RMIM Archive Article "354".
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian
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# RMIM Archives..
# Subject: Master Madan - biography
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# Posted by: Surjit Singh
# Author: Surjit Singh
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Master Madan: a short biography of a short life
I have been meaning to write about Master Madan for
some time. A recent query gives me an excuse to do so now.
Of the eight songs he recorded in his short life, only two
Gazals are available now. These are the famous,"yuu.N naa
rah rah ke hame.m ta.Dapaaiiye" and, "hairat se tak rahaa
hai". These were written by saaGar nizaami and set to music
by amaranaath, elder brother of the duo husnlal-bhagatram.
Hiiraalaal was on tabalaa and on violin was MM's elder
brother Master Mohan. During 1966-69, these were played
again and again in the common room of Bhatanagar Hall of
Panjab University, where I was a student at that time. Here
is a summary of his life, extracted from an article in issue
52 of Listeners' Bulletin, a magazine published by that
sardar-e-azam, Har Mandir Singh. The article is based on his
interview with Master Madan's elder sister, Mrs. Shanti
Devi, during 1983.
MM was born on December 28, 1927, in khaanakhaanaa, a
village in District jalandhar of the Panjab. He sang in
public for the first time when he was 3.5 years old, in a
rally arranged by dharamapur sanatorium. He sang, "vandan he
shaaradaa naman karuu.N" in raag mishrit kaafii. The
audience was in heaven and on their insistence, he sang two
more raags. He was given many gold medals right there and
then. After that he and his elder brother toured all over
India and collected many prizes from the rulers of many
princely states. They sang in the famous haravallabh music
festival of jalandhar and later in shimalaa. Apparantely, in
the shimalaa sammelan, diinaanath mangeshakar had also come
but thousands were eager to listen to MM.
MM was a very religious child and spoke little. During
the night, he would just sit in padmaasan position and jap
maalaa. He was educated at sanaatan dharam school in
shimalaa, raamajas school in Delhi and Hindu College in
Delhi. His musical education was provided by his mother,
Mrs. puuran devii, his father amar singh, MD amaranaath,
and, later by gusaaii.n bhagavat kishor, aasaf alii, zahiir
haidar, saradaar husain, ramazaan Kaan, and taalib husain,
all well-known music teachers of the day.
At the age of eight, he was a famous radio singer,
singing mainly on Delhi radio station on aliipur road. MM
was a disciple of sant kaleraa.n vaale, a famous guru in
Panjab. Apparantely, the sant foretold of MM's untimely
death at a young age. In one of the gatherings of the sant,
MM sang raag jaunapurii with such great concentration that
people claimed to see the raaginii herself dressed in
beautiful garb. When he sang bhairavii though, jaunpurii
disappeared. This incident was duly reported by the press.
His final public program took place in Calcutta (have
they changed it's name yet?) at age 14. He sang, "vinatii
suno morii avadhapur ke basaiyaa" for 1.5 hours with such
beauty that the public refused to go home and accompanied
him to the guest house. One patron respectfully offered Rs.
500, a princely sum in those days, on his feet. Also 9 gold
medals were announced by various patrons to be given to him.
In those days, gold medals were really made of gold. Much
later, during 1964-1968 when I received my "gold" medals
from Panjab University for standing first in a multitude of
exams, I was disappointed to find out that the "gold" medals
were really not even made of silver, but had an atomic layer
of Ag on the outside!
He returned to Delhi, where his brother-in-law indar
singh took him to the radio station on his bike, where MM
sat in the front Tokarii. He started to get high fever,
which refused to go away. MM kept going to the Delhi radio
station for about 3-4 months. Many remedies were tried but
nothing helped. In the summer of '42, he went to shimalaa,
where his forehead, and joints started to shine unusually.
He died on June 5, 1942 suffering a great deal of pain. It
is suspected that he died of mercury poisoning. He used to
go to Delhi radio station canteen to drink milk. It is
believed that a jealous singer gave him Hg in his milk.
On his death, shimalaa closed down and a huge gathering
accompanied him on his last journey.
A filmvaalaa wanted to cast him as sant kabiir in a
movie. Regrettably, his parents refused to give permission,
a decision they regretted later.
sangam kalaa group holds an annual all-india program in
MM's memory in which thousands of talented children
participate. Apparantely, a group in Canada also holds
functions in his memory.
Surjit Singh, a diehard movie fan(atic), period.
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian