Sunday, October 17, 2010
kundan lal saigal history
orn - 11
April 1904
Died - 18
January
1947
Achievements - KL Saigal is considered the
greatest superstar singer cum actor of all times
in the history of the Indian film industry. The
role of a drunken character 'Devdas' in the film
bearing the same title and directed by P.C. Barua
made Saigal an icon overnight. The songs of this
film turned hugely popular with the public
throughout the country.
Kundan Lal Saigal or KL Saigal is considered the
greatest superstar singer cum actor of all times
in the history of the Indian film industry. He was
born on 11 April in 1904 at Nawa Shahar in
Jammu situated in today's Indian state of Jammu
& Kashmir and was the fourth child among the
five. KL Saigal dropped out of school and pursued
various odd jobs before entering Bollywood. For
instance, he has worked as railway timekeeper
and later, as typewriter salesman, which allowed
tours to several regions of India.
Here more about the biography of KL Saigal. It
was his travel as salesman that brought KL Saigal
to Lahore, where he befriended Meharchand Jain.
With a passion for music, both remained
buddies even when they moved to Kolkata and
had many a mehfil-e-mushaira. During that time,
Kundan was an emerging singer and
Meharchand always encouraged him to pursue
his talent. As such, Kundan Lal Saigal's interest in
music continued and become more intense with
time.
Luck turned in his favour when during early
1930s, KL Saigal was appointed by B.N. Sircar,
who was the manager of the Kolkata-based film
studio, New Theatres. It was here that Kundan
got introduced to R.C. Boral, the great music
composer of the film company, who liked KL
Saigal's singing style very much. KL Saigal was,
thus, hired by the New Theatres on a contractual
agreement of Rs 200 every month. Thereafter,
Kundan met contemporaries like Pankaj Mullick,
K.C. Dey, Pahari Sanyal et al. But in very short
time, he surpassed them all.
After this, the life history of KL Saigal saw him
get hold of his first film role. It was an Urdu film,
Mohabbat Ke Ansoo that was followed by others
like Subah Ka Sitara and Zinda Laash in the year
1932. Next year, his four bhajans for the movie
Puran Bhagat whipped up a huge uproar in the
country. And this took KL Saigal to the yet
unsurpassed heights of success in the Indian film
industry. After this, the other hit films that
followed were Yahudi Ki Ladki, Chandidas and
Rooplekha.
In the year 1935, Kundan Lal Saigal enacted a
particular role in a movie that changed his
fortunes for ever. It was the drunken character of
Devdas based on a book written by Sarat
Chandra Chattopadhyay and directed by P.C.
Barua. The songs of this film turned hugely
popular with the public throughout the country.
The great Indian philosopher and thinker,
Rabindranath Tagore first heard Saigal before
giving consent for the first time to a non-Bengali
singing his songs. Saigal endeared himself to the
whole of Bengal through his 30 Bengali songs.
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