Legendary KL Saigal : Joy never dies and lives always in the heart
KL Saigal (KLS) also belong to the precious list of those rare people who did not need long life to prove their worth among Billions of people on earth. KLS did live only for 43 years but he has left behind such a great contribution to the field of music that till people, who understand music, will be coming on earth, his songs will remain immortal. Such a great voice, such a crystal clear pronunciation of the words and such a devotion and involvement to the music is seldom seen.
KLS sang around 100 songs in Hindi films and still he has been recognised as a legend of legends and not by the ordinary music listeners only but by the legends themselves.
For big and accomplished singers, musicians and audiences having refined taste in music, KLS has been their singer for years.
If one main stream singer, through the sheer magic of his golden voice, could transcend the boundaries between the light and semi classical filmi singing and heavy classical singing then it was KLS. He had that capacity to take audiences along with his singing on the heights which is possible for a classical singer only. Without taking resort of the long Alaaps he was able to bring the similar magic in his 3 minutes long songs which a classical singer brings through his devoted singing.
Bade Ghulam Ali Khan had adorned Lata mangeshkar with the title ,”Teen minute kee jadugarni” and KL Saigal was also magician in his own terms and it makes his position supreme to all the other singers ever sang in hindi cinema that most of the singers came after him either learnt or refined their singing by listening his songs or immitating his style of singing. KLS was role model for all the popular singers of Hindi cinema came in to the films in 40s. Later they developed their own style of singing and thus could established their own place but they all started imitating the singing styles of KLS because he was the reigning singing super star at the time when they made their entry in to the hindi cinema.
KLS has been a phenomenon and it can be understood by the facts that in many films a die hard lover of music has always been shown listening to the KLS’s songs.
Many people can recall that during the days of Hum Log, DD’s first big TV serial, KLS’s songs had become a rage because Basesar Ram, a lead character in the serial, played by theatre actor, Vinod Nagpal , used to sing Saigal’s songs and VN really could sing well his songs.
Many people started paying attention to KLS through Hum Log because they liked the songs sung in the serial.
When Lata Mangeshkar sang So Ja Raj Kumari So Ja in Shrdhanjali and before her song, two lines originally sang by KLS were also kept then it also introduced KLS to many new listeners who had not lisened him before.
Some music lovers always get to listen his popular songs like Jab Dil hi tut gaya, Ek Bangla bane Nyara, Babul Mora Naihar Chhuto hee jaye, Gham diye mastqil, Do Naina Matware, Balam aye baso more man mein, Aye dil bekrar Jhoom, Dukh kea b din beete, Prem Nagar mein basungi ghar mei, etc but he has many more gem like songs and it can be said easily that more than 90% songs he sang can easily fall in the category of very good songs. Such is the high selectivity of the master singer.
Many may not like his acting style but he did what was prevailing in those days in hindi cinema and he was an asset to the hindi cinema. He was one of the founding stones on whose strong shoulders a big and great palace like structure of Hindi cinema has been built.
One can not take KL Saigal out of the history of Hindi cinema.
Pages and pages will be available on the life of KLS. Thousands of anecdotes will be there about this legend. Many stalwarts of Hindi cinema have been mentioning something or other about this legendary singer. KLS himself did not write anything about his life. He did not live long enough to arrange for an autobiography or a biography but others have recorded their encounter with this gem of a person.
Its a well known fact that he had developed a habit to drink and he had developed this idea that he could not sing without drinking. He used to call Black Label Whiskey as Kali Ganga and he used to drink it before the recording of his songs. Because of his heavy drinking his body had become frail and he had become quite ill in his last years.
Music director Naushad, after some hard efforts, somehow had convinced him to record his songs without drinking alcohol. KLS was apprehensive because he had developed a firm belief by then that he could not sing good without consuming alcohol but Naushad persistently requested him and KLS succumbed before his adamant requests and duo recorded songs of last film of KLS. Film was Shahjahan.
KLS was astonished to find him singing with such a class even without drinking alcohol. He was happy but he was sad also because he knew he ruined his body.
Naushad had said to him that people who said that he could not sing without drinking were his enemies and not the friends.
KLS had said to Naushad that it could have been better if Naushad had said it some time ago because now it was too late. KLS knew that he would not be able to live longer.
Naushad often had been found saying that many good singers have been appearing on the surface of music but nobody could match KL Saigal.
