Madan Gopal Singh Biography 
Madan Gopal Singh is a noted musician and lyricist associated with Punjab film industry. He has excelled in the field as a music composer, singer, lyricist, actor, screenwriter, dialogue writer, film theorist and film editor. He is a well-known Sufi singer who has travelled widely with his group Chaar Yaar promoting music. He is also a professor of English at Satyawati College in Delhi and knows multiple languages. He is the son of renowned Punjabi poet Harbhajan Singh.
He was born in Amritsar in 1950. His grandparents lived a street near to the Golden Temple and young Madan was brought up in a spiritual and musical atmosphere of 1950s, where people were connected and far more significantly cross culturally as well. His father Harbhajan Singh was a renowned poet. His father had a huge collection of books on various subjects and thus young Madan got attracted to reading. His father was a great patron of music as well and was a singer. Thus since young he listened to the music of great singers - Ustad Salamat Ali, Ustad Amir Khan, Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan etc apart from filmy music of Lata, Saighal and Rafi. Mohammed Rafi was his most favourite and later he loved music of Nusrat Fateh Ali and Abida, and Persian legends like Shahram Nazeri too.
He didn’t own any formal training in music and has been influenced by a range of singers and singing styles. Madangopal worked with theatre groups initially, and was also closely associated with IPTA. He also translated poems of Brecht, Neruda, Lorca etc. Later he got associated with movies as a lyricist, composer and screenwriter. He wrote the dialogues of Punjabi film Qissa and the script of short film Rasayatra. He composed the poetry of Rumi, Shah Husain, Sultan Bahu and Bulle Shah and also performed as a singer. Singh was invited to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival 2002, Washington as a performer.
Published: N/A
Updated: January 28, 2016
