CUPERTINO, CA: India Community Center (ICC), Cupertino held a Special Concert to pay tributes to the legend Kundan Lal Saigal, a towering figure, for his extra-ordinary achievements in the field of Indian movie industry and music. The goal behind organizing this concert was to highlight Saigal’s accomplishments to the new generation of youth and adults, who will carry forward the torch of his glorious achievements in USA, in the coming years.
Dr Krishna M. Gutala, who is an ardent lover of Saigal’s singing career, gave a brief life-sketch of Saigal, enumerating his achievements. Saigal’s esoteric and unique style of singing, combined with his acting in leading roles made him a great singer and a shining star. Even though 70 years have elapsed after his demise (April 11, 1904 to January 18, 1947), music lovers in India pay him rich tributes on one of these dates, every year. At these events, new singers join to keep up the tempo of his style. ICC feels that this practice could be followed in USA as an annual feature.
Kundan Lal Saigal through his melodious voice, sang devotional, and Sufi songs as well as Ghazals. He was no doubt, a great singer of the last century, an extremely popular and a shining star who shone with dazzling brightness over a decade and half, in the thirties and forties of the twentieth century.
As there was no playback singing system in those days, Saigal was required to act and sing as well, in the movies where he got leading roles. There were singer-actors in his time, but none had the charisma and appeal that Saigal commanded. His characteristic rich and reverberating voice, his unique diction and style of rendition, coupled with his inborn talent of natural singing the songs with emotiveness and intense feeling were his great assets.
He had no formal training whatsoever in classical music from any preceptor; yet he was at the top in his field of art. Due to his extra-ordinary merits, he became the Super Star of Indian Cinema and was the most popular singer-actor of his time, not only in India but he showcased his talent abroad, in Afghanistan, Iran, Kuwait, Nairobi, Tangiers, Jakarta and Fiji as also many other countries.
He was blessed by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore for his style of acting-cum-singing even in Bengali movies. With him, a new era of Bollywood movie acting and singing developed creating a new crop of music composers, directors as well as actors. Despite these accomplishments, Saigal was said to be the most modest, kind and simple person, as described by celebrities like Jamini Roy, Raghava Menon, Balwant Gargi etc.
Saigal was also admired by legendary singers and musicians of today like Lata Mangeshkar, Md. Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Talat Mahmood, Jagjit Singh and even music directors like Pankaj Mullick and other celebrities such as late V.Shanta Ram, Kedar Sharma, and Sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan.
The celebrated music-director Naushad expressed his admiration for Saigal after his demise, in his own poetic format: “Mere dil ko yakeen hai- Yeh mukammal nagmoam ki kasam… Aaj bhi zinda hai woh Saigal” ( Naushad swears by his lyrics that it is certain even to-day, that Saigal lives).
Saigal rendered in all, 185 songs of which 142 were film songs (110 Hindi, 30 Bengali and two in Tamil and 43 non-filmi songs which were in either Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi and Persian. He popularized “Ghazals” in India and was called “King of Ghazals” by the connoisseurs of music.
Not belonging to any “Gharana” (school) and without any formal training, Saigal stunned the music maestros of his time, with his instinctive knowledge of the ragas with his rich resonant voice. In short, one can say that he became “immortal” through his accomplishments in his life span of 43 years.
At the ICC Concert held on January 18, to pay tributes to the legend Saigal, some of the best local award winning singers (both ladies and gents) were selected, as they were specialized in singing Saigal’s songs in his style. Lady singers followed the pattern of Lata Mangeshkar songs which she had sung in a special album to pay tributes to Saigal. Following were the songs actually presented by these singers:
Fatu Thadani: Din Neeke Beete Jate Hai (Pooran Bhagat 1933); Dilke Fafole (Dhoop Chav-1935); Babul Mora Nehar Choote Jaye (Street Singer 1946) and Kahe Guman Kare Gori (Tansen 1943)
Harindra Vasavda: Yeh Kaatibe Takdeer (Meri Behan 1944); Jab Dil hi Toota Gaya (Shahajehan1946); Dukh ke Din Ab Beetat Nahi (Devdas 1935); Soja Raj Kumari Soja (Zindagi1940)
Upendra Kaul who hails from Jammu where Saigal was born is a well known Singer in the style of Saigal and presented four songs: Karu kya aas niras bhari (Dushman1939); Jo beet chuki, so beet chuki (Pujarin1936); Jo baat tere muh ki hai – non-filmi song; Ab Kya Bataun Tere Milane Se -Non-filmi song
Smitha Chandan (lady singer) Nainheen ko raah dikha Prabhu (Surdas1942)
Seema Verma: Gam Diye Mustakil (Shahjehan 1946)
Smitha and Anushree: Do Naina Mataware Tihare (Meri Behen1944)
Ram Aswani: Mai Kya Janoo Kya Jadu Hai (Zindagi 1940)
Prasun Kumar Jha: Jhanak Jhanak Mori Baaje Payaliya (Mere Huzoor) sung by Manna Dey who was one of famous singers inspired by Saigal.
Shakuntala Bahadur: Suno Suno He Krishna Kaala – Saigal’s song from film Chandidas-1934
Smitha and Anushree sang the duet of a popular song of Lata Ji: Ayega Ayega Anewala( Mahal 1944) as a grand finale of the event which resonated in the auditorium.
Accompanying music on harmonium on most of the songs was provided by Smt. Swasti Pandey, Classical Singer, and on Tabla, it was Ustad Surinder Ji Mann, a well-known Bay Area Tabla and Sitar Maestro.
Performance of all singers and the accompanying musicians was adjudged as awesome by the audience numbering 180 people who exhibited their appreciation though their thunderous applause.
The Event was emceed by Smt. Shakuntala Bahadur, a Sanskrit scholar who has flair for speaking both in Sanskrit as well as Hindi. She also introduced the event with Goddess Saraswati Vandana.
The sound system was well managed by Shri Lal Khatri. Vote of thanks was proposed by Pradeep Joshi, retired Program Director, ICC.
India Post News Service
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