K.l. Sehgal, what the jyothish says Options

[maheshks]

For Sehgal Saab's as well as Jyotish lovers. By a die hard Sehgal's fan.


K. L. Saigal

(Legendary Actor-Singer)
(4 April 1904 to 18 Jan 1947)
KN Rao

It is impossible for today's generation of lovers of film music to even feel the throb in the hearts of millions that the voice of K.L. Saigal, the first real super star of Indian films created. A memory that never dies, a melody that always haunts and those wistful eyes of a love lorn Devadas which Saigal portrayed, a wastrel cheated by his own elder brother out of his property, remained etched in the minds of many generations. It had not dawned on many of us of that generation gap could be a stroke of irony, a cruel piece of joke, an unpredictable quirk of changing public tastes.

Other singers sang. Saigal sang and also conversed musically. Such was his unique musical style. The ringing pathos of "Dukh ke din ab beetata nahi" is neither singing nor a conversation but both. It pierced the heart and eyes welled up with tears. So, I decided to write about K.L. Saigal without knowing if I would ever succeed in collecting material about his life and times easily.

Collecting information

Bit by bit, the portrait of that legendary figure got pieced up out of the haze in which the biographical details of cine celebrities get lost. The celebrity who appears like an immortal today fades into oblivion once the glamour that surrounds him vanishes. K.L. Saigal too suffered some such fate. It has shocked so many of his ardent admirers and fans.

In that era to which K.L. Saigal belonged, tragedies of middle class existence were portrayed with artistic delicacy, in under-tones, suppressed sobs, half-stifled half ex-pressed agony, which is what life is. Those haunting scenes were lifted out of great literary classics like Devadas of Sarat Chandra Chatterji or from legends and history like the immortal singer of Moghul times, Tansen, or Surdas, the saint poet. The rapid-fire excitability of the late twentieth century Bombay films,with fast action and crime and borrowed tunes from western pop music has added to Indian life all the vulgarity of permissive societies. It is a wilderness and cultural chaos that surrounds us now. K.L. Saigal's is not even the echo of a melody for the present generation.

Parental influence

We must remember that Hindu parents always wanted to replicate those aspects of their own authoritarian upbringing in planning the careers of their children, which they had accepted willingly without suffering. They discovered in their parents their best and truly sincerest well wishers. K.L. Saigal was a victim of all this. His father thought, and very rightly considering the few career openings available then, that his son was wasting his life and years in singing, a career he pursued without any training. For such an authoritarian father it was unimaginable that a child of his should develop his own personality and preferences, ignoring all his admonitions.

There was the angelic protective wing of his mother to save him. She was a gifted singer herself with her deep preferences for devotional and folk songs.

Searching the horoscope

I was not even searching the horoscope of K.L. Saigal as I thought that I would never get it. He died in 1947 and I never saw any astrologer ever discuss his horoscope or even refer to it. I met Mr. Raghava Menon, (he died in September 2001) the famous music critic, sometime in the 1988 and came to know of the biography of K.L. Saigal he had written. I got it, read it and saw the reference he had made to three astrologers in whose house Mr. Menon had seen the horoscope. These three astrologers were Yogeshwar Shastri in Moradabad, Rajgarhia in Delhi and Bannerji in Calcutta. Menon has written that he saw Rahu in lagna in all the three horoscopes with three different astrologers in three different cities. So it had to be Kanya lagna. The doubt was only about the correct degrees of the lagna and therefore of the navamsha.

K.L. Saigal was born on 4 April 1904 sometime in the evening in Jammu where his father, a Punjabi, was posted as a tehsildar. From what I knew of K.L. Saigal, I could accept his lagna as Kanya and waited to get correct birth time if it ever came. The time I had fixed was around six thirty in the evening. Then came two bits of information. Mr. Raghav Menon told me that Kanya lagna was right, as that is what he had seen at the houses of all the three astrologers he had met. The additional information available was that K.L. Saigal always carried his horoscope in his pocket and had visited some of them in the company of even Pahari Sanyal in his Calcutta days.

 kl_kundli.doc ( 57 k ) Number of hits: 14 by members




Then Pinky Karve, the supernormally gifted daughter of Yogi S.E. Karve, wrote to me through
e-mail that Kanya lagna was right but the birth time had to be six hours and eighteen minutes in the evening. I worked on it and that is what I am using in this portrait of K.L. Saigal.

