RMIM Archive Article "78".
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian
#
# RMIM Archives..
# Subject: Who made Mukesh?
#
# Posted by: Satish Subramanian (subraman@cs.umn.edu)
# Source: The Illustrated Weekly of India.
# Author: Raju Bharatan
#
Here is an article by Raju Bharatan on Mukesh's immortal melodies and
people who made them from the pages of the 'The Illustrated Weekly of
India' from the early 90s.
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"They're playing his song"
by
Raju Bharatan
for
The Illustrated Weekly of India.
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Was it not Shanker-Jaikishan who really made Mukesh? Did
Kalyanji-Anandji not merely take up where SJ left off in his
case? Were Laxmikant-Pyarelal not responsible for Mukesh's
second coming with "Milan" - with "saawan ka mahina", "hum tum",
"bol gori bol", "mubarak ho sub ko" and "ram kare aisa ho jaaye"?
But even before SJ, KA and LP, was it not Roshan who got Mukesh
to make a stunning impact with "Bawre Nain" heart-stopper, "teri
duniya mein dil lagta nahin", also getting this soul-singer to
render "oho re taal mile nadi ke jal main" (for "Anokhi Raat")
just before his death?
But, before Roshan there was Naushad. And, before Naushad, there
was Anil Biswas. "Mukesh came to me," says Biswas, "wanting to be
second Kundanlal Saigal. He had just heard Naushad record in the
voice of Saigal, "jab dil hi toot gaya" for "Shahjahan". So I
studiedly cast him in the mould of K.L. Saigal through "dil jalta
hain to jalne de" in "Pehli Nazar". Having done that, and on
"dil jalta hai" proving a hit, I told Mukesh that we had both
proved our point that we could do a Saigal. Now we had, I told
him, to prove that Mukesh was Mukesh, the genuine product, not
just an imitation of Saigal. I had myself cast Mukesh in the
Saigal format, and now, I myself brought him out of it with
"jeevan sapna toot gaya" and "ab yaad na kar bhool jaa ae dil woh
fasana", even getting him to sing, in his own distinct voice in
the same "Anokha Pyar", a snatch of "yaad rakhna chaand taaron is
suhani raat ko"."
Was it then Anil Biswas who made Mukesh with "Anokha Pyar"?
Biswas certainly put him through his first vocal steps, but then,
in the very year in which he claims to have brought Mukesh out of
his Saigal trance (1948), Naushad argues that it was he who per-
formed this feat on Dilip Kumar with "Mela" and "Andaz".
This is how Naushad argues it came about. Mukesh, says Naushad,
had a major drinking problem in his formative years as a singer.
"One day," says Naushad, "I caught him drunk during the daytime
in Kardar Studios. And I told him: 'Mukeshchand, you've already
proved with "dil jalta hai", that you can do a Saigal. What is
it you are now out to prove - that you can out-do Saigal in the
matter of drinking too?'"
The shot went home. From that point, Mukesh took a firm grip on
himself. "He was in tears," says Naushad, "as I offered to
demonstrate that he had a voice identifiably his own - that he
didn't need to imitate Saigal, or any other singer, to prove his
vocal credentials."
That is how, concludes Naushad, Mukesh came to sing for Dilip
Kumar, in "Mela", such memorable numbers as "gaaye ja geet milan
ke", "dharti ko aakash pukare", "main bhanwara tu hai phool" and
"mera dil todnewale".
After that of course, there is no disputing Naushad's point that
it was he who turned Mukesh into a Dilip Kumar legend, on the
"Andaaz" piano, with "toote na dil toote na", "hum aaj kahin dil
kho baithe", "tu kahe agar jeevan bhar", and "jhoom jhoom ke
naacho aaj". Dilip Kumar, adds Naushad, was not initially happy
with the tunes for him in "Andaaz", considering them too simplis-
tic. "But within moments of each one of these tunes being pictu-
rised on him, Dilip was humming the song. That, I suppose," he
smiles, "is the secret of Mukesh's vocal aura".
If you turned to Shanker-Jaikishan, they came up with the theme
that, even if Mukesh was a big hit on Dilip Kumar under Naushad
initially, it was SJ who firmly fixed his vocals on Raj Kapoor.
When the point was put to Raj Kapoor himself, he pointed out that
it was he who had handpicked Mukesh, as his special voice, start-
ing with his very first film "Aag" (scored by Ram Ganguly) and
then got SJ to compose for him in the Mukeshian strain with "Bar-
saat".
So there you have a whole host of music persons claiming to have
made Mukesh. Raj Kapoor's role in fortifying Mukesh's very spe-
cial slot in films is not to be minimised, of course, but the
central point remains that not one of them could have tapped the
gold in Mukesh's throat if it had not been already there.
Whether it be Anil Biswas's "ae jaan-e-jigar dil mein samaane aa
jaa" in "Aaram", Naushad's "bhoolnewaale yaad na aa" in "Anokhi
Ada", Roshan's "taara toote duniya dekhe" in "Malhar", Shanker's
"yeh mera diwaanapan hai" in "Yahudi", Jaikishan's "ae sanam
jisne tujhe chaandsi soorat di hai" in "Diwana", Kalyanji-
Anandji's "tumhen zindagi ke ujale mubarak" in "Poornima" or
Laxmikant-Pyarelal's "tum bin jeevan kaise beeta", in "Anita", it
was, in the end, the peculiar charisma in Mukesh's voice that did
the trick. It was Mukesh's abiding humility that underplayed his
own vocal contribution in ensuring that the song became a part of
the listener's psyche.
--
bye
satish
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian