of numerous political and diplomatic luminaries at an event held in the Central Hall of the Parliament of India, Jagjit Singh rendered Bahadur Shah Zafar's famous ghazal Lagta nahin hai dil mera to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Indian Rebellion of 1857.^[4][8]

Death[link]

Singh toured the UK in 2011 and was due to perform with Ghulam Ali in Mumbai^[5] but suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on 23 September 2011. He was in a coma for over two weeks and died on 10 October 2011 at Lilavati Hospital, in Mumbai. He was cremated the following day at Chandanwadi Crematorium in Mumbai.^[9][10]

A number of tributes have been paid to Singh after his death,^{[11][12][13][14][15]} and some tried to encash his popularity which was criticised by his wife.^[16]

Awards[link]

• In 2003, Singh was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian award, by the Government of India^[5]
• In 1998, Jagjit Singh was awarded Sahitya Academy Award, a literary honor in India. He was awarded this literary honor for popularizing the work of Mirza Ghalib.
• Sangeet Natak Academy Award
• Sahitya Kala Academy Award by Rajasthan Government in 1998
• Ghalib Academy by Delhi Government in 2005
• Dayavati Modi Award
• Lata Mangeshkar Samman in 1998 by Madhya Pradesh Government
• D. Litt. by Kurukshetra University, Haryana in 2003
• Teacher's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006

Film scores[link]

Discography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Jagjit Singh on BBC
• 'Ghazal King' Jagjit Singh dies, BBC
• Jagjit Singh at Internet Movie Database

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jagjit Singh

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (June 2011)

Deepti Naval
Deepti Naval at the special screening of her film Memories in March (2011)
Born	(1957-02-03) February 3, 1957 (age 55) Amritsar, India
Other names	Dipti Naval
Occupation	Film actor, director
Years active	1979 - present
Spouse	Prakash Jha 1985 - 2002
Website
http://www.deeptinaval.com/

Deepti Naval (born 3 February 1957) is an acclaimed Indian American actress who has worked in over 70 Hindi films. She has most often worked in arthouse and independent films, known as parallel cinema in India. She has also acted and directed Television serials. Apart from acting, Naval is also an artist who holds exhibitions of her photographs and paintings. She is best known for her acting in films like Chashme Baddoor (1981), Mirch Masala (1985), and more recently, Leela (2002) and Freaky Chakra (2003).

Early life[link]

Deepti Naval was born on 3 February 1957^[1] in Amritsar, Punjab, India. She went to the City University of New York and received her Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts at Hunter College in Manhattan.^[1]

Career[link]

Naval started her film career by playing a supporting role in 1977 film Jallian Wala Bagh. She also did a role in Shyam Benegal's 1978 film Junoon. Later in 1980 she worked in Ek Baar Phir as the main lead actress. She is known to be a sensitive actress and was a part of the art films and light films of the 80's. Saath Saath, Chashme Buddoor and Mirch Masala are some of her films from the era. She was often cast with Farooq Shaikh. Though considered as talented as Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil she somehow did not achieve the same stature in terms of awards or memorable casts.

Once she moved out of lead roles, she portrayed character roles in mainstream Hindi films but was not satisfied with the roles she got and took a break. Of late she has made a comeback of sorts with films like Bawandar and Freaky Chakra.

In April Naval was recognized as the 2007 Tribute Honoree of the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles.

She is directing her first film as a director in Do Paise Ki Dhoop, Chaar Aane Ki Baarish which stars Manisha Koirala.

She published a collection of her Hindi poems in 1981, entitled 'LAMHA LAMHA'

She also starred in the critically acclaimed Punjabi film Marhi Da Diva (1989).

She is back in acting with a daily soap Mukti Bandhan in colors.

Personal life[link]

Deepti Naval was at one time married to filmmaker and director Prakash Jha with whom she has an adopted daughter Disha.^[2] Naval was also once involved with actor Nana Patekar, and later engaged to Vinod Pandit before he died.^[3]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Deepti Naval's own website
• Deepti Naval - Deepti Naval Biography, Books,Works, Blog, Interview

Farooq Sheikh or Farooque Sheikh (born 25 March 1948) is an Indian actor, philanthropist and a popular television presenter. He is best known for his films during the 1970s and 1980s. His major contribution was in Parallel Cinema or the New Indian Cinema. He has worked with directors like Satyajit Ray, Muzaffar Ali, Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Ketan Mehta.^[1]

He has acted in many serials and shows on television and performed on stage in famous productions such as Tumhari Amrita (1992), alongside Shabana Azmi, directed by Feroz Abbas Khan, and presented the TV show, Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai (Season 1).^[2] He won the 2010 National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for Lahore.^[3]

Early life[link]

Shaikh was born to Mustafa Shaikh, a Mumbai lawyer and Farida Shaikh in Amroli in Gujarat's Surat District. His family were Zamindaris, and he grew up in luxurious surroundings. He was the eldest of five children.^[4]

He went to St. Mary's School, Mumbai and then to St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. He studied law at Siddharth College of Law.^[5]

Career[link]

In his early days, he was active in theatre, doing plays with IPTA and with well-known directors like Sagar Sarhadi. His first major film role was in the 1973 film Garam Hawa. He went onto act in several notable films such as Satyajit Ray's Shatranj Ke Khiladi (Chess Players) (1977), Noorie (1979), Chashme Buddoor (1981) and Kissi Se Na Kehna (1983). He formed a successful pair with Deepti Naval.