Events

Some events of the life of K.L. Saigal was collected after my meeting Mrs. Bina Chopra, (she died in October 2001) the only surviving daughter of K.L. Saigal in April 2001.
i. His father Shri Amir Chand Saigal was a tehsildar in Jammu and after retirement settled down in Jullundhar and died after 1933.
ii. His mother, Shrimati Kesari Devi was a housewife and a good singer herself, fond of bhajans which K.L. Saigal learnt from her right from his childhood.
iii. They were five siblings, brother, brother, sister, K.L. Saigal and a brother.
iv. K.L. Saigal married in 1935 (Venus-Sun)
v. He had three children, a daughter (3 May 1937) daughter (18 January 1941) and a son.
vi. After his fame as a singer spread, the great classical music singer, Ustad Fayyaz Khan , tied a ganda, the thread round his wrist to accept him as his disciple. It could be after 1935.
vii. Died on 18 January 1947. (Venus-Sat-Rahu)

Early in the morning, Saigal breathed his last. He was 42 when he died on 18th January 1947 in Jullundhar, his hometown. Naushad, the music director, has made a wrong claim that jab dil hi toot gaya was played during his funeral procession. Smt. Bina Chopra told me that it was wrong. When in Bombay, K.L. Saigal's health had deteriorated, he expresed his wish to meet a saintly person in Jullundhar while his family members insisted on his being treated by Bombay's doctors. K.L. Saigal then told them that they could take the doctor they trusted most to Jullundhar.

On the day of his death, Moon was in Vrischika, right on the birth Moon of K.L. Saigal. Janma Chandra is a well known princi-ple of fatality.

Features of the horoscope

a. Lagna lord, Mercury is in the eighth house with Mars hardly good for health.
b. Moon, debilitated in the third house is good for musical abilities but in mrityubhaga, aspected both by Jupiter and Mars.
c. Jupiter and Sun together in the seventh house gave him a happy marriage with a traditional
Hindu women..
d. Venus, both the second and the ninth lord, is in the sixth house. The wrath of his father K.L. Saigal had to face was the well known fact of his early childhood and boy-hood.
e. The most notable feature of this horo-scope is the vargottama position of the tenth lord, Mercury and the eleventh lord Moon.
f. The musical potentiality in the horo-scope is revealed in many ways.
i. Moon in the third house.
ii. Venus in the fourth from Moon aspecting the tenth house.
iii. Mars in the rashi of Venus in navamsha aspected by Jupiter is a promise of musical abilities.
iv. Mars in the navamsha of Venus aspected by Saturn gives love for the classical distinc-tion in life.
v. Moon and Jupiter in Meena in trimshamsha is excellent for the love of the classical, the ideal and gives a rare dignity.
vi. Then when the lagna is of Mercury and the trimshamsha lagna is of Jupiter, it is most promising for a dignified rise in life after achieving something which is valued by society.

Musical training?

It is commonly said and often repeated that K.L. Saigal was a totally untrained singer in the sense that he had no formal training in singing. He did not belong to any classical gharana of Hindustani music as he was not the disciple of any famous singer though Ustad Fayyaz Khan did tie a ganda round his wrist.
K.L. Saigal the world knows of, was the son of a musical mother who sang devotional and folk songs, which in a Hindu household men folk accept as part of tradition.

How Saigal got initiated into music is what his first daughter Neena, explained in an interview. His elder brother Ramlal was a sickly child, suffering from tuberculosis, a very deadly disease those days. The family doctor suggested that to divert the attention of the sick boy, he should be allowed to learn music, which having fallen into disrepute in northern India, was a social taboo. Yet, the father decided to allow the boy to learn it. K.L. Saigal, then eight years old (Mercury-Venus period), sitting outside the room of his brother, listened raptly to all those lessons, practised and learnt music.

But K.L. Saigal's father wanted his son to succeed in life as others succeeded in those days either by getting a job in the government or in business for neither of which he was temperamentally fit. The father son relation created stormy scenes in the house with his mother taking his side and encouraging his singing in the absence of her husband. Jupiter the fourth lord with Ketu is the spiritual mother in this case and in dwadashamsha, the fifth lord Moon with the fourth lord in the second and Venus aspecting the fourth house shows his musical mother encouraging him with his inborn musical talents. In his sub teens and teens, he perhaps, he had a thin, high-pitched, feminine voice and a natural musical ability which earned him the role of Goddess Sita in annual Ram Leelas. His role and his singing was the star attraction of those festivals and he revelled in them as much as he enjoyed.

