100 years ago
December 12, 2007. What does this date signifies for hindi films.. I did surfed through the news papers, TV channels, web sites and news groups to find out if someone cared to cover an important event in Hindi cinema.. While I could know from them that Sanjay Dutt resumed shooting today after his yet another comeback from Jail, unfortunately could not find a single mention of 100th Birth Anniversary of a musical legend of hindi cinema Khem Chand Prakash. A legend who died at a very young age of 42 but before leaving has given the world a handful of immortal melodies for the generations to come
It was exactly 100 years ago, on December 12, 1907 when Khemchand Prakash was born in Jaipur. His father was a dhrupad singer and a kathak dancer in the royal court and boy Khemchand got his first training of music and dance from his father. In his teens, he joined Bikaner Royal court as a singer performer and later moved to the royal court of Nepal.. but the destiny landed him in Kolkata and he joined New Theaters in Kolkata as an assistant of Timir Baran. He was assistant of Timir Baran in Devdas (1935).
An authentic source and a close associate of Shri Khemchand Prakash told me that two of classic compositions from Devdas “dukh ke din ab” and “baalam aan baso” were composed by Guru ji yet his contributions went uncredited. It was Street Singer (1938), when he got chance to face camera in a song due to his kathak skills in a comedy dance song. It was 1939, when he got his first break as an independent music director with the Supreme Pictures “Meri Aankhein”.. The next film was “Gaazi salauddin” and yet another legendary music director Naushad worked as as assistant to Khemchand Prakash in that film.
late Naushad saab mentioned in an interview
“Khemchand ji ne Gaaji Salaauddin me pehla mauka diya, ye unki badi meharbani, inayat thi ki unhone mujhe mauka diya, mujhe aisa mauka mila, aise guni aadmi ke saath kaam karne ka”
His initial years had a few more significant films like Pardesi, Holi, Fariyaad and Khursheed was his leading singer and both of them gave a lot of hits of early 40s.
But it was in 1943, came a film that pushed Khemchand Prakash much ahead of other music directors of that era and the film was KL Saigal starrer Tansen.
Tansen is considerd as one of the finest musical films for its music. Diya jalaao jagmag jagmag, Rumjhum rumjhum chal tihari, More balpan ke saathi, sapt suran teen gram are musical gems who have not lost shine even after sixty years.
late Anil Biswas remembered Tansen in one of the interviews
“Jab unhone Tansen film me Saigal ko Dhrupad ang ka gaana “Sapt suran teen gram” diya, to main iske baare me ye bata doon ki Tansen se jab bhi (kisi film/drame me) gaana gawaya gaya hai to khayaal gawaaya gaya hai, magar Tansen ke waqt me khayaal gaayan hota hi nahin tha aur unke samay me Dhrupad hi tha aur ye Khemchand Prakash ji hi the jinhone Dhrupad se introduction karawaaya Tansen ko (filmon me)”
Late Naushad saab on Tansen’s music
“Jo bhi geet Khemchand ji banate the bada sureelapan hota tha, aur jyadatar ek thumri ka ang hota tha.. layakari bahut achhi thi unke compositions me.. Khemchand ji ke saath jitne bhi din hum rahe bada lutf aaya.. unse bahut kuchh seekha, unke naqshe.qadam pe chalne ki koshish ki.. lekin unke mukaam par nahin pahunch sake.. Tansen me unke raagdaariyo ka jo istemaal tha waisa koi doosra music director nahin kar paaya.. maine bhi koshish ki Baiju Baawara me lekin un tak nahin pahunch paaya.. ”
1948 marked yet another significant film of his career, Bombay Talkies’s Ziddi..
He gave first major break to Kishore Kumar as a singer for the song “Marne ki duaaen kyun maangu”.
It is a very famous fact that Lata Mangeshkar’s voice was initially rejected by the Producer Chandu lal shah and Khemchand Prakash challanged his decision and told him that this voice will one day rule the nation and resigned. Ziddi featured a beautiful song of Lata Mangeshkar “Chanda re ja re ja re”..
But what followed Ziddi was an outstanding an immortal piece of Work in the form of music of Mahal (1949).
Mahal made Lata Mangeshkar a popular name in every corner of the country. Prior to Mahal, the records used to feature the character name as the name of the singer with the song on the record.. so the first lot of records had “Aayega aane wala” credited to Kamini.. but the public demanded for revealing the name of the singer and so from Mahal onwards singers started to get credited on the records.
Mahal’s music is a landmark in Hindi Cinema. The haunting melodies and brilliant orchestration set the foundation for the golden period of hindi film music of 50s..
and have you ever noticed “Ayega aane wala” forms the smallest mukhda of any hindi film song.. With just three words Khemchand ji made a magical composition and also all other songs of Mahal (Ghabara ke jo hum sar ko, mushkil hai bahut mushkil, dil ne phir yaad kiya) are immortal…
Unfortunately Khemchand Prakash could not survive for long to see the success of Mahal and also shaping up of the golden era of hindi film music (of 50s) and passed away on August 10, 1950 at a relatively young age of 42. Mahal, Tansen and Ziddi are just a few samples of what he could be, had he been there for a longer stint..