In the 1990s he acted in fewer films and made his last few film appearance in Saas Bahu Aur Sensex (2008) and Lahore (2009), for which he won the 2010 National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor.

In the late 90s, Farooq Sheikh acted in a number of television serials. Chamatkar on Sony and Ji Mantriji on Star plus are among the few.

Personal life[link]

Shaikh is married to Rupa Jain, whom he courted for nine years before tying the knot. He has three daughters: Shaista, Sanaa, Rubina

Filmography[link]

Farooque Shaikh - Actor

 Title = [[Toofan (film)|T] |
 Year = 1989 |
 Role = Gopal Sharma

References[link]

External links[link]

• Farooq Shaikh at the Internet Movie Database
• Original Invisible Man verveonline.com, 2004.

v t e Bollywood (Hindi cinema) Directors · Actors · Playback singers · Music Directors · Songs · Bibliography Hindi films A–Z—Highest-grossing Films by year: 1930s · 1940 · 1941 · 1942 · 1943 · 1944 · 1945 · 1946 · 1947 · 1948 · 1949 · 1950 · 1951 · 1952 · 1953 · 1954 · 1955 · 1956 · 1957 · 1958 · 1959 · 1960 · 1961 · 1962 · 1963 · 1964 · 1965 · 1966 · 1967 · 1968 · 1969 · 1970 · 1971 · 1972 · 1973 · 1974 · 1975 · 1976 · 1977 · 1978 · 1979 · 1980 · 1981 · 1982 · 1983 · 1984 · 1985 · 1986 · 1987 · 1988 · 1989 · 1990 · 1991 · 1992 · 1993 · 1994 · 1995 · 1996 · 1997 · 1998 · 1999 · 2000 · 2001 · 2002 · 2003 · 2004 · 2005 · 2006 · 2007 · 2008 · 2009 · 2010 · 2011 · 2012

Glen Drover (born May 25, 1969) is a heavy metal guitarist from Missisauga, Ontario, Canada. He currently resides in Mississauga Ontario. Drover is best known as the former lead guitarist in Megadeth and King Diamond, as well as his own band Eidolon, along with his brother Shawn Drover.

History[link]

Glen Drover began playing guitar as a child, and was joined at age 10 by his brother Shawn on drums.^[1] Influenced by Tony MacAlpine, Al Di Meola, Randy Rhoads, Greg Howe, Michael Romeo, George Lynch, Warren DeMartini and David Gilmour, the Drover brothers formed the thrash/power metal band Eidolon in 1996, releasing seven albums to date. Glen is currently teaching guitar lessons at Musicians Choice.

King Diamond (1998-2000)[link]

In 1998, Drover joined King Diamond, and appeared on the House of God album.

Megadeth (2004-2008)[link]

In October 2004, Drover joined thrash metal band Megadeth, bringing along his brother Shawn. Following an extensive world tour, Drover contributed to Megadeth's 2007 release, United Abominations as the lead guitarist and with co-writing credits for one song. While busy recording that album, Drover also cut a guest guitar solo for the track "Emotional Coma" (featured on the album Emotional Coma) by Swedish metal group Lion's Share.^[2] Drover recorded his solo at home in Canada, and sent the music file to the band.^[2]

In January 2008 Glen Drover left Megadeth to focus on family life; the constant touring was starting to have a negative effect on him. His last show with Megadeth was on November 18, 2007 in Brisbane, Australia. Commenting on leaving the band, Drover said "I am aware of the rumors that I left Megadeth to focus on family life and my family life has always been my priority. In the end, I was unhappy with the situation, which magnified me wanting to spend more time with my family and realizing that it's time for me to move on to the next chapter in my musical career, I have a lot of great memories and met a ton of great people along the way, both fans and people in the industry." ^[3][4]

Solo (2008-present)[link]

Glen is now collaborating with Stéphan Forté of the band Adagio on a 10 track instrumental CD.^{[citation needed]} Recently he finished working on the album entitled Metalusion and was recorded sporadically over a 2-plus-year period, It will be released on April 5, 2011.^[5][6]

Testament (2008, 2010)[link]

On the 22 Oct 2008 Testament announced that they had recruited guitarist Glen Drover to fill in on their upcoming Mexican tour dates with Judas Priest, due to Alex Skolnick's prior commitment to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.^[7] Also in March 2010, during the time of him trying to finally finish his album, Glen Drover will be playing with Testament on the upcoming Megadeth, Testament, Exodus tour In the US and Canada, due to Alex Skolnick being away again during this time.

Bands[link]

• Eidolon 1993 - 2007
• King Diamond 1998 - 2000
• Megadeth 2004 - 2008
• Testament 10/27/2008 - 10/31/2008, 3/1/10 - 3/31/10 (touring)

Partial discography[link]

Eidolon[link]

• Sacred Shrine (1993)
• Zero Hour (1996)
• Seven Spirits (1997)
• Nightmare World (2000)
• Hallowed Apparition (2001)
• Coma Nation (2002)
• Apostles Of Defiance (2003)
• The Parallel Otherworld (2006)

Northern Light Orchestra[link]

• Northern Light Orchestra (2010)

King Diamond[link]

• House of God (2000)

Megadeth[link]

• Arsenal of Megadeth (2006)
• That One Night: Live in Buenos Aires (2007)
• United Abominations (2007)

Solo[link]

• Metalusion (2011)

References[link]