RMIM Archive Article "245".
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian
#
# RMIM Archives..
# Subject: K. L. Saigal: "Fifty Years Later, Saigal Lives On"
#
# Posted by: [email protected] (Ashok)
# Source: The Hindu
# http://www.webpage.com/hindu/daily/970131/09/09310708.htm
# Author: Susheela Misra
#
Here is a recent homage to Saigal on the eve of the 50th anniver-
sary of his death. It is available at
http://www.webpage.com/hindu/daily/970131/09/09310708.htm
Thanks to Sreenivas Paruchuri for brining it to my notice. The
article gives Saigal's filmography at the end. I have added some
films from the BFI Encyclopaedia entry on Saigal.
Do note the year of Saigal's death as given in the article!
Ashok
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Fifty year later, Saigal lives on
The Hindu
Kundan Lal Saigal's music-soaked voice had that rare quality that
would tug at the listener's heart-strings. On his 50th death
anniversary tomorrow (January 18), Susheela Misra pays a tribute
to this legendary actor-singer....
Today's youngsters are in the grip of "Michael Jackson" hysteria.
What a world of difference from our younger years when all of us
as college students were ardent Saigal fans! There was no hys-
teria, but what lengths we went to, in order to see a New Thea-
tres Films featuring Kundan Lal Saigal, Pahadi Sanyal, Kanan
Devi, Pankaj Mullick, P. C. Barua, K. C. Dey and others, and to
hear Saigal's songs! He was one of the earliest film-singers to
win popularity all-India and a large fan-following in the South.
In Kerala, we often travelled nearly 80 km. by trains or car from
Ernakulam to Trichur where a certain theatre used to present
those unforgettable New Theatres Films occasionally! "Pooran
Bhagat", "Dhoop Chhaun", "Devdas", Chandidas", "President",
"Street Singer Vidyapati" and many other films are still fresh in
our memories _ especially those with Saigal's hauntingly sweet
songs. Fascinated by his music under the batons of Raichand Boral
and Pankaj Mullick we would see each film more than once.
Obviosuly we were not the only ones.
Much later I read somewhere that no less a music director than S.
D. Burman went to see "Pooran Bhagat" scores of times, attracted
by Saigal's soulful renderings of some songs in that film. Music
directors like Raichand Boral and Punkaj Mullick used to go into
ecstatic praise of the matchless golden voice of Saigal and the
feelings he poured into each song, so that his renderings touched
the hearts of his listeners deeply. Even classical maestros like
Ustads Faiyaz Khan and Abdul Karim Khan appreciated the soulful
and natural emotive quality of his songs.
Among today's singers also Saigal has great admirers like Talat
Mahmud and Lata Mangeshkar. Mukesh, for one, came into limelight
(though under an assumed name) by singing a song in Darbari ("Dil
jalta hai.." in the film "Pehli Nazar") which was moulded in the
style of Saigal! C. H. Atma basked in popularity for a brief
while just because his voice-quality was similar to Saigal's!
Going back to our college years, we used to buy all available
records of Saigal, try to learn as many of his songs as possible,
and when someone rendered some of those songs at college func-
tions in Madras (Presidency College, and Queen Mary's), how
thrilled one used to feel at the resounding encores! Thus, Saigal
played an important role in popularising Hindi film-songs in the
South. For us of the senior generation. Saigal's songs still
stir up hordes of nostalgic memories, and a longing to see those
New Theatres Films with meaningful themes, subdued acting, and
haunting music.
Many of today's youngsters whose tastes have been moulded by
those modern films with bizarre stories, ear-splitting and hybrid
tunes, and often obscene un-Indian dances, find our tastes rather
queer. "What is so special about Saigal's songs?" they ask with a
tinge of contempt. How can one explain to them the effect of his
songs on all stratas of society _ songs that could sadden and
soothe the aching souls of listeners through the emotional inten-
sity of his renderings. We felt grateful to those great music
directors such as Boral and Pankaj Mullick and to B. N. Sircar
the famous owner of New Theatres, who instantaneously detected
the gold in the melodious renderings of this ordinary- looking
person who is said to have started his career as an agent for
Remington typewriters! With neither social position nor years of
regular musical "taleem", nor any training in acting, and not
even the handsome look expected from a hero, but with a gifted
voice that rose above all these handicaps, he rose to the top
both as an actor and as a singer, and achieved meteoric fame and
popularity. One is reminded of poet Browning's great lines:
" Talk not of genius baffled,
Genius is master of man,
Genius does what it must,
Talent does what it can".
The famous R. C. Boral under whose baton Saigal sang so many of
those unforgettable songs and B. N. Sircar who discovered him,
used to say with great feeling what a superb and natural actor
Saigal used to be, and how he used to touch the hearts of his
listeners deeply with his songs. Before Saigal joined New Thea-
tres, All India Radio, Calcutta had already discovered him. Actu-
ally it was Punkaj Mullick who discovered him for AIR. In 1931
when he first met Saigal and heard him, some magnetic quality in
his voice impressed Mullick so much that he at once arranged for
his audition with Calcutta, AIR. Saigal's ghazals with his own
harmonium accompaniment had the same effect on the then Station
Director Mr. Mazumdar who scheduled his broadcast for the same
night and made him a regular broadcaster!