Mercury mahadasha (in the navamsha of Mercury and excellent Shashtyamsha)
No helpful information is available to know how K.L. Saigal, the famous ghazal singer, picked up an impeccable style in which the correct pronunciation and enunciation of Urdu for a Hindu was so noticeable. It is not difficult to guess that as in many parts of northern India, it was Urdu which had been the court language for centuries during the Moghul period of Indian history that was learnt and known among the elitist classes and, not Hindi. It was more so in Punjab even for many decades after India's independance in1947.

Again, there is no definite information how did K.L. Saigal reproduce in his famous songs, finest nuances of classical music as only Ustads do and which brought him appreciation from so great a classical music singer as Ustad Fayyaz Khan. Some hints about it given by Smt Bina Chopra, the surviving daughter of K.L. Saigal explains it. Years later, when K.L. Saigal had become a living legend of India and had also become prosperous after he shifted to Bombay, he had come in a large imported car to Delhi with his entire family. Here one day, he decided to visit Kanpur where he had spent his days, when working in Remington, and spent nights in the verandah of a singing girl who did not allow him to enter her chamber where she entertained her visitors. He was too young, she had said, and turned him out of the house but when she saw him sitting in the verandah night after night, she allowed him to join others in her singing sessions. Who was she and what did K.L. Saigal owe to her? Obviously, the exquisite style of rendering ghazal, dadra, thumri and other semi-classical ragas.

Reaching Kanpur, Saigal went to the same place where people who recognised him were afraid of coming near him because he had now become a big and a famous man. Some-how after K.L. Saigal renewed the warmth of his old days with them, he went to the place where he had spent many nights hearing the singing girl. There was no trace of her. Still, a grateful and emotional K.L. Saigal sat down in the verandah below and sang whole night remembering those days when he seemed to have learnt so much from her.

In some profiles of his it has been said that at the age of twelve he got an opportunity to sing in Maharaja Pratap Singh's court and he sang a bhajan of Meera which impressed the maharaja. The maharaja is said to have predicted a bright future for the boy singer. It may have been in the period of Mercury, his tenth lord and the antardasha of Moon in his third house of musical talent.

But soon after, in the antardashas of Mars and Rahu, something happened and he lost his voice. Mars the eighth lord with the lagna and the tenth lord in the eighth house seemed to have put an end to his ambition to take to the career of a singer. But it was followed by the antardasha of Jupiter in sarpa dreshkona, which is excellent for a spiritual turn in one's career. He was taken to a saint in Jammu who initiated him into some sadhana which he was asked to do for some years and not sing at all during that period.

In Mercury-Saturn he regained his voice which had now acquired a vigorous masculine resonance, with that vibrant tone which lovers of his singing associate with him. But it had a distinct nasal twang.

It may have been in this period that he accepted successively jobs first in Remington and later in Northern Railways which took him to Moradabad where he attended musical functions and where Ustad Karim Khan of the Kirana gharana and his sarangi player attracted him. More important, during his Moradabad days seems to be an English woman, the wife of the English station master perhaps, who took a kindly interest in his musical career.

Ketu mahadasha

Perhaps, in whole of Ketu mahadasha he took up small jobs, having run away from his family to escape the wrath of his father. It is likely that he kept his mother informed of his movements.

Venus mahadasha (began in August 1931)

The K.L. Saigal, we know is the Saigal of his Venus mahadasha which gave him all that he is remembered for. In the sixth house of illness, this Venus also finally, put an end to his glorious life of great musical fame.
Piecing up information provided by Smt. Bina Chopra, some important man from Cal-cutta perhaps of the famous New Theatres was visiting Moradabad where the kind English lady, the wife of the English station master, introduced K.L. Saigal to him and asked him to perform before him. Impressed by him, the distinguished guest gave him his Calcutta address and asked him to meet him if and when he visited Calcutta.

Who it was that entered in the life of Saigal at the end of 1931 or early 1932 and persuaded him to get his first recording of a song "Jhulna Jhulao by Hindustan Records in Calcutta in 1932 is not known. He was paid only Rs. 25/- for this song but when it became a hit, the company offered him Rs. 500/-which he refused to take. They paid him better for his subsequent recordings. After his death the company brought out a gramophone record of Saigal's songs and very generously paid the money to his family.

He had, through this gramaphone record, announced his arrival into the field of light music. Choosing him for a career in the New Theatres must have become easy after that is a sound guess that can be hazarded.

In Venus-Venus period, Kundan Lal visited Calcutta but had lost the address given to him by the important guest he had met in Moradabad. Standing near a bus stand, he was humming some song and someone standing there spotted him at once. That someone was the important man he had met in Moradabad.
He was employed on a monthly salary by B.N. Sircar who recruited him at New Theatres. Here he met three of the finest gentlemen ever in Indian film world, R.C. Bowral, Pankaj Mullick and Timir Baran. The dominant figures in semi classical music in those days were Kamala Jharia, Akhtari Bai, young Siddheshwari Devi mostly women singers not deemed to be socially dignified.
Amidst them, Saigal was perhaps a sole male singer with a reputation which was becoming formidable.

In the same Venus-Venus period his first film, Mohabbat ke Aansoo (1932) was made

The Gazhal King

The fickleness of public tastes or changed tastes, whatever me may call it, is a phenomenon we are familiar with. Yet, it was Saigal who was first known as the gazhal king of India during his time. The first ghazal he sang was Ghalib's "Nukta Chin hai game dil" in Yahudi ki ladki"(1933) The question asked then as even now was whether this new singer belonged to any gharana of music, which was a passport to fame and success. His instinctive knowledge of ragas and the resonant voice mesmerised his listeners. Unlike any other singer in later years, be it Mukesh, Durrani, Talat Mahmood and now Jagjit Singh these days, K.L. Saigal , a poet himself, created a fusion of the cadences of music with the spirit inherent in a poetic composition. Many Urdu poets like Zauk, Bedam, Arzu and Hasarat Jaipuri would not have been known to the non-Urdu world if Saigal had not chosen to sing their ghazals with the feeling and emotion as he alone could create. But it was Mirza Ghalib that was his favourite. For the non-Urdu lovers of his music, ghazal and many of those Urdu poet became household names.
No wonder, the later generation disputed this and called Talat Mahmood the real and undisputed king of gazhals citing the silken softness of his voice in songs, like "Jalte hai jiske liye, Teri ankhon ke diye", under the music direction of S.D. Burman. Even when it comes to Ghalib's ghazal, Talat's Dile Nadan Tujhe hua kya hai" in the picture Mirza Ghalib starring Suraiyya and Bharat Bhushan, has always been shown as superior with a feeling rendition of the real spirit of Ghalib. These arguments are endless, comparisons are odious and often lead to acerbic and disagreeable debates among the fans of Saigal and Talat. Such debates have always been interminable because in the field of arts there is no method of factually quantifying merit and achieve-ments as say in sports. Judgments are subjec-tive, individual and even communal, and regional.
In Venus-Sun came the film, Devdas,(1934) which made him a star noticed by the entire country.

No film in India touched the hearts of millions and became an unforgettable saga of Indian film industry for so many decades as Devdas (1935) which came in Venus-Moon period. The archtype of a luckless lover, with brooding looks, aimlessly wandering from place to place, with only an ever faithful servant, such as we used to have in feudal times, could not be replicated. Nageshwar Rao in south India and Dilip Kumar under the direction of Bimal Roy in Hindi films world, made attempts to capture that spirit in their versions of Devadas and failed. Saigal's Devadas continued to be an all time film of limpid pathos, haunting soulful songs, Balam aye baso more man mein, dukh ke din ab beetat nahi.

An immortal song of Kundanlal Saigal was Babul mora in the movie "Street Singer". Very few know that this lyric has a ring of historical nostalgia because it was composed by the last Nawab of Oudh, Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, who was taken prisoner and confined in Burma where he died. It is said that after hearing the gramophone record of this song of Saigal that the great Ustad Fayyaz Khan is said to have remarked that Saigal created a magical effect in a three minute song what others took hours to do.

1935: The year 1935 must have been the most memorable of years in his life. Devadas had given him sky rocketing reputation. He was married in 1935, in Venus-Sun, he had his first daughter, Neena on 27 May 1937 in Venus-Moon. In 1935, Jupiter was in Vrischika aspecting his seventh house of marriage while in 1937 it was in Makar his fifth house of children.

