Late music director and singer Jagjit Singh, affectionately remembered as The Ghazal King, endured a devastating period in his life when he lost his 20-year-old son, Vivek Singh, in a tragic road accident. The untimely death of Vivek was a profound shock to both Jagjit Singh and his wife, Chitra Singh. In a recent conversation, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt revealed that the late singer deeply resonated with his 1984 film Saaransh, which portrayed a similar theme of grief and the unfair bureaucratic system of the country.
Speaking to Radio Nasha, Mahesh revealed, “My friend Jagjit Singh had to face a lot problem to claim the body of his dead son due to bureaucracy and he told me that the scene in Saaransh where Anupam Kher says, ‘Mein TV lene nahi aaya hu, mere bete ki arthi lene aaya hu (I have not come to take a TV, I have come here to take my son’s dead body).’ He told me that he felt the character’s pain. He told me, ‘Whatever you showed on the screen, I felt that in real-life.'”
Earlier this year, in February, Mahesh Bhatt and Anupam Kher celebrated the 40th anniversary of Saaransh. At the event, Bhatt shared more about Jagjit Singh’s heartbreaking ordeal, recounting how the singer had to resort to bribing junior officers to claim his son’s body. “When the son of Jagjit Singh passed away in a tragic accident, he told me that he had to pay bribe to junior officers get his son’s body and that’s when he understood the importance of Saaransh. That how much a common man struggles, to get the dead body of their own. All these are living reference points for the film,” the filmmaker said.
Saaransh, which marked the debut of Anupam Kher, remains one of Mahesh Bhatt’s most celebrated works. In the film, Kher played the role of an elderly Maharashtrian man living in Mumbai who is forced to come to terms with the loss of his only son, who was also the family’s breadwinner. The film also featured powerful performances by Rohini Hattangadi, Madan Jain, Nilu Phule, Suhas Bhalekar, and Soni Razdan. Saaransh was widely praised by critics for its poignant depiction of grief and resilience.
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