There is divinity in her voice
By Jasmine Malik

JASPINDER NARULA, the singer with the distinctive voice, is back in news. She wowed the people with her powerful voice in the title song of Pyar To Hona Hi Tha, which incidentally picked up a Filmfare award. Her next duet with Remo Fernandes for Sangharsh is, too, expected to become a hit.

Almost two decades after recording Mata ke Jagran and Mata ki Bheiten with Gulshan Kumar, Jaspinder Narula has re-emerged as a popular voice in the devotional music segment. A commemorative audio album of Punjabi shabads, penned by Guru Gobind Singh, has brought her back in news.

It has been composed by K.S. Narula, who is an highly regarded composer of devotional albums and his son Micky Narula. Nearly 20,000 units of Hal Muridan Da Kahena, were sold from music retail outlets in north India within twenty days of its release in the market.

‘I felt like the chosen one to be able to record tenth Sikh Guru’s Gurbani during the auspicious year of the tercentenary of the birth of the Khalsa, Jaspinder says about the album. According to market sources, Hal Muridan Da Kahena has fared considerably well in the market, even though this Times Music product is priced at Rs 55.

Rendered in strict classical style by Jaspinder Narula and Bhai Gurmikh Singh Ragi (Shishganj wale), Hal Muridan Da Kahena consists of four select shabads, describing the heart-wrenching state of Guru Gobind Singh, when he was forced into Macchivalle jungle, after his army was attacked by the Mughals outside the fort of Sri Anandpur Sahib.

"Tears clouded my vision and I could hardly hear them explain the compositions. I knew alomst intiutively that whoever listened to this immortal saga of the tenth Guru, turning his personal sacrifice into highest spiritual alliance between man and maker, ought to feel the purity of devotion," says Jaspinder.

"While recording Hal Muridan Da Kahena, my voice gave away. It was agonising... just thinking about the Guru’s condition, sitting all by himself... having to bear the loss of four worthy young sons and comrades... wearing battle-tattered clothes on a cold December night, ... naked feet struck by thorms, ... my heart was aching" recalls Jaspinder, choked with emotion.

Earlier this year, few would have recognsed Jaspinder in the music video Hai Na from Kuch Kuch Dil Mein, as the soberly clad, petite young girl who, sang shabads and bhajans on Doordarshan.

Jaspinder claims rather disarmingly, "I’ve never been away. My playback career was launched with a shabad-geet composed by Jagjit Singh for a film on Guru Gobind Singh." And she knew almost intuitively that success would always grace her singing career.