Another fact that surprised everyone was his versatility. Not
only were his songs tuned in numerous raga-raginis but he also
sang them in Khayal ("Jhulana jhulao"), Thumri ("Babul mora" or
"Kaahe guman karo ri gori"), bhajans ("Suno suno he krishna
kaala" or "Din neeke beete jaate hain") and any number of ghazals
in the typical Saigal style. When Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore
heard him sing some Bengali songs he is said to have allowed him
to record many of his (the poet's) own songs. Saigal acted and
sang in several Bengali films and some of them like "Jeeban
Maran" and "Saathi" are still remembered. His non- filmi songs _
mostly ghazals _ add up to quite a sizable number of records. The
sad and romantic contents and the soulful manner of rendering
ghazals suited his vocalism immensely, and among the poets whose
ghazals he sang effectively were those of Ghalib, Arzoo, Hazrat
Mohani, Zauk, Amir Minai and others.
Whether he sang film-songs in purely classical ragas like Yaman
("Mai kya jaanoo kya jadu hain" or "Do naina matwale"), or
Shankara ("Rum jhum rum jhum"), Bahar ("Baag lagaa do sajani"),
Darbari ("Nain heen ko raah dikha prabhu"), Bagesri ("Chaah bar-
baad karegi hamhen maalum na thha") and so on _ or in favourite
light-classical (Thumri) ragas like Kafi ("Balam aye baso more
man me") or Pilu ("Kaahe gumaan kare gori") or in rarer ragas
like Madhuvanti "Ibne Mariam huwa kare koyi") or Miyan ki Sarang
("Raina gayi ab huwa savera") _ their appeal was always the same,
at once deeply moving and sweetly saddening. Our sweetest songs
are those that express saddest feelings.
There were two ragas that acquired special appeals in Saigal's
voice. That must have been the reason why so may of his film and
non-film songs were based on these two widely loved-ragas _ Desh
and Bhairavi. A few examples of these will prove the point. "Dukh
ke ab din beetat naahi", "Hat gayi lo kaali ghata" (Lagan) and
"Kadam chale aage" are some of his all-time favourites in Desh.
"Babul mora" (Street Singer); "Aayi hai thu tho" (Kurukshetra);
"E kaatibe taqdeer mujhe" (My Sister); "Madhukar Shyam hamaare
chor" (Surdas); "jab dil hi toot gaya" (Shahjahan) and so on are
some of the memorable numbers in Bhairavi. Millions wept when
they saw and heard Saigal sing those evergeen numbers "Soja
Rajkumari soja", "Tarpat beete din rain" and " Dukh ke din" and
above all, that unsurpassed rendering of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah's
last parting song from Lucknow _ "Babul mora naihar chhooto in
jaay". This writer has heard innumerable renderings of this
famous Thumri in Bhairavi by some great maestros and songs-
tresses. But nothing makes Saigal's poignant rendering of it fade
from memory.
When Saigal was still in our midst, an oft-discussed question was
as to what sort of musician he would have shaped into, if he had
been trained for years in classical music?. Anti-classicists
argued that classical training would have taken away the sweet,
saddening quality of Saigal's music. Others feel that perhaps he
might have become a classical singer with a lot of expressiveness
in his gifted voice. His versatility lay not only in the
varieties of ragas and types of songs that he has rendered, but
also in the fact that he successfully sang songs in Hindi, Ben-
gali, Punjabi and Persian! His rendering of the famous Thumri
associated with Ustad Abdul Karim Khan _ "Piya bin nahi aavat
chain" in "Devdas" in 1935 _ is said to have won the praise of
the Ustad himself who admired the deep pain of the separated
lover that Saigal had filled it with.
Among Saigal's contemporaries there were a few carping critics
who tried to prejudice film-goers against him by drawing more
attention to his lack of handsome looks expected from a hero, and
about his weakness for "the bottle", rather than to his captivat-
ing voice and subdued acting talents. B. N. Sircar was really
the discerning director who discovered the artistic potentials of
this simple young man from Jalandhar. Saigal's phenomenal rise
both as an actor and as a singer justified Sircar's shrewd
choice. A Saigal film was always a guarantee for some unforgett-
able songs, and for restrained and dignified acting. One hardly
remembers any film songs prior to his entry into films. It was he
who turned those songs into "a simple emotional poetry of the
soul.." He came into limelight as the bard who echoed the long-
ings and inexplicable sadness of the human heart, "the still sad
voice of humanity". What could have been the secret sorrow which
he always tried to drown in those "bottles" which hastened his
premature end so tragically on January 18, 1947. The artiste,
alas, is no more with us, but his music through gramophone
records and rare revivals of his films, keeps stirring up many
nostalgic musical memories of the past in many of us.
List of Saigal's films
1932: "Subah ka sitara", "Mohabbat ke aansoo", "Zinda lash"
1933: "Puran Bhakt", "Rajrani Meera", "Yahudi ki ladki", "Dulari Bibi"
1934: "Chandidas", "Rooplekha", "Daku Mansur", "Mohabbat Ki Kasauti"
1935: "Dhoop chhaun", "Karwan-E-Hayat", "Devdas", "Bijoya"
1936: "Crorepati", "Poojarin"
1937: "Didi / President"
1938: "Desher Mati / Dhartimata", "Street Singer / Saathi"
1939: "Dushman / Jiban Maran"
1940: "Zindagi"
1941: "Parichay / Lagan"
1942: "Bhakta Surdas"
1943: "Tansen"
1944: "Meri Bahen", "Bhanwra"
1945: "Tadbeer", "Kurukshetra"
1946: "Omar Khayyam", "Shahzada"
His last films were "Parwana" and "Shahjahan".
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From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian