Although the legendary pioneer singer and Hindi cinema’s first superstar, Kundan Lal Sehgal passed away over six decades ago on January 18, 1947, his memory is very much alive even today through a good number of his immortal film and non-film songs.
Of late, discs containing his songs and CDs and DVDs of some of the vintage films featuring him have been issued which have reinforced the nostalgic pleasure they bring to the legion of his avid fans spread not only in our subcontinent but also elsewhere, especially where Indians make a sizeable presence.
The All India Radio and Doordarshan often present a variety of interesting programmes on him and the ever-faithful Radio Sri Lanka continues to this day to end its daily relay of old Hindi film songs from 7-30 a.m. to 8 a.m. with a Sehgal number. Our FM channels too are not wanting in offering similar presentations.
Our country celebrated Sehgal first birth centenary in 2004 when at various nostalgia-dominated functions rich tributes were paid to him. The Directorate of Film Festivals and the National Archives of India also organized a retrospective of his extant films. In the wake of these activities a few of his biographies, including Sharad Dutt’s “Kundan: Life and Music of KL Sehgal” and Pran Nevile’s “KL Saigal: Immortal Singer and Super Star” have also been brought out.
Saigal, even during his life time had been acclaimed as “Shahenshah-e-Mausiqui” (Emperor of Music). He was also endearingly regarded as the king of peoples’ hearts and was later reckoned as the twentieth century’s most emotional and the best Indian male singer of light classical music. True to his first name, “Kundan”, meaning 24-k gold, he possessed a God-gifted golden voice, which singer Talat Mahmood compared to the sound produced by the flip of a gold coin.Kundan was born at Jammu to Amar Chand Sehgal, a Tehsildar and Kesar Devi, a deeply religious and musically-inclined housewife. His early exposure to music occurred when as a boy he accompanied his mother to some religious functions at which professional singers rendered raga-based devotional songs.
He also participated in the annual Ram Leela celebrations and acted and sang on the stage as Seeta. Besides, he got acquainted with the folk music of the Punjab and Kashmir by hearing it first hand from itinerant mendicants and shepherds during his travels with his father into the interiors of the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
The seed of his unprecedented success and popularity lay in the twin factors of his uniquely musical natural voice and a singular talent for instinctive and intuitive singing. He received no formal training from any master musician, nor did he belong to any traditional school of music, but was specially blessed by a Sufi saint, Salman Yusuf, who predicted a career of achievement and fame for him.Following his advice young Kundan started practicing his daily singing with a single-minded concentration and devotion. Years later, when his magical singing held an enormous sway over his countless admirers in the pan undivided India, he formally became a disciple of Ustad Faiyaz Khan of Vadodra.
After an uninteresting schooling and the insipid job of a typewriter salesman and a time-keeper in the railways, Kundan reached Kolkata, where wonderstruck by his captivating singing, B.N. Sircar, the owner of the famous New Theatres, cast him in film after film, beginning with Mohabbat Ke Aansoo(1932).
Although Kundan’s mother had encouraged and supported him in his pursuit of music, his father strongly opposed it as he failed to visualize any adequately remunerative and respectable career for his son through it. Kundan, therefore, went to Kolkata on the sly and joined films without telling his family. Working in films in those days, when cinema was just taking over from theatre, was not considered quite decorous for members of conservative middle class. So, Kundan also disguised his identity by assuming the name, Sehgal Kashmiri, which a couple of films later, he altered to K.L. Sehgal.
Prominent among the succession of his films at the New Theatres were Puran Bhagat and Yahudi Ki Ladki(both in 1933), Chandidas (1934), Devdas (1935) President (1937), Street Singer (1938) and Zindagi (1940). Initially, it was his bhajans and ghazals in Puran Bhagat Bhagat and Yahudi Ki Ladki, respectively, which earned instant public praise. Subsequently, his songs, which took the country by storm included such romantic and cathartic numbers as “Baalam aaye baso more man mein” and “Dukh ke ab din beetat naahin” in Devdas; “Ik bangle bane nayaara” and ‘Ik raje ka beta lekar udnewala ghoda” in President; “Babul mora nayihar chhooto hi jaaye” in Street Singer; and “So ja Raj Kumari” in Zindagi.
All these songs resonated in the cinema halls via the screen and in countless homes through 78 r.p.m. gramophone records. The advent of talkies in our country in early 1930s and Saigal’s entry into the quintessential and music-minded New Theatres soon thereafter was a dues ex machina, which resulted in a splendid synthesis of two mutually compatible factors – his joyful music and its faithful recording on the soundtrack of his films. Experts believed that Sehgal possessed a special microphone and film soundtrack-friendly voice.
In 1941 at the invitation of Chandulal Shah, proprietor of Ranjit Movietone, Saigal migrated to Mumbai, where he starred in several more superhits like Bhakta Surdas 1942), Tansen(1943), Shahjehan(1946) and Parwana(1947), his swan song. Like his earlier numbers, the songs from these films too were great hits. These included bhajans from Bhakta Surdas such as “Main nahin maakhan khaayo, Maiya mori’, all the raga-based renditions in Tansen including, “Diya jalaao” and the melancholic numbers in Shahjehan like “Hum jee ke kya karenge jab dil hi toot gaya”.
Stalwart music directors, R.C.Boral, Pankaj Mullick and Timir Baran honed his melodious singing in Kolkata, while Gyan Dutt, Khemchand Prakash, Khurshid Anwar and Naushad put his talent to best use in Mumbai. Sehgal along with Pankaj Mullick and K.C. Dey formed a triumvirate of male singers at the New Theatres, which for that reason was metaphorically called the “Nest of singing birds”.He also recorded non-film bhajans, geets and ghazals and was universally acknowledged as India’s first “Ghazal King” for having rendered certain selected compositions of outstanding Urdu poets like Ghalib, Zauq, Bedam and Seemab. In particular, ha sang Ghalib’s ghazals so immaculately and with such appropriate stress on various words and syllables that he made lucid the meaning of that great poet’s even Persian-dominated and rather enigmatic verses with their romantic and philosophic content.
He is indeed credited with virtually bringing Ghalib back to life and making him again popular. The film lyricists whose compositions he embellished and immortalized included Agha Hashr Kashmiri, Arzu Lucknavi, Pandit Bhushan, Kidar Sharma, Pandit Indra, D.N. Madhok, Dr Safdar Aah and Majrooh Sultanpuri.
Our national nightingale, Lata Mangeshkar is an ardent fan of Sehgal, the shades of whose style have, according to her, all along accompanied her own singing. She considered as inauspicious and, therefore, replaced immediately a brand new radio set, which on the very day of its arrival in her home broke the shocking news of Saigal’s death.
Occasionally Saigal also wrote poetry. For instance, he himself composed the Hindi song,”Main baithi thi phulwari mein” which he sang to a self-created tune. This superb vocalist, whose songs have the maximum recall value and still ”stir he mind and tug at the heart”, was a very likeable person – affectionate, friendly, guileless, generous and possessing a secular outlook and a healthy sense of humour. An Urdu poet complimented him thus: “Saigal jo khush guloo aur khush mizaaj hain Gaane mein aur tehzeeb mein who sab ke taaj hain” (Sehgal with his golden voice and lively humourIs the crown of singing and cultured behaviour).Maestro Naushad thus versified his praise of Saigal’s musical chords: “Yeh kehta hai har sher kaghaz pe aa ke Mujhe kaash Saigal ki aawaz milti” (Every couplet that lands on paper covets Saigal’s uniquely musical voice).
