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A visual treat for Saigal's admirers
Kundan Lal Saigal with Jamuna in "Devdas".
A FOUR-DAY festival of legendary singer and actor Kundan Lal Saigal's films is being organised at the India Habitat Centre here by Saigal Sangeet Sarita in collaboration with India Habitat Centre and the National Film Archives of India, Pune. The festival will be inaugurated by Parminder Chopra, grandson of K. L. Saigal on March 2 at 7 p.m.
The selected films, which will be screened at 7 p.m each day, are Amar Saigal (March 2), Devdas (March 4), Dushman (March 9) and Tansen March 10). Saigal Sangeet Sarita, an organisation founded by Dinesh Sharma in 1972, is dedicated to perpetuate the memory of K. L. Saigal and has been organising a series of functions to mark the birth centenary celebrations of the legendary singer that was inaugurated by Najma Heptullah, President of ICCR, on April 28 last year, at FICCI Auditorium. Saigal was born on April 4, 1904 at Jammu.
Amar Saigal, produced by B. N. Sircar in 1955 will set the mood for the festival as it is based on the life of K. L. Saigal. With G. Mungheri playing the role of Saigal, the film has 20 songs taken from his old films like "Main Kya Janoo Kya Jadoo Hai", "Ik Raje Ka Beta Lekar", "Ik Bangla Bane Nyara", "Kahe Ko Rar Machayee", "So Ja Raj Kumari Soja", "Jab Dil Hi Toot Gaya", "Ai Katibe Taqdeer", "Babul Mora Naihhar Chhuto Hai Jaye" and "Jhulna Jhulao Ri".
The next film, "Devdas" to be shown on March 4 is based on Sarat Chandra's novel by the same name and was produced by B. R. Sircar in 1935. It was this film that established Saigal as the first superstar of Indian cinema. In this film, the character of "Paro"was played by Jamuna and that of Chandramukhi by singing star Rajkumari. The songs of this film, "Baalam Aye Baso More Man Mein" and "Dukh Ke Din Ab Bitat Hain" could be heard throughout the length and breadth of India to this day. The film was directed by Pramthesh Barua with lyrics by Kedar Sharma and music by Timir Baran. The cast also includes K. C. Desy and Pahari Sanyal.
As for Dushman, it is a social film directed by Nitin Bose and is again memorable for its popular songs like "Karoon Kya Aas Niras Bhayyi Diya Bujhe Phir Se Jal jaye" and "Preet Mein Hai Jeewan Jokhon, Ki Jaise Kolhu Mein Sarson".
"Tansen", produced by Chandulal Shah, is based on the life of the legendary singer who was one of the Navratnas in the court of Emperor Akbar. This film is famous for songs like "Bagh Laga Doon Sajni Tore Nainan Mahi He Ri" and also a duet, "Morey Balapan Ke Saathi Chhaila Bhool Jaiyyo Na".
Saigal acted in 36 films - 28 Hindi, 7 in Bengali and one in Tamil - and till 1939, he was based in Kolkata. He later shifted to Mumbai where he acted in films like "Bhakta Surdas" (1942), "Tansen" (1943), "Kurukshetra" (1945), "Omar Khayyam" (1946), "Tadbeer" (1945) and "Shahjehan" (1946). His last film was "Parwana" (1947) in which singing star Suraiyya was the heroine. In all, Saigal sang about 150 film and 50 non-film songs.
By Kannan K
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Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
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