
K. L. SAIGAL -
Playback Singer
Kundan Lal
Saigal - (11 April 1904 – 18 January 1947) was born at Jammu where his father
Amar Chand was a tehsildar at the court of the Raja of Jammu & Kashmir.
His mother Kesar Bai was a deeply religious lady who was very fond of music.
She used to take her young son to religious functions where bhajan, kirtan and shabad
were sung in traditional styles based on classical Indian music. Saigal was the fourth-born child of five and
his formal schooling was brief and uneventful. As a child he occasionally
played Sita
in the Ramlila
of Jammu. Saigal dropped out of school and started earning money by working as
a railway timekeeper. Later, he worked as a typewriter salesman for the Remington Typewriter Company, which
allowed him to tour several parts of India. His travels brought him to Lahore where he
befriended Meharchand Jain (who later went on to start the Assam Soap Factory
in Shillong)
at the Anarkali Bazaar. Meharchand and Kundan remained
friends when they both moved to Calcutta and had many a mehfil-e-mushaira.
In those days Saigal was a budding singer and Meharchand encouraged him to
pursue his talent. Saigal often remarked that he was what he was because of
Meharchand's encouragement and early support. He also briefly worked as a hotel
manager. Meanwhile, his passion for singing continued and became more intense
with the passage of time.
In the early 1930s, classical musician and music
director Harishchandra Bali brought K.L. Saigal to Calcutta and introduced him
to R. C. Boral.
R.C. Boral took an instant liking to his talents. Saigal was hired by B. N. Sircar's
Calcutta-based film studio New Theatres on a contract of Rs. 200 per
month. There he came into contact with contemporaries like Pankaj
Mullick, K. C. Dey and Pahari Sanyal.
Meanwhile, Indian Gramophone Company had released
Saigal's record containing a couple of Punjabi
songs composed by Harishchandra Bali. In this way, Bali became Saigal's first
music director. The first film in which Saigal had a role was the film Mohabbat
Ke Ansoo, followed by Subah Ka Sitara and Zinda Laash, all
released in 1932. However, these films did not do very well. It was in 1933
that his four bhajans for the film Puran Bhagat created a sensation
throughout India. Other films that followed were Yahudi Ki Ladki, Chandidas,
Rooplekha and Karwan-e-Hayaat. As a youngster, Lata
Mangeshkar is alleged to have said that she wanted to marry K.L.
Saigal after seeing his performance in Chandidas. In 1935, Saigal played
the role that would come to define his acting career: that of the drunken title
character in Devdas, based on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's novel of the same name and directed by P.C. Barua.
His songs in the film, Balam Aaye Baso Moray Man Mein and Dukh Ke Ab
Din Beetat Naahi, became popular throughout the country.
Saigal picked up Bengali
very well and acted in seven Bengali films, produced by New Theatres. Rabindranath Tagore first heard Saigal before
giving consent for the first time to a non-Bengali singing his songs. Saigal
endeared himself to the whole of Bengal through his 30 Bengali songs.
Saigal's association with New Theatres continued
to bear fruit in the successful films Didi (Bengali), President
(Hindi) in 1937, Saathi (Bengali), Street Singer (Hindi) in 1938,
and Zindagi in 1940, with Saigal in the lead. There are a number of
songs of this era which form the rich heritage of film music in India. Also, in
Street Singer, Saigal rendered the song Babul Mora Naihar Chhooto Jaye
live in front of the camera, even though playback was becoming the preferred
method of singing songs in films.
In December 1941, Saigal moved to Bombay to work
with Ranjit Movietone. Here he
acted and sang in a number of successful films. Bhakt Surdas (1942) and Tansen
(1943) were hits during this period. The latter film is still remembered for
Saigal's performance of the song Diya Jalao in Raga Shuddha Kalyan; in
the same movie, he also sang "Sapta Suran,Tin .. Gaa-o Saba Guni
Jan". In 1944, he returned to New Theatres to complete Meri
Behen. This film contained the songs Do Naina Matware and Ae
Qatib-e-Taqdeer Mujhe Itna Bata De.
In a career of fifteen years, Saigal acted in 36
feature films - 28 in Hindi, 7 in Bengali, and 1 in Tamil. In addition, he
acted in a short comedy Hindi film, Dulari Bibi (3 reels), released in
1933. In 1955 B.N. Sircar released a documentary film based on the life of K.L.
Saigal, Amar Saigal. In the film, G. Mungheri performed the
title role of Saigal. The film contained 19 songs lifted from Saigal's films.
In all, Saigal rendered 185 songs which includes 142 film songs and 43 non-film
songs. Of the film songs, there are 110 in Hindi, 30 in Bengali and 2 in Tamil.
There are 37 non-film songs in Hindi, and 2 each in Bengali, Pashto, Punjabi
and Persian. His non-film songs comprise bhajans,
ghazals
and hori. He has rendered the creations of poets such as Ghalib, Zauq, and Seemab.
Saigal's distinctive singing voice was idolized
by the first generation of post-independence Hindi Film playback singers,
including Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammad Rafi,
Mukesh, and Kishore Kumar.
During his last days, he was able to churn out three more hits under
the baton of Naushad
for the film Shahjehan (1946). These are Mere Sapnon Ki Rani, Ae
Dil-e-Beqaraar Jhoom and Jab Dil Hi Toot Gaya. Parwana (1947)
was his last film, released after his death, in which he sang under the baton
of Khawaja Khurshid Anwar. The four songs
which Saigal sang in Parwana are: Toot gaye sab sapne mere, Mohabbat mein
kabhi aisi bhi haalat, Jeene ka dhang sikhaae ja, and Kahin ulajh na jaana.
By his end, alcohol
had become a predominant factor in Saigal's life. His dependence on alcohol had
begun affecting his work and his health. It was said that he could only record
a song after being fortified with liquor. He survived ten years of drinking;
however, his alcoholism was too advanced for even a single attempt at
abstinence, and Saigal died in his ancestral city of Jalandhar
on 18 January 1947, at the age of 42.
Saigal was survived by his wife Asha Rani (whom
he married in 1935); three children, a son and two daughters: Madan Mohan, Nina
(born 1937) and Bina (born 1941); and an adopted child, his elder brother's
daughter, Durgesh Nandani, whom he adopted when he was still single.
No comments:
Post a Comment