Hi friends, good day!
In my childhood and teenage days, I grew up watching Bedi, Chandershekher and Prasanna dominating the Indian Cricket and Rafi, Mukesh and Kishore dominating the Indian play back singing. Mukesh sahib was also one of the best singers of Indian film industry. I happened to be the lucky person who have seen Mukesh sahib's parental house in Daria ganj, Delhi. After finishing my M.Sc., my first job was with Campa Cola Ltd. in New Delhi as a Chemist where I worked for 14 months. One of my coworkers named Ramesh Chander Mathur was Mukesh sahib's cousin and he invited me at his sister's wedding in March 1982. Their house was in the same location. He told me that Mukesh sahib wasn't good in studies and used to sing all the time. Onc upon a time, his father slapped him and he ran away from home thus end up in Bombay.
Born in Delhi, in a small middle class Punjabi Kayastha family to Zorawar Chand Mathur, an engineer and Chand Rani. He was the sixth in a family of ten children. The music teacher who came home to teach Mukesh's sister Sundar Pyari, found a pupil in Mukesh who would listen from the adjoining room. He had a younger brother Parmeshwari Das. Mukesh left school after the 10th standard and worked briefly for the Delhi Department of Public Works. Mukesh experimented with voice recordings during his employment in Delhi and gradually developed his singing abilities.
Mukesh's voice was noticed by Motilal, a distant relative of Mukesh, when he sang at his sister's wedding. Motilal took him to Bombay, let him stay with him and arranged for singing lessons by pandit jagannath prasad for him. During this period, Mukesh managed to bag a role in a Hindi film, Nirdosh (Innocent) (1941). His first song was dil hi bujha hua ho to as an actor singer for Nirdosh. He got his break as a playback singer for Actor Motilal himself in 1945 with the film Pehli Nazar'music by Anil Biswas & Lyrics by Aah Sitapuri' (First Look). The first song he sang for a Hindi film was Dil Jalta Hai to Jalne De (If the heart burns, let it burn), which was incidentally picturised on Motilal.
He was such a big fan of K. L. Saigal that in his early years of playback singing he used to imitate his idol. In fact, it is said that when K. L. Saigal first heard the song Dil Jalta Hai to Jalne De, he said "That's strange, I don't recall singing that song".
He is best known for the songs he sang as a playback singer for Raj Kapoor, a legendary actor/director of Bollywood in the 1950s and 1960s.
In 1974, Mukesh received National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer for the song Kain baar yoon bhi dekhaa hai from Rajnigandha (1974), and Filmfare Awards for the songs Sab Kuch Seekha in the movie Anari (1959), Sabse bada naadan wahi hai in Pehchaan (1970), Jai Bolo in Be Imaan (1972) and Kabhi Kabhie Mere Dil Mein, the title song of Kabhie Kabhie
Mukesh got married in 1946 to Sarla Trivedi Raichand alias Bachhiben in a temple in Kandiwali, at the residence of R. D. Mathur. Sarla was the daughter of a Gujarati Brahmin millionaire. With him having no proper house, an erratic income and a supposedly "immoral" profession, Mukesh and Sarla had to elope. Everyone made dire predictions of unhappy days and divorce; but both weathered the lean days and celebrated their thirtieth wedding anniversary on 22 July 1976, five days before his departure for the U.S.A. on 27 July 1976. The couple had five children as Rita, Nitin, Nalini(d. 1978), Mohnish (Taboo - nick name) and Namrata (Amrita). He is the grandfather of actor, Neil Nitin Mukesh.
Great Raj Kapoor used Mukesh's voice for most of his films as it was very suitable to his own voice. Indian film industry's Bharat, Manooj Kumar also used his voice several times.
His death anniversary is on 27 August.
Edited by JaspalToronto - 15 years ago
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
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