One icon’s name that constantly came up during our growing up years from our Dad’s repertoire of music, films and literary pursuits, was that of late Kundan Lal Saigal, who had passed away on 18th January in 1947 at the astonishingly young age of 43. Today, after many decades we would have loved to spend this day chatting with our Dad of many splendored facets of legendary singer he always reverentially called ‘Saigal Sahab’!
As young children, we found it difficult to fathom his fascination for such a strong nasal voice and style which we felt was on a slow side ! Later we learnt that Saigal’s distinctive singing was revered and idolised by the legends of our generation of post-independence era of playback-singing such as Lata, Kishore, Rafi and Mukesh. They have like devout followers, also sung their own versions of the famous Saigal songs from the 1930-40’s.
In the 1970s, like our whole generation of youth, I’d become an ardent fan of Kishore da’s awesome singing prowess and I’ve read that surprisingly Kishore had initially come to Mumbai not to become a singer/actor but to meet his idol K L Saigal ! While slowly Dad had converted us to becoming avid followers of Saigal’s incomparable timbre and heart-wrenching songs (‘Dukh Ke Ab Din..’ from his classic 1935 film ‘Devdas’, ‘So Ja Rajkumari..’, ‘Preet Mein Hai..’ and so many immortal songs), Dad too became a loyal Kishore fan, yet his refrain was ‘Kishore’s best songs have that soulful Saigal quality..’.
With years behind me, I find myself unable to croon any of the musical hits of today, for genre of that old-world melody has changed. We can now well understand Dad’s passion for the effortless grace, feel and poignancy that Saigal Sahab’s singing evoked in an era where stories were woven around romance & serenity of literary classics and technology and speed hadn’t completely possessed lives of people all around, old and young alike !
An aspect we also identify with was the appreciation for all things beautifully sublime – romance was once all about poetry, words & music. It’s said Saigal with his demeanour & mellifluous voice was a gallant ‘ladies man’ too. Dad was convinced that the man and his voice were both surreal. As Saigal himself sang ‘Main Kya Janoo Kya Jadoo Hain…’
Working on Living 