In 1935, Jupiter was in Tula aspecting his tenth lord Mercury and Saturn in Kumbha aspecting the tenth lord in the eighth house also. He went to Allahabad, as the classical music singer, G.N.Joshi has recounted, where famous Prayag Sangeet Sammelan was being held with the famous singers in the field of classical music being the star attractions. Piya bin nahee aavat chain one of the many songs he sang on demand mades the crowds ecstatic. Repeated demands were made but then Ustad Fayyaz Khan and other great classical singers were to sing. He turned towards his mother, that fond mother, who saw that wastrel of a son, as her husband thought, become a na-tional celebrity. Mother, he is said to have remarked,"they think that I have become a singer"

It is well known that the popularity of Saigal was unparalleled. He had no rival. Soon Sagar Movietone launched Surendra who had a good voice and sang well. But then Saigal was Saigal. Later C.H. Atma was advertised as the successor of Saigal after the latter's death and his "Rouun mai sagar ke kinare" was very impressive. Yet Saigal remained the inimitable singer of a different class always, then when he sang and now when he is no more,

Drinking

Strangely, the first child of Saigal who was born on 3 May 1937 said in an interview that her father started drinking on the day of her birth and did not give it up till his death. It was the Venus Moon period. It is said that Saigal never sang without drinking which he called Kaali Paanchi.

In 1940

Just Venus-Rahu period was ending, Saigal decided to move to Bombay as the New Theatres, Calcutta, had run into difficulties. This change was excellent from monetary angle but the congenial atmosphere he had in Calcutta was gone.
He continued with his great films in Bombay. Jayant Desai's Tansen has been one of the greatest ever musical films India produced and the great song, Diya Jalao, Baag Laga Doon Sajni. based on classical music showed how this untrained singer could reach classical heights like any Ustad of a gharana. A question often asked by admirers of Saigal always is whether along with song, the other one "Sapta Suran teen gram" in the same film, could ever be excelled.
In Bombay two great pictures, his last were Shahjehan and Parwana in which, ac-cording to Naushad, the music director, Saigal sang without drinking. It was his Venus Jupiter period and the great Saigal era in Indian films which had begun in 1932 was drawing to its end. Jupiter the seventh lord was acting as a maraka and his health deteriorated fast. When Saturn was in Mithuna in 1916, he had lost his voice and a kind Mahatma had initiated him into a spiritual sadhana. In 1946, Saturn entered that area again with his unfailing message of imminent death.

The noble man

It is a rare tribute to the memory of an actor that many who knew him personally should be remembering him as a great singer but a greater man. They have happy memories of his singular kindness, his dislike of social inequalities and snobbery, utter contempt for monetary values in human relationships Jupiter is conjoined with Sun and aspects his lagna and the Moon, covering his horo-scope with total Jupiterian nobility. If his father admonished him when he was in his teens it was for his unworldliness, if his wife asked some relation or the driver of his car to make sure that the money he received was brought home it was because of his uncontrolled generosity in gifting away whatever he had to the poor and the needy. During his Calcutta days one day someone saw him enter the studios without his usual dress and the coat he wore. He had seen some poor man in the street in a half naked condition and shivering in cold and he gave his coat to him.

It is recorded somewhere that once in Calcutta, when he was walking in a street, he heard a favourite song of his being sung by a singing girl from her chamber. He went there and saw an old woman singer with cracked voice and recongnised her at once as one whom he had heard in some other station in his teenage and was inspired. The old woman is said to have gone in an inner room to dress herself properly. Without waiting for her, Saigal, put all the wads of currency notes he had in his pocket there and left.

Once in Bombay he was invited by a rich man to sing at his house on the promise of payment of Rs. 25,000/- which was a large amount in the early forties of the twentieth century. But he chose to go and sing in the marriage of the daughter of the watchman of the studio where he worked. K.L. Saigal was a saint first and a singer later. In Jaimini it is clear that in the dasha of Vrischika with Jupi-ter, Ketu and Sun in the fifth house, he did his sadhana intensely after which his voice seemed to have changed, coming as it did, from the depth of his navel. In yoga they describe it as madhyama or pashyanti level which gives a spiritual vibration to one's voice and goes deep into the recesses of the heart of a spiritually inclined listener.

Surendra, Mukesh, Durrani, Jagmohan, Hemant Kumar and C.H. Atma tried turn by turn to emulate him, imitate him , excel him and all failed in the sense that no one allowed the great singing idol called K.L. Saigal to be thrown off the high pedestal on which he had been placed. In the changed times and tastes, evaluating the merits of his yogic voice, the ring of spirituality is neither done nor possible. We live in an age when pop music, titillation, sex worship, crooning, loud orchestra accompanying play back singing have come in a tidal sweep obliterating the memories of those good old days when men had so much spirituality combined in their day to day life. To transport K.L. Saigal from that era into the present one and evaluate him from the standpoint of the present generation and its preferences is an act of violence which we must refrain from doing. And we must remember that celluloid immortality is not historical immortality. One may even ask with the exception of some connoisseurs of music, if Ustad Karim Khan, Omkarnath Thakur, Ustad Fayyaz Khan, Ustad Allaudin Khan, among so many great singers and instrumentalists of a bygone era are immortals at all.

Shadows of death

The first child of Saigal was a daughter, Neena who said "Neena recalls Saigal had a friend, Nyaya Sharma, who was a palmist and an astrologer. Sharma had predicted that Saigal would pass away in 1947 and he had even mentioned the exact month - January. And Saigal did pass away in January 1947.
Neena says that a year before passing away, Saigal had taken to prayers and stopped eating meat, but, he would not give up drink-ing.
Saigal also got into the habit of climbing up onto the terrace of his building, before dawn, and singing songs like: Is juthi maya ke karan, heera janam gavayo. Hari bina kao kam na ayo. (A precious life has been wasted in the false Maya). These were spiritual songs which shows how he felt with a deep sense of detachment inside him that the life of pursuit of material pursuits and film career was only a manifestation of Lord's Maya. He had gone astray and wasted his life.

Additionally, Saigal would frequent the crematorium at Shivaji Park in Bombay. He would just sit there and would often distribute rotis to the dogs. Neena recalls, "Mummy would be upset," but Saigal would merely say: "My time is also very close."

In Chara dasha it was the mahadasha of Mesha, the eighth house and the antardasha of Mithuna, which is his Karakamsha.

In Jaimini's Sthira dasha, it was the dasha of Simha, sixth from Brahma, Sun, and the antardasha of Dhanu of sudden illnesses also.
1.Saturn in Mithuna had made him a Yogi in 1916.
2.Saturn in Meena in 1937 and Rahu in Vrischika on his birth Moon had made him a Bhogi.(enjoyer of life)
3.Saturn in Mesha (1940) had made him a Rogi (sick man).
4.Saturn in Mithuna again in 1945 revived the somnolent Yogi in him, now preparing for his death in a beautiful way.

I had done pind daan for him in Jagannath Puri with mahaprasad in 1962.

[sbfan]

THANKS A LOT FOR SHARING SUCH A GOOD ARTICLE

Any whereabouts of his surviving children/family


Warm regards
Ashish

[mohd2004]

Thanks for this article, gives a real insight of a great singer.

Mohd.

[pradeepasrani]

Maheshji

Thank you very much for this astounding article. The writer's linking of various events in Saigal's life is mind boggling.

Some of the facts about Saigal's children are as follows:

Saigal's first daughter Neena was married into Chopra family in Delhi as mentioned in the article. His second daughter married a Muslim businessman Mr. Merchant (not sure but the name may be Salim). Last year, their son (Merchant) was present at the Saigal Birth Centenary celeberations at Nehru Centre in Mumbai. Saigal's son, Madan Mohan Saigal too took to drinking alcohol like his father and passed away many years back at a relatively young age.

About 20-25 years back, I saw a programme on DD, Mumbai featuring Saigal's son ans Son - In - Lae (Chopra). The announcer introduced them in Hindi by pointing out that Madan Mohan Saigal got music through inheritance while Chopra got in as dowry from the immortal legend, Kundanlal Saigal.

Pradeep

[shuklas]

Mahesh Jee :

Thanks a lot.Thankas a million.

Shuklas

[sbfan]

Maheshji

Thank you very much for this astounding article. The writer's linking of various events in Saigal's life is mind boggling.

Some of the facts about Saigal's children are as follows:

Saigal's first daughter Neena was married into Chopra family in Delhi as mentioned in the article. His second daughter married a Muslim businessman Mr. Merchant (not sure but the name may be Salim). Last year, their son (Merchant) was present at the Saigal Birth Centenary celeberations at Nehru Centre in Mumbai. Saigal's son, Madan Mohan Saigal too took to drinking alcohol like his father and passed away many years back at a relatively young age.

About 20-25 years back, I saw a programme on DD, Mumbai featuring Saigal's son ans Son - In - Lae (Chopra). The announcer introduced them in Hindi by pointing out that Madan Mohan Saigal got music through inheritance while Chopra got in as dowry from the immortal legend, Kundanlal Saigal.

Pradeep

Thanks a lot Pradeepji for this good info

warm regards

ashish

[allli]

hi friends,
Thanx alot for all that information.Here is an article which i found on web.



Kundan Lal Saigal
By
G.N. Joshi
From: Down Melody Lane (1984, Orient Longman)


pp. 42-46

The year was 1935 and Kundanlal Saigal was singing at the Allahabad Music Conference. His voice held the huge gathering spellbound. I too came under the spell. Being at the peak of my musical career, I had been invited to perform along with several other noted artists from all over India. Saigal came from Calcutta. He was at that time the uncrowned king of the screen. His unforgettable role in Devdas and his poignant rendering of Piya bin nahee aavat chain had captured millions of hearts.

At the end of his performance, Saigal received a standing ovation which lasted several minutes. It was impossible for any other artist to perform that evening after Saigal's tremendous success. As I came out of the hall, I was greeted by my old friend from Nagpur, Mr. D. N. Hosali who later introduced me to Saigal. They were close friends and had travelled together from Calcutta.

Saigal and Hosali were guests of a rich young zamindar and they insisted that I too should go and stay with them. During dinner, someone suggested that we should go and have a taste of the gay musical nightlife of the city. The young zamindar was, of course, familiar with the most reputed joints, and so off we all drove. In those days, in decent society, music was taboo - it was considered immoral to learn or listen to music - much more so for girls. I had heard a lot about the 'mujra mehfil' (song and dance performances at the client's request) of the dancing girls and my curiosity was aroused; I was soon slowly following the other three up the steps of the singing girls' house.

At the entrance we were greeted by a middle aged lady with a broad smile and the traditional salutation 'Adabaraz'. We walked into an elegantly furnished chamber, brilliantly lit. The entire floor was covered with soft, rich coloured woollen carpets and matresses.

Moments later two young girls, just out of their teens, entered fram a side room. Having seen the film Devdas, they found Saigal's presence in person both awe-inspiring and highly pleasing. Saigal's friendly approach and unassuming manner soon dispelled their awe. An exuberant and intelligent conversation ensued. It was full of wity and spontaneous repartee in which these girls are specially trained, and with which Saigal appeared to be quite familiar. For me, this was a new and revealing experience, and I watched the scene with interest. One of the girls approached us with a tray of paanpattis and whcn my turn came, I was so confused and nervous that the girl gave a mischievous smile as my trembling fingers lifted the paan. I muttered my thanks, 'Shukriya', and pocketed the offering. I dared not eat it.

Of the two young girls, one was an accomplished singer with a rich, sonorous voice, and the other was an expert dancer. Thumri, the most captivating style in Hindustani music, has its home in U.P. The Banarasi or Purab form of presenting it has no parallel in light classical music. The dancer used her feet, hands, fingers, neck, eyes and eyebrows most expressively to illustrate the song. After another item - a Kathak dance - Saigal and the zamindar paid the girls and we rose to go. It was about 2.30 a.m. when we got back to the zamindar's kothee. It was situated on the river bank, not far from the confluence of the Ganga and Jamuna. Cool breezes brought fragrance from the garden below, while the full moon turned the river milky white. Saigal was in a happy mood and started humming. The zamindar produced a harmonium which I started playing. Saigal requested me to join him in singing. Taking the cue from the notes he hummed, I began a thumri in Mishra Khamaj - Mane Nahee Samiya. Instantly Saigal took up the refrain and then there followed a musical duet. Saigal then started Babul Mora, his piece de resistance in Bhairavi. The first rays of the sun heralding the dawn brought us down to earth.

I kept in touch with Saigal, and in the month of December, the same year, we met again - this time in Calcutta where I had gone for the Calcutta musical conference. My wife had accompanied me. Saigal took us home for dinner one evening. We had the privilege of meeting his old parents. Hailing from the beautiful valley of Kashmir, they were tall and fair and had a very impressive presence.

It was at the dinner table that night that I learnt more about Saigal. Before he made music and acting his vocation, Saigal had been a time-keeper in the Punjab railways. After that he had worked for a while as a typewriter salesman. He used to sing only within his circle of friends. Singing was his hobby. The credit for discovering Saigal goes to a representative of the Hindustan Recording Company. He correctly estimated the sales potential of the young man and bound him down to a life-long contract. This is why all his non-film songs were invariably issued during his lifetime under the Hindustan label, although in later years his records of film songs appeared under H.M.V. Iabel. (Hindustan was a sister concern to H.M.V.)

