Narendra Chanchal

Narendra Chanchal Divine Goddess’s Special Emissary

For millions across the world, Narendra Chanchal is hailed and regarded as the Divine Goddess’s special emissary for spreading “Her Majesty’s” pious message of peace, devotion, love and compassion through mellifluous recitations. Accredited for having revolutionized the concept of Jagrans and Mata Ki Chowkis, Chanchal is looked upon as a ‘father figure’ by the younger genre of devotional singers. This is precisely why he commands immense respect and admiration from them. While an artist’s popularity withers with time, Chanchal’s been a total exception. Such mesmerizing and enchanting are his performances that they mostly exceed the scheduled plan owing to requests from the large gathering. And Chanchal surely doesn’t mind! Born in a religious Punjabi family in Namak Mandi, Amritsar, Chanchal has been singing ‘Bhakti Bhente’ in Jagrans and Chowkis as they are popularly referred to since the last four decades. At a young age, he was quite a revelation and started getting recognition. All this inspired him to move from sufi and film music to devotional singing. It's undeniably been a long journey that started from a small time town in the early 1960s to where Chanchal has reached today. Chanchal attributes all this to his mother who was a staunch devotee of Goddess Durga. “Devotional music has been in vogue ever since the chanting of Vedic hymns. As for me, I took to singing at quite an early age when children of my age were either crying or learning to tread. Although I possessed a natural fancy and liking towards singing, it was my mother solely who got me to learn the finer nuances of singing for achieving greater realms. While most of my contemporaries hailed from reputed music gharanas, I had to virtually start from a scratch in order to drive my point across. However with the blessings of the "Divine Mother", things started falling in place, and the rest as they say is history. For me, everyday has been like a new beginning to a path of self -discovery. In music, temperament and discipline play a pivotal role in facilitating one to adapt to diverse situations with élan”, elucidates the living legend.

He shot into limelight during the Indo-Pak war in 1965 when he performed for National Defence Force ensued by the 1970 Raj Kapoor blockbuster ‘Bobby’ that catapulted him to the zenith, and subsequently fetched him the coveted Filmfare Award. Then followed movies like Roti, Kapada aur Makaan, Benaam and numerous other multilingual movies. Born as Narender Kharbanda, the suffix 'Chanchal' was a result of his on stage antics and theatrics. He candidly admits his penchant sans any qualms, for playing pranks with friends and acquaintances. Who says India is the only place where you see large number of devotees congregating during a Jagran or Chowki? Well, the reality is that one needs to go overseas to actually spectacle the astounding levels of faith and devotion that the NRI commune nurtures towards their native customs, rituals, traditions and festivals. It’s been a while that Chanchal’s been performing in countries like the US, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and UK. In lieu of his role and contribution in the field of devotional singing overseas, the maestro was sometime ago awarded the Honorary Citizenship of State of Georgia from the Governor Office in Atlanta in the state of Georgia in USA.

“Devotion knows no language, boundaries or caste. All one needs is a pure heart for comprehending the ecstatic music. It’s heart warming to see foreigners swaying to Indian devotional music. I feel equally amused on getting requests for a Punjabi crash course from South Indians keen on following and understanding my foot tapping Punjabi music”, confides Chanchal.

What sets him apart from the rest is primarily his immense versatility and proficiency in varied facets of music be it composing lyrics or poems to singing sufi, bhakti, classical or film music. Once he gets going on the stage, there’s just no stopping the euphoria that grips the entire place. Recipient of numerous prestigious awards and citations, Chanchal feels he has miles to go and would continue singing ‘Bhente’ in honour of the "Supreme Goddess" till the last breath of his life.

Albeit his work involves lot of touring, he manages breaks and sabbaticals for maintaining a chord. Now that’s he finally settled down in South Delhi, he has been involved in numerous philanthropic works such as the cause of ‘girl child’ and ‘mandatory literacy campaigns’ for the under privileged sections of society. About the concept of educating children as a system that has been going on for years through all ages, he opines, “Today irrespective of times, I see eternal duality of two distinct processes that influence a child. First one is available ‘Information’ that is abundant and limitless today, and for which avenue sources are countless as it is an everyday phenomenon as it is now more immense with advent of available Print cum Electronic Media, Radio cum Broadcast TV, Internet under Globalization.” Further, he briefs, “I have always endeavored to contribute to the Society, Community, Teaching Fraternity and under privileged tiny tots who are well deserving, but owing to their poor socio-economic background, are inept in continuing formal education. With children, on needs to realize that they are the most humblest, honest, innocent and delicate members of any human society, who earnestly desire to be noble, successful human achievers. I have now a kind of new missionary zeal inside me to live and serve caring for the tender and young community of the future. And in my best possible capacity, would continue to do so all my life, forever. ” Despite a successful Bollywood career that fetched him the coveted Filmfare award for the timeless RK banner classic ‘Bobby’ for his soulful music, Chanchal gave up the glamorous career of Bollywood to be in the service of the Divine Goddess. In his five decade long musical career, he is also the recipient of the prestigious Raj Kapoor Memorial Award. According to him, devotional music would always remain in vogue. As a tip to budding youngsters aspiring to make it big in the field of singing, his only advise is to focus on temperament and discipline as they play a pivotal role in facilitating one to adapt to diverse situations with élan.

References

• About Narendra Chanchal
• Narendra Chanchal as playback singer on IMDB

Narendra Chanchal has recently released the book on his life, struggles and hardships he has o face to achieve what he is today, what he thinks about Matarani and what is his dreams and aim yet to achieve.Indeeed a good read. The Name of the Book is Midnight Singer.

Persondata
Name	Chanchal, Narendra
Alternative names
Short description	Chanchal
Date of birth	16th October
Place of birth	Amritsar, Punjab, India
Date of death
Place of death