100 years later :
One of the research scholars Dr. Vidya Arya from Rajasthan visited a school in Orissa and during her visit to the school, she was asked to be the chief guest in one of the quiz function of the school. Out of her curosity she too asked a few questions and one of them was “who was the music director of Ayega aane wala – Mahal” and the more than a dozen of hands were up to tell her it was Khemchand Prakash…
Khemchand Prakash will live on.. His music will live on.. His music is forever..
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Sometimes it is better if, erm, only a minority respects and realizes such yesteryear talents. It is better to get compliments from people who really understands….. than say, …………….
But, anyway, I hope other media takes a cue from you, to show a bit of appreciation towards Shri Khemchand Prakash.
I will admit that, I did not know anything about him or any of his soundtracks. So…. I have voted this post twice!
HG,
I could have posted this article on the group of “minorities”, to the people who really know Khemchand Prakash… but to me your reading is worth more.. am happy that you spent some time to read it, and now atleast know a little about his contribution to cinema..
It was a great loss for hindi film music, when Khemchand Prakash died at a very young age.. had he lasted in 50s and 60s, his name would have been up there with Naushad, Madan Mohan, SD Burman… his contribution becomes more significant when we know he was the one who gave major breaks to Lata and Kishore.
and dont tell me you haven’t heard “aayega aane waala”, if not.. shoot me your email… guaranteed to leave you mesmerized no matter what ever your musical tastes are and whatever era you are living in…
and one interesting trivia, Lata Mangeshkar actually recorded the song walking towards the mike to give the effect of voice coming from far and getting closer to the character..
Astounding piece of writing here!
intresting. i never knew about it.
pavan bhai,
i overlooked the thought of… enlight’ people….., which all the media has….!
anyway, i have heard of film ‘Mahal’, but have not heard of the song. i might have heard of the song, but don’t remember it. i will will check the song later.. on musicindiaonline.
Dopey said I had to write here….
I said on the BBC messageboard that I’ve often wondered who had composed the music for Tansen because there’s one song composed on the rarely heard Raag Deepaka. The song was picturised on the scene where fire automatically ignited in a bowl – because the raag is supposed to generate “aag”…therefore, rarely sung….
Thanks for that….
Oh yes.. thats Diya jalaao jagmag jagmag, diya jalaao.. sung by KL Saigal
i heard the “Aayega aane wala” song. I prefer “Diya Jalaao Jagmag Jagmag”
pavanbhai!!!
i never knew about him…..and read through…..but wanted to comment on your perserverance…..since last 4-5 years i have been finding about my favourites Gulzarsaab….Vishalbhai…etc…..from you….you are doing an amazing work……thanks
^:)^
Thanks a lot for this post.
-a sincere student of ‘old hindi film music’
Great write up for the Master Musician!
Songs of Mahal were truly haunting.
thx thx thx !! i knew abt this litl fact abt ‘ayega aanewala’ being the first song where original singer was credited .
what a haunting song .. with visuals to match .. remember it frm the old days when i saw it in doordarshan
early song in lata’s career when she used to be inspired by noor jehan’s voice
Pavan:
Outstanding. Many thanks for this piece. Ayega ane wala decided the destiny of Lata Mangeshkar and she arrived and has been staying since then.
a mysterious song in a mysterious film and it opened the gates of a golden future for Lata Mangeshkar. composition and song both deny to be old and both have become ageless.
RK: While there’s general consensus that Aayega Aanewala “decided the destiny of Lata Mangeshkar”, I think the fact that she had many great releases in 1949 also had an important role to play in cementing her position. I’m talking of Barsaat, Andaaz, Badi Behen, Patanga, et al
@Aditya,
true, consistent performance defines the solid position but this is also true that a moment, a performance, a shot is there which is called as pinnacle and Ayega Ane wala was that song. Kapil Dev played many good innings as a batsman in his career but match against Zimbabwe in world cup 1983 became his identity where he came when 5 wickets were already gone and he played a marathon inning of 175 not out, inspite of having 102-4
@RK. Agree whole heartedly….the song’s mesmerizing. My list of favorite Lataji songs over the years has Aayega Aanewala for 1949
I think in terms of number of great songs, 1949-1954 was the best period for Lataji in terms of % of great songs…every single film she sang for had multiple masterpieces. And that was just the beginning of her career. Of course, she had the company of really great composers who created one masterpiece after another.
@Aditya,
ya thats true, great composers present at same time simply lifted the singing level of singers active in those years and Lata ji is also not exception. the period you mentioned was a great period when great teams worked in tandem to create absolutely magical music.
I am suppressing desire to write more on Lata ji as we will be deviated from Khemchand Prakash ji and article is dedicated to him.
:”>
A GOOD JOB DONE.APART FROM ALL – THIS PARTICULAR INFORMATION HAS HELPED A LOT TO A PROFESSIONAL ANNOUNCER LIKE ME. I AM INDEBTED TO YOU MR.PAVAN.MAY GOD BLESS YOU. THANKS A MILLION.
thank you pavan for enlightening music lovers with my grand dad’s exempalary works. few have done this for him and you certainly deserve a pat on your shoulder. i wish something can be done to consolidate his rememberence atleast before we are gone. would love to speak with you regarding the same.
Khemchand ji’s work with Geeta ji details are here
http://geetadutt.com/prakash.html
Thanks
Parag