Family members, the music fraternity and fans bid a tearful farewell to ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh at his funeral here Tuesday. Jagjit Singh’s brother Kartar Singh along with his grandsons Armaan and Umer Chowdhary conducted his last rites. Jagjit Singh had lost his only son in a car accident in 1990 and considered Kartar’s family and children as his own. Jagjit Singh, 70, died here Monday in suburban Bandra’s Lilavati Hospital where he was admitted September 23 after he suffered a brain haemorrhage. He is survived by his wife Chitra. His mortal remains were brought to his Pedder Road residence in south Mumbai Tuesday morning, where many celebrities, friends and fans paid their final tributes to the soulful singer. The mortal remains where then taken to Chandanwadi crematorium in Marine Lines in south Mumbai. Prominent names in the music industry like renowned classical vocalist Pandit Jasraj, lyricist-composer Gulzar, Javed Akthar, actor-politician Raj Babbar, Vinod Khanna, actors Shabana Azmi, Shahrukh Khan, Raza Murad, singers Roopkumar Rathod, Sonu Nigam, Shaan, Mika, Ila Arun, music composers Kalyanji, Shekhar Ravjiani and filmmakers Yash Chopra, Subhash Ghai, Madhur Bhandarkar attended the funeral with moist-eyes and silent prayers. “I have known him through his songs since 1963 and I credit him for making this non-filmy form of music a household name,” said Jasraj. A Padma Bhushan recipient, Jagjit Singh had sung for many popular Hindi films. He also sang in several languages including Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati and Nepali. “It is an irreparable loss to everyone. It feels extremely strange to see the maestro covered in a white cloth ready to leave us,” said Sonu Niigaam. The singer gave the industry memorable numbers like Hontho se chhoo lo tum, Tumko dekha toh yeh khayal aaya, Jhuki jhuki si nazar, Hoshwalon ko khabar kya and Badi nazuk hai among others.
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