A melodious morning

I woke up with this song playing in my head. I can’t really think of any conceivable reason why it might have happened. I had not seen or read anything about the actor or the character in the latter part of yesterday. In fact I had seen a French movie dubbed in English late in the evening (very well done actually, even the lip synching was managed very well for the most part). One of the mysteries of the human mind.

I had seen the movie in the early 70s during one of the Sunday evening movie shows , a regular feature on DD those days, something we would look forward to. Had it not been for this and the Saturday afternoon film club shows in G S Medical College, I would never have developed the taste for old Hindi movies and my understanding would have been much the poorer.

Shahjehan was the movie with the first Superstar of Bollywood. Kundanlal Saigal was churning out movies one after the other and his movies were hits too, his singing and screen presence no doubt a big contributor to the success.

The movie made just before the Brits left India after WWII had great music by Naushad. The lyrics by Khumar Barabankvi for this song were beautiful. This was his debut film and song, lyrics for most of the other songs are by Majrooh Sultanpuri, also on his debut.

What I loved with Kundanlal Saigal, best shown in the song- is his natural acting ( way ahead of the times), his easy body language, gesticulations that were apt and in sync with the song and singing (he was, arguably the foremost singer of his times by the proverbial mile. All others at the time (and for decades afterwards) were so deeply impressed by the man, they all (subconsciously or otherwise) aped his style (and tried to mould their voice to his). The early songs of Mukeshji, Kishoreda and even Rafisaab are proof of the profound influence KLS wielded on a couple of generations. The apocryphal story about KLS listening to Mukeshji’s “Dil Jalta Hai to Jalne de” and remarking that he didn’t remember which movie he (KLS) had sung it for, as he clearly mistook the song for one he had sung himself, is said to be true, Mukesh’s younger son Mohnish confirmed the story in my many chats with him. I wonder why other logs of wood who passed off as heroes in the 50 s and 60s didn’t bother to see his movies and learn from him. Bharat Bhushan and Pradeep Kumar are two names amongst a legion of very inept actors who infested Bollywood those days. All of them seem to be afflicted by Parkinson’s disease, so complete was their legendary ability to prevent any emotions from coming to the fore.

One only needs to watch Kundan Lal Saigal in this movie made by Abdul Rashid Kardar to fathom the depth and astounding calibre of this singer-actor, and understand why he was idolised, nearly deified, and his inimitable singing style- that inspired and hypnotised 2 generations of Indians – imitated by many singers.

Although he was not seen in the title role, and appeared in only a few scenes in the movie, his commanding screen presence was obvious. Every time he turned up on screen, he rendered one of his immortal masterpieces – “Jab Dil Hi Toot Gaya”, “Aye Dil-e-Beqarar Jhoom”’ and “Gham Diye Mustaqil” – make the film captivating and little wonder I fell in love with his singing and retain that love for the man who died more than a decade before my birth.

The movie was made beautifully by Kardar. Rehman in one of his early appearances is Shahjehan , Jairaj (who got a Phalke award) has the role of Shirazi, the Iranian Sculptor and Ragini has the role of the heroine who is Saigal’s love interest. The heavy urdu dialogues are written by Kamal Amrohi (no mean poet himself) and the movie is a great stage between the rather artificial acting of an earlier era and the more natural emoting of a later era.

Have a wonderful day ahead, folks. Stay calm and safe. Stay healthy while we get more active and brace for the second wave of the Wuhan Virus

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