Mukesh

Not many would know that Mukesh Chand Mathur, the singer who later came to be known as Mukesh wanted to be a film actor. He even acted in a few films but thankfully for Hindi film music lovers he got over his acting bug and decided to concentrate on his singing career and what a career it turned out to be. For 22 years he lulled his listeners with his voice and gave them songs that most of them will remember for the rest of their lives.

Background:
Mukesh Chandra Mathur was born on 22nd July 1923, in a small middle class family in Delhi. He was interested in acting and singing right from childhood and was a great fan of Kundan Lal Saigal. In spite of the fact that he only studied till the 10th standard he was able to obtain a good job as an assistant surveyor in the department of public works, where he worked for seven months.

However fate had other plans for him. While in Delhi Mukesh had recorded some non-film songs secretly. Then, Mukesh was bitten by the Bombay bug like scores of other young people before and after him. He arrived in Bombay with the hope of becoming a movie star. He stayed with his relative the famous actor Motilal.

Enters films with great hopes of becoming an actor but becomes a singer instead:
With Motilal's help, Mukesh got a role as an actor in the film Years later, he was to act again in Raj Kapoor’s Aah in 1953. His debut as a singer however came in the film Nirdosh with the song ‘Dil hi buja hua ho to.’ Then followed a duet with singer Kusum for the film Us Paar the song was ‘Jara boli ri ho.’ He later went on to sing the song ‘Badariya baras gayi us paar’ with Khursheed in the film Murti. By this time he had established a small place for himself in the hearts of his audience.

Then came an important milestone in his life. The year was 1945 and Anil Biswas asked him to record the song ‘Dil jalta hai to jalne de’ for the film Pehli Nazar. That song brought a still relatively unknown Mukesh to the altar of public fame. A legend was born and in the coming decades his golden voice would be heard in songs from Aag Anokhi Adaand, Mela across the entire nation.

Almost identical career paths of Mukesh, Shankar-Jaikishan and Raj Kapoor:
In 1949, came another milestone in his life. His association with Raj Kapoor and Shankar Jaikishan. Raj Kapoor had asked them to provide music for his R.K. films and Shanker-Jaikishen asked Mukesh to sing for them. The chartbusting success of the music in films like Awara and Shree 420 spread Mukesh’s voice of Mukesh all the way to Russia where even in the streets of Moscow you could hear people singing ‘Awaara hoon’ and ‘Mera joota hai japani’.

Raj Kapoor being the astute filmmaker that he was understood the importance of good film music and the direct impact it had on the success or failure of a film at the box office. His personal interest in music helped him. He would review every tune with Shanker or Jaikishen and his personal approval was needed before a tune was selected for the final recording. Raj Kapoor was present at the studio during the recording of all his songs, personally cheering the orchestra. The result of such dedication can be seen years later when each new generation freshly discovers the gems that lie embedded on the sound-trac 758 ks of such movies as Aah, Awara, Barsaat (old), Shree 420, Anari, Jis Desh Me Ganga Behti Hai, Sangam, Mera Naam Joker and many more. With the success of Raj Kapoor was intertwined the success of Mukesh and Shankar Jaikishan.

Mukesh’s accomplishments outside the R.K. banner:
Among the other recent music directors for whom Mukesh sang a good number of his songs were Laxmikant Pyarelal, Kalyanji Anandji, Salil Choudhary, Usha Khanna, R.D. Burman, and S.D. Burman. Another music director to have used Mukesh’s voice well was Khaiyyam. The lyrics of Sahir Ludhianvi, Khaiyyam’s music and Mukesh’s voice created magic in the film Kabhi Kabhie.

The euphoria of winning the national award is short-lived:
In 1974 Mukesh received a National award for the song ‘Kahi baar yoon bhi dekha hai’ sung in the film Rajinigandha composed by Salil Chowdhury. Two years later on the 27th of August 1976, Mukesh died of a heart attack in Detroit while on an American tour. Although he is no more Mukesh’s ever green voice is still being heard in some remote corner or the other. Like the famous song in Anari goes:

KE MAR KE BHI KISI KO YAAD AAYENGE
KISI KE AASOON O ME MUSKURAYENGE
KAHE GA PHOOL HAR KALI SE BAAR BAAR
JINA ISI KA NAAM HAI

Courtesy: Net Sources Music India OnLine
Published: 27th August 2003