Parodies in the advertisements of Aaj Tak like channels make fun of KLS’s songs and his singing style or songs of the era of 30s and 40s but to know KL Saigal and his singing is to listen his songs. One has to pass through this journey to enjoy the nectar, he had injected in the songs through his singing. Many a times one may feel that music was not able to support his sweet voice and many of his songs may appeal more if instrumental musical support is removed from the songs. Speciality of his songs is his singing and not the music created around his voice.
He rendered hard Hindi/Urdu words with so much ease that Ghazals sang by him seemed easy going songs for the ears of listeners.
Singers often carry the tone of the land where they are born and raised but this was not the case with KLS.
People did not copy his singing style only but many actors took his mannerisms and body language also. There are many anecdotes describing the benevolent nature of KLS and his soul would not have minded any such borrowing.
Often KLS is associated with sad songs but this happens because of our own poor knowledge about the man and his work.
“ Mere Sapno ki Rani ” is such a wonderful song from his last film Shahjahan and one can listen not only the honey toned happy voice in the song but can see and enjoy his performances also.
One can notice that Mohd. Rafi has sung 1-2 lines for the beggar in the end of the song.
61 years have passed since KLS had left the body and many people still listen the songs of KLS and this long period of survival of the singer has been the proof that Legendary singer Kundan Lal Saigal has got an immortal status among music lovers.
Hrishikesh Mukharjee’s famous film Anand has given us that gem of a dialogue that ” Anand mara nahin karte, we zinda rehte hain yahan hamare dilon mein“.
That dialogue is so true for Kundan Lal Saigal also.
Filed Under
Movies, People, Thoughts , Hum Log, Kundan Lal Saigal, Lata Mangeshkar, Mohd, Naushad, Rafi, Shahjahan, Vinod Nagpal
Loading ...
13 Responses to “Legendary KL Saigal : Joy never dies and lives always in the heart”
Leave a Reply
(Ref smilies)
Our Comments Policy : The following kinds of comments are troll capped, blocked and/or commenter's identity reported publicly: Verbal abuse, personal attacks, hate statements, spam, trolls, advertising. Please assist us in keeping the comments clean. Use the contact form to let us know if you find unwarranted comments on PFC. Thank you.
-
Advertisement
-
- Sorry Bhai R
- Irresponsible medium:Shame on me to be an aud
- Oye Dibakar, Dibakar
- I’m mad as hell and I won’t take it any
- Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! Reviews from re
- The assault on our intelligence, no pun intended
- Catherine Deneuve in India - Win World Cinema DVDs
- OLLO is an incredible study of human character
- Who Is This Terrorist?? An answer
- Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! Reviews from readers
-
Advertisement
Hottest Today:
Recent Posts:
[...] passionforcinema.com wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt KL Saigal (KLS) also belong to the precious list of those rare people who did not need long life to prove their worth among Billions of people on earth. KLS did live only for 43 years but he has left behind such a great contribution to the field of music that till people, who understand music, will be coming on earth, his songs will remain immortal. Such a great voice, such a crystal clear pronunciation of the words and such a devotion and involvement to the music is seldom seen. KLS sang a [...]
Agar K L Saigal nahi hota toh Kishoreda nahi hota…i guess..
HG,
In a way you could be correct ki agar ye duniya nahin hoti to saigal saab nahin hote aur kishore da bhi nahin.. but If you meant Kishoreda became Kishoreda only because he followed Saigal, it is an insulting guess..
Kishore da was a superb imitator (simply one of the best of our era, thats why he could also sing anything) and since Saigal saab was on top (and best), Kishore da was merely imitating him (not following him).. Saigal was only one source of inspiration, like many (another one was Danny Kaye).. You have to give it to Kishore da that barring a couple of initial songs, he never sounded like Saigal..
Rk,
Being a hardcore saigal fan, have a lot to contribute to this post.. par I am also on Banwaas these days on your posts :)..
Why?…
Why Not?…
Nah, I did no mean that. I believe Kishoreda was a fan of KL Saigal and cos of him he got into singing and rest of the career is credit to KishoreDa, but.. pehla kadaam…
We have this habit of extolling the past and this is a ‘Gem’ of a eulogy
@HG,
Music is a vast ocean and KLS, KK and even greats of classical music are like serchers, they take a plunge as per their personal capacity and give us the gems or their era allows a certain level of knowledge and as per their qualification they become medium to extract out some suitably good things out of that ocean.