Years rolled by and Saigal continued to reach new heights of fame and popularity. Entering New Theatres in 1931, he became the national matinee idol. Chandidas, Devdas, Street Singer and Dushman were all huge box office successes. He soon migrated to Bombay to win new laurels.

I, in the meantime, had joined H.M.V. as recording executive. We met in 1943, in the recording studios. He embraced me and there were tears of joy in our eyes. Suddenly he asked me question, 'Do you drink or not?'

I was puzzled and asked, 'Why?'

He said, 'He who does not drink is not a gentleman.'

To this I replied that in that case I was only half a gentleman. Thereupon I told him about an incident involving the late poet Mirza Ghalib. An English soldier once asked him, 'Are you a true Muslim?' Ghalib pondered for a few moments and then said, 'No, I am only half a Muslim.' He explained that the Muslim religion forbids the eating of pork and the consumption of alcoholic drinks. 'I do not eat pork, but I do drink liquor.'

The point of the story was that while I refrained from strong drinks like whisky and rum, I did enjoy an occasional glass of beer. Saigal gave a hearty laugh. After that, whenever we were together I always had a beer while he nursed his scotch. While working in the Ranjit film company, he frequently came to our studio to record his songs, always in the afternoon. On arrival he would come straight to my cabin and put his bottie of scotch in my table drawer. He knew very well that it was safe with me!

Normally, there would be about half a dozen rehearsals before thc actual recording. He would have half a peg between rehearsals. His voice became mellower with each rehearsal, and then would come a stage that was the ultimate in beauty. It was my job to catch him on disc at this stage, when every word, every note bore the stamp of rare and rich artistry. All the songs he recorded for Tansen, Surdas and Shahjahan became immortal.

One day we ended the session a little early. Saigal came to my room and said, 'Bhaiyaa, I haven't heard you sing for a long time, I am not in the mood to go away so soon. Also I have sufficient scotch left in my flask.'

I used to compose tunes in those days. Pandit Indra, a top poet of the time, was a great friend of mine. Often he would drop in and we would sit together - I with the harmonium and Panditji with pad and pencil. Between the two of us we composed a number of devotional and love songs. That night I sang a few of them to Saigal.

He was soon to play the role of Surdas in the forthcoming film. Some of the songs took his fancy. He spoke to Sardar Chandulal Shah about them. Sardar Chandulal came to our Manager, with a request to requisition my services. He made a very tempting offer. However my previous experience in films had not been at all favourable and I had resolved never to enter films again. So after a couple of days I thanked them but declined the offer. Saigal came to me furious and thundering, 'Why are you being so foolish?' I explained my position to him. To this day I havn't regretted my decision nor did it affect my relations with Saigal.

I have very vivid memories of the evenings, when we recorded Madhukar shyam hamare chor, Main nahee makhan khayo (from Surdas), Diya jalao (from Tansen). Listening to these discs I recall the scenes. Saigal in the centre, flanked by the accompanists, with music director Khemchand Prakash and myself standing in front listening with interest.

Saigal used to lose himself completely under the influence of liquor but he never, even in that state, misbehaved or did anything not befitting a gentleman. He would be very restless if the alcohol did not have a quick effect on him. One night, after a late recording session, we were driving home from the studio. As we neared Parel, he asked if I knew of any place nearby, where he could have some more booze. He had been drinking the whole evening, so I tried to dissuade him and suggested that we proceed straight home. He said, 'Arre Bhai, what's the use of my drinking the whole day, if I return home sober - all that drink will go waste.' I dropped him at a hotel at Dadar where, I learnt later, he stayed the whole night with a bottle of 'Black and White'.

Saigal's devotion to his work was far above any other artist's. He had a heart of gold and was a faithful friend. He never turned away a needy fellow artist. On several occasions, I saw him dig into his pocket and give away all he had to some unfortunate person.

At night, if I am alone, I sometimes listen to his songs Balam aavo baso mere man me, Karu kya aasa niras bhayee, So ja Rajkumari so ja and Piya bin nahee aavat chain. I cannot hear without a pang his immortal melody Dukha ke din aba bita nahee.


Rajan Parrikar

[bawlachintu]

Enlightening Articles. My hearty thanks to you.

Kudos to Rao Saheb. A great Saigal-fan indeed.