| TRIBUTE | ||
 |
Saigal |
usic buffs are planning celebrations all over the country to mark the start of the birth centenary celebrations of the legendary singer-actor Kundan Lal Saigal, who was born on April 4, 1904.
MIDBANNERIn New Delhi, a musical concert of his songs titled ‘Kya Jadoo Hai was held on April 28 by the Saigal Sangeet Sarita, an organisation singly dedicated to perpetuate and propagate Saigal’s music. It is spear-heading the year-long celebrations which will include a retrospective of Saigal’s films, a research project on Saigal’s musical style and voice culture, a website on Saigal and a release of a complete set of CDs of Saigal’s songs.
A series of stage shows with the legendary singer’s songs sung by local singers will also be organised in Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Jalandhar, Kolkata and other cities, culminating on April 4 next year in a concert in New Delhi.
A core group has been formed to organise these celebrations. They include Dinesh Sharma who specialises in singing Saigal songs, retired bureaucrat singer R P Sinha who sings Saigal’s classical-based ghazals, television personality Vinod Dua, and Amarjit Singh kohli, an impressario with 37 years’ experience known for organizing stage shows.
Saigal was no ordinary singer. He created the grammar of film singing in the initial stages of the talkie era in the 1930s, setting standards that are nearly impossible to top. He was the first superstar of the Indian cinema and the original Devdas. He acted in about 35 films including seven Bengali films, and played a vast range of characters including Surdas and Tansen. He worked in Calcutta as well as in the Bombay film industry and was the supreme singing star till his death on January 18, 1947, at Jalandhar, in Punjab.
 |
The great grandson of Saigal, Master Prithvi, will be a special guest at the shows, and 12-year old Sahejmeet will sing songs of Saigal. There will also be an audio-visual presentation titled Bhool Jaiyyo Na showing glimpses of the life and works of the immortal singer, scripted by TV celebrity Vinod Dua and produced by Dinesh Sharma.
While Saigal’s father Amar Chand was a tehsildar at the court of the Rajah of Jammu and Kashmir, his mother Kesar Bai was a deeply religious lady, who was very fond of music. She used to take young Kundan to various religious functions where bhajan, keertan and shabad were sung in traditional styles based on classical music.
Kundan also accompanied his father to the interior parts of the state where he would hear the folk music of Punjab and Kashmir from the shepherds and wandering minstrels. He did not have any formal training in classical music, but his extraordinary musical perception made him absorb the notes and he responded to all technical musical needs as a singer.
Though he took up other vocations in keeping with his family’s wishes, the passion for singing continued and became more intense with the passage of time. A friend introduced him to Raichand Boral, the highly respected music director of the pioneering film company New Theatres of Calcutta, who took an instant liking for his talent. Saigal was employed by New Theatres at a salary of Rs. 200 per month, where he came in contact with stalwarts like Pankaj Mallik, K C Dey and Pahari Sanyal, and in a short time, he stood tallest among them.
In 1933, Saigal’s two bhajans in the film Puran Bhagat created a sensation throughout India. The bhajans were ‘Radhe rani de daaro na, bansari mori...’ and ‘Bhajun mai to bhaav se shri girdhari...’. This was followed by films like Chandidas, Yahudi Ki Ladki and Rooplekha in which he was noticed. The real breakthrough came with the film Devdas in 1935 which established Saigal as the first superstar of the Indian cinema.
The film created history and the image of Saigal as Devdas got imprinted on the minds of people. The songs of the film, ‘Baalam baso more man mein...’, ‘Dukh ke ab din beetat naahin...’ and ‘Piya bin nahin aavat chaen...’ became instant hits.