K L Saigal Starts Career From Theater
In the early 1930s, he was hired by B.N. Sircar, head of the Calcutta-based film studio, New Theatres. Here, Kundan met R.C. Boral, the highly respected music composer of the pioneering film company. R.C. Boral took an instant liking to his talents. Saigal was employed by New Theatres on a contract basis of Rs. 200/month. There he came into contact with contemporaries like Pankaj Mullick, K. C. Dey and Pahari Sanyal. In a short span of time, he stood tallest among them with his brilliant singing and popularity.
The first film in which Saigal had a role was the Urdu film Mohabbat Ke Ansoo, followed by Subah Ka Sitara and Zinda Laash, all released in 1932. However, these films did not do very well. It was in 1933 that his four bhajans for the film Puran Bhagat created a sensation throughout India; thereafter, Saigal never looked back. Films that followed were Yahudi Ki Ladki, Chandidas and Rooplekha. As a youngster, India's melody queen herself, Lata Mangeshkar, is alleged to have said that she wanted to marry K.L. Saigal after seeing his performance in Chandidas. In 1935, Saigal played the role that would come to define his acting career: that of the drunken title character in Devdas, based on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's novel of the same name and directed by P.C. Barua. His songs in the film, Balam Aaye Baso Moray Man Mein and Dukh Ke Ab Din Beetat Naahi, became feverishly popular throughout the country.
Saigal picked up Bengali very well and acted in seven Bengali films, produced by New Theatres. 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.
Saigal's association with New Theatres continued to bear fruit in subsequent films that became all the rage, which created success after success with films such as Didi (Bengali)/President (Hindi) in 1937, Saathi (Bengali)/Street Singer (Hindi) in 1938, and Zindagi in 1940, with Saigal in the male lead. These films were lapped by audiences mainly for Saigal's songs. There are a number of immortal songs of this era which form the rich heritage of film music in India. Also, it is well-known that in Street Singer, Saigal rendered the song Babul Mora live in front of the camera, even though playback was becoming the preferred method of singing songs in films.
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