THE GOLDEN VOICE OF KUNDALAL SAIGAL… IT INFLUENCED MANY

THE GOLDEN VOICE OF KUNDALAL SAIGAL… IT INFLUENCED MANY
Dr K Prabhakar Rao


Kundan lal Saigal popularly know as KL Saigal is an house hold name in India, . An artiste with gifted voice from the gods made the entire nation swoon to his songs and even after more than 60 years after his passing away his memories haunt the music lovers in Indi. He was gifted with golden voice and he rendered songs from his heart. He enthralled millions of people in this country who were fortunate to see him in flesh and blood. Without any doubt he was the father of Indian film music. He had the greatest ability to render any type o song with utmost ease . He renderedGhazals, geets,Bhajans, Duets, solos, Thumris, Khayals, Nursery rhymes, story telling, love songs and classical numbers. Particularly his sad numbers took the people by storm and have struck the hearts of music lovers very deeply. He was a gifted actor. With his acting and singing abilities he could easily identify himself with the characters he was enacting. And it was this reason that resulted in his greatest success. He was born at Julundhar of Punjabi 1906 and from childhood days was interested in music His father put a tutor in music for his brother. however Saigal could effortlessly learn Music without any coaching while his brother probably struggled. He was greatly gifted and without guidance he could master everything without guide.
He had no formal coaching in classical music , Yet he was a expert in identifying all Raagas. When he grew up he took to selling type writers. He worked in railways as a clerk.The artist inside craved for something fferent. He move to Calcuta where he got a break in movies. The cinema passed into talkies from silent era. The directors were in search for talented actor singers. Play back singing still did not arrive. Saigal was tall, handsome and was dignified. Late PC Sircar spotted him at a function and immediately grabbed him There was no looking back for him. Film after film roled ut with great success. Street singer, Bhagat surdas, Chandidas, Dhop chaon,Mysister, Karwan Hayat, Zindagi, Lagan,Kurikshetra, Dev das, Tansen were made that brought great glory to Saigal. He then moved to Bombay and the filmdom welcomed him with open hands. Some of the great movies such as Shah jahan, Dushman, Bhanwara, were made. Saigal enjoyed popularity more than a Prime minister.
Saigal rendered songs under distinguished music directors, such as,Naushad Ali, Pankaj Mullick, .He rendered great Ghazals of immortal poet Mirza Ghalib with utmost ability and in his in his memorable style. Saiga with greatest emotions sang the immortal song Jab dil hee toot gaya hum jeeke kya karenge stirring souls of every one. The great songs from Shah jahan film were, Aye dile bekaraar jhoom, Jab dil he toot gaya, Chaah Barbad kare gee hame maalum na tha., Karleejie jannatke nazaare, Roohi Roohi were great hits and people were swept under feet. The song Diya jalo from Tansen, was based on obscure raga Deepak and became great hit. His songs from Bhagat surdas were soul stirring. His songs Kaheko radd machhayee…Hath gai zo. Kaali ghata.. Koyee manushy kitna hi buraho….my sothey bhag jaga doonga.. were great hits. .Bhajan bhajamato gaawat siri Giridhaari ,, naina heen koraaha dikhaprabhu, from Bhagat soordas made people shed tears. His light song chupo na chupo naa,and Do naina matwale. from Mysister .are much enjoyable. His song Haye kis buth ki mohabbat mey giraftaar hue.. from was a haunting melody from my sister and Toot gaye sab sapne mere,…milneka din aagaya ( with surayya)…. preet mien…usee mast nazar ( with suraiah).. from film Parwana his last film ( 1946) were great songs. Songs ek bangle bane nyara ( From President) and Babul mora ( street singer)Aye katbe Takdeer( from Street singer) of course had no parallels.

Saigal dominated filmdom for nearly 16 years and passed away in 1946 at Julundhar after illness. With this India and the world of Music lost the greatest contributor. He died young at 40 yeras and his premature death is attributed to excessive consumption of alcohol.. Reasons for this are best known to him. Great actor singer Surendrantah BALLB ( Surenra) and Pahadi Sanyal were his contemporaries and Surendranath ( surendra) although joined filmdom in 1936 with Deccan queen ( Three years after Saigal joined) carved a unflinchable place for himself inspite of stiff competition from Saigal. He was called Bombay’s Saigal while KLSaigal was based at Calcutta. Surendra reigned supreme for many years even after saigal’s death and continued to act and sing as a Hero till 1954 ( film Gawaiah) with great success. He shifted to character roles in a changed atmosphere subseqently. Surendra gave many immortal solo songs and duets .His immortal songs . Kyo yad aarahe hai.. (1946 Anmol Ghadi) , Tera jahan aabad hai. from Elaan ( 1948), Ek baar phirse aaja.. From Elan (1948), Jalena kyo parwana from Anokhi ada ( 1948), kyo man doondhe premanadee ka kinara ( From Lal Haveli 1944) and the great immortal song Teri yaad ka deepak jalta hai from film Gawaiah ( 1954) are mistaken for Saigals songs. Many confuse Surendra with Saigal. Such were the influences. Pahari sanyal mostly confined to Bengali cinema and passed away later on.CH Atma who copied KL Sagal continued to sing for some films and he sang many geeths, bhajans, Ghazals and private songs in his own style copying Saigal. CH Atma gave immortal songs … Rowu main saagarke kinare,…Ek sitaara, Tumko apni.zindageeka, from Nagina ( 1951) that are mistaken for Saigal. He had a place for himself. He kept saigal tradition up till he died Mukesh who initially imitated Saigaland with his famous song.. Dil Jalat hai. Tho jaln de.. from Pehli nazar became successful. Most of his earlier songs had great influene of Saigal sahib. Later he found his own style. Mukesh’s duet songs. Jaa parwane jaa ( Rajputani with Hamida bano).. Badariya barsai gayee,, ( From Moorthi along with Khurshid nad Hamida bano) and song Dil hi bijha hua…( From Nirdosh) reflect saigal influence on Mukesh. Even Mohammed rafi had great admiration for him and he was very greatly happy when he sang one line with KL saigal in the song..Roohee…roohi… mere sapno kee rani….. from Film Shahjehan. Thus all earlier singers had Saigal influence. Some of the songs of GM Durrani the famous singer also have Saigal influence. Cat call and shriek Singers like Kishore kumar and much glorified Lata mangeshkar too claim saigal influence on them although there is hardly any song to that effect. Thus we see that KL Saigal had great influence on many singers in the past and many built careers over his style.

It is a shame that such a great son of India was not bestowed with any national honor while useless nuts and clots are being awarded various honors one after the other. These are mostly politically based awards to please some one. Many do not deserve any thing. KL Saigal needs no award from the cockeyed rulers. He along with great Surendra, CH Atma, Pahadi sanyal, GM Durrani always stays in the hearts of music lovers eternally. It is most unlikely that such great singers will again tread this earth. The downfall of Hindi film music is compete.