Kundan Lal Saigal

Kundan Lal Saigal

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Category: Cinema

Kundan Lal Saigal Profile

  • Name:
  • Kundan Lal Saigal
  • Other Name:
  • K L Saigal
  • Born:
  • April 11, 1904
  • Died:
  • January 18, 1947
  • Born / Home Town:
  • Jammu
  • Father:
  • Amar Chand
  • Mother:
  • Kesar Bai

Kundan Lal Saigal Biography

Kundan Lal Saigal, shortly known as K. L. Saigal was the top singer of black and white film industry. Before Mukesh and Mohd Rafi dominated the screen, Saigal was the top voice of Bollywood. Still, his magical voice is regarded as the greatest voice of Hindi cinema. He was one of the great singers of Indian cinema who made people love film music. He was an actor who can be considered the first superstar of the Hindi film industry when the centre of film industry was Calcutta. He was successful as a leading actor too. Thus he begins to the group of singing stars of black and white era of music. His voice acts as a medicine of our mental agonies as well as soothe listener’s mind a lot. “Jab dil hi tooth gaya” is the best instance. He was equally popular in Bengali songs as well.

 

Saigal was born at Jammu. His father Amar Chand was a Tahasildar. His mother Kesar Bai was a deeply religious lady who was very fond of music. Thus young Kundan got an opportunity to listen bhajans and keerthans and he became attracted to it. He used to perform in Ram lila where he played the role of Sita. His formal schooling was brief. He was a school drop and started working as a railway timekeeper. Later, he worked as a typewriter salesman for the Remington Typewriter Company. He got opportunity to travel different places as a part of job and once when he visited Lahore, he happened to meet Meharchand Jain. They both moved to Calcutta and had many a mehfil-e-mushaira. Saigal was a budding star and his friend encouraged him a lot too. It paved him way to enter movies.

 

Music director Harishchandra Bali brought K.L. Saigal to Calcutta and introduced him to R. C. Boral. Impressed by his singing talent, Boral made a contract of Rs. 200 per month with New Theatres. Indian Gramophone Company released Saigal's record containing a couple of Punjabi songs composed by Harishchandra Bali, thus making his debut as a successful singing. Saigal rendered his voice for 185 songs which includes 142 film songs and 43 non-film songs. Leading singers of the industry, Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh and Kishore Kumar have agreed several times that K. L. Saighal is their singing idol and role model. Alcohol had become a predominant factor in Saigal's life and it resulted in his death at a comparatively younger age of 42. He died in the year 1947 before Indian independence.

Published: N/A

Updated: November 22, 2013

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