KLS like KK did not have formal training in classical music and KLS also learnt on his own through the company of Sufis and folk singers.
KK got an ideal in KLS and it was a fortune for him. Either ideal should be great so that one continuously strives to get that level in his formative years or in the field like sports competitor or the player against whom one does practise should be very good because thats the guarantee of improvement in his own game. In Music inspiration should come from greats. One can not be great singer by immitating passable singers with no depth at all in their voice and singing etc.
If KLS was not there then KK would have immitated some other singer of that era but in this immitation is hidden his inherent talent also.
His elder brother Ashok Kumar himself used to sing but he was not that much in to the singing as a passionate KK was and we see the difference clearly. KK became a legendary singer himself. KLS was like a school for KK but later KK passed the school and estbalished himself as an indepedent singer.
If talent is not there then even education does not help after a certain stage.
This can be said that if Baba Allauddin Khan had not pushed Pt Ravi Shankar in to Sitar playing then perhaps he could not have become a Sitar player but he had a talent to shine and he could have learnt playing other instruments.
Some personalities have to bring progress in their specific areas. Gurus can shape the diamonds and not the coals. To become diamond from a coal is a natural phenomenon and it takes millions of years but an artist can give a beautiful shape to that diamond because he has got eyes and a talent to do so.
Then there are personalities whose aura transform their surroundings and KLS had such an aura. He became instrumental in inspiring a whole generation of singers. And his singing inspired, motivated and taught other singers.
@Pavan,
I am nowhere in between the matter and you. I remain absent:)
@HG(4),
KK was a die hard fan of KLS and used to listen him for hours during his last years also.
and not only KK, but Ashok Kumar, Prem Nath, Harindra Nath Chattopadhyay etc remained an ardent fan of KLS all through their lives and Pran Saab still is.
@Hermitic,
KLS had become a living legend during his life time only so your similie does not hold true in this case and in such cases. Eulogy, you can use where a person is not praised while he was alive but praised after his death. This is not the case with legends like KLS, Swami Vivekanand, Gandhi, Nehru, Neta Ji Bose, Bhagat Singh etc
or after 1947, Rafi, Talat Mehmood, Lata, Asha, KK, Mukesh, Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Ashok Kumar, Satyajit Ray, Sunil Gawaskar, Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar, Prakash padukone, Vijay Amritraj, Dr Kalam, Amitabh Bachchan etc etc.
These people and people like them have been getting praises in their life time only.
This is certainly not Eulogistic in nature.
Who we are to bring praises to a giant talent like KL Saigal? Did he ever need it when he was alive? why this is required now, 61 years after his death?
No one did justice to the ghazals of Mirza Ghalib after the passing of two legends - KL Saigal and Begum Akhtar.
Saigal’s rendition of Nukta Cheen Hai Ghame Dil, Phir Mujhe Deedaye Tar Yaad Aaya and Aah Ko Chahiye Ek Umr Asar Hone Tak is unmatched. My favorite Saigal ghazal is Duniya Mein Hoon Duniya Ka Talabgaar Nahin Hoon, Baazar Se Guzra Hoon Kharidaar nahin Hoon - astonishingly beautiful. Thanks for reminding us of his greatness.
@rextreme,
Singers, Menhdi Hasan, Talat Mehmood, Rafi and Jagjit Singh and in female singers Suriaya, have sung Ghalib’s works very well.
Suraiya’s Nukta Cheen hai Ghame Dil in Mirza Ghalib is quite good.
Though this is also true that both the nightingales Noorjahan and Lata Mangeshkar could not do justice in this field of singing Ghalib’s gazals.
Lata- Hriyday Nath mangeshkar’s Ghalib album was not up to the mark for which Lata Ji is famous. Perhaps her voice is too thin for such a field and because people had already listened beautiful renditions of Ghalib’s gazals by Greats so her singing looked more odd.
Though Lata has sung a gazal quite beautifully. Unfortunately I am missing the words at present. Hope to recall it soon.
“We have this habit of extolling the past and this is a ‘Gem’ of a eulogy”
@ RK
Having said that during your post,
i wanted to retry KLS music and was amazed at his versatility..i should say i got addicted to his song “Main Kya Jaanuun Kya Jadu Hai” from Zindagi(1940),
though i heard him years ago and never clicked..this time it worked like old wine.
@Hermetic,
Whenever it happens, world of nector always shower honey.
Welcome to that world.