his song sung by Nirmal Sidhu and produced by Zee Music rocketed him to the top. But a long hard struggle was behind this journey to the top. Nirmal Sidhu, belonging to a modest background shot to fame with his video songs and cassettes, and was recently honoured at the Prof Mohan Singh mela.Singing came naturally to Nirmal. Initially he sang in kirtans and dhadi jathas till Master Naginder Chahal picked him up and encouraged him to learn classical music. He was sent to Fazilka for training, where Prof. Krish Shant encouraged him further. Finally, he became proficient in classical singing.
Nirmal returned to Ludhiana where he met the famous Lal Chand Yamla Jatt. He said to him, “You teach my children classical music and in lieu of that I will introduce you to all the popular singers of the time like Kuldeep Manik, Amar Singh Chamkila etc.” He accompanied them on the harmonium. However, dissatisfied, he returned to Faridkot and started his own school.
Finally, he got a break and was asked to sing on Jalandhar TV.
Dame luck finally smiled on him and he got a chance to sing this song —
Mere dil de khidone nal
kade kade khel leya karo
Nirmal says, “After this song, I became a singing sensation. Since I had composed the music for the song, I was flooded with offers to write as well as compose music for other people’s songs. I also started singing at the Raunak Mela. My cassettee Kuku Rana Raunda became a super duper hit. Another cassette of mine Charkhe di ghook has sold in millions and is still doing well. I was fortunate enough to get a chance to sing in the film Zoravar and Lohri Di Raat. My children forced me to take to pop singing.
So I recorded Shishe shishe ka dil with Zee Music and they released my songs. I was the only artist from Punjab who got a chance to sing for 13 minutes at the Zee Cine Lux Awards. My new album, comprising two folk songs, two ghazals, two pop songs, is going to be released in January 2002.”
A deeply religious man, Nirmal is extremely thankful to God for giving him success.—AA
