7 Responses to "Baalam aaye baso morey man mein"
February 17, 2009 at 1:51 am
You are right. Though I hated having to listen to old songs when I was a kid, now I like his voice and songs. And there has to be some valid reasons why his songs are still popular whereas many new songs are not.
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October 17, 2011 at 11:02 pm
Thanks for posting this. There are many KL Saigal songs that I have really come to appreciate over time.
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February 6, 2012 at 9:28 pm
I just came across a song sung by Surendra In film DECCAN QUEEN (1936). The tune of the song is almost the same as that of K L Saigal’s song. Check the audio clip : http://youtu.be/lE3MmZOXJjA
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February 7, 2012 at 1:24 am
Sadanand ji,
A very correct observation. ‘Deccan Queen’ is the debut film of singer-actor Surendra Nath. The film is produced by Sagar Movietone and directed by Mehboob Khan. The music for this film is by Ashok Ghosh and Pransukh M Nayak.
In early thirties, Calcutta was the more prominent center for film making as compared to Bombay. With New Theatres in full steam, having singing stars like KL Saigal, KC Dey, Kanan Devi, Pahari Sanyal etc., Calcutta was releasing hits one after the other, and Bombay was a poor second for many years. The exclusive contract that KL Saigal had with New Theatres, ruled out any possibility of his being contracted by any other production house.
At this juncture, in 1936, Surendra Nath entered the film world in Bombay. Sagar Movietone and Mehboob Khan saw in him the potential to fill in the vaccuum in the Bombay film industry. The song “Birha Ki Aag Lagi More Man Mein” (the song in the link you have provided) song was a delibrate attempt to copy from the KL Saigal hit, as a challenge. Although this song and the voice caught the attention of the public, there was a general disdain for having attempted this copy (or parody). In 1936, Surendra Nath worked in 3 more films as an actor-singer – Aansuon Ki Duniya, Village Girl, and Manmohan. Except for one song in Manmohan “Tumhi Ne Mujhko Prem Sikhaya”, no other song of his became popular. This disheartened the young singer so much that he was almost toying with the idea of giving up films as a career and return to being a lawyer (his qualification in education).
Then in 1937, he was signed up to work in the film ‘Jaagirdaar’. The music direction was in the hands of Anil Biswas. Anil Da became verily impressed with this talented young singer. He thoughtfully mentored Surendra, and suggested him to move out from under the shadow of Saigal Saab, and establish his own style and voice. ‘Jaagirdaar’ became a turning point for Surendra, and after that he went from strenght to strength in films like Gramophone Singer, Aurat, Alibaba, Bharthari, reaching his golden best with Anmol Ghadi in 1946, under the baton of Naushad. He continued to sing in the films till mid fifties, after which he was seen in the films only as an actor, till the mid seventies.
Rgds
Sudhir
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February 7, 2012 at 6:59 am
Thanks a lot for a detailed explanation.
Notwithstanding the fact of this song, I am now hooked to Surendra’s voice and have listened to “teri yaad ka deepak jalta hai” from film GAWAIYA (1954) 5-6 times during the last 24 hours 🙂
Audio clip : http://youtu.be/-lom7w0XEgY
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
February 16, 2009 at 7:26 pm
Thanks for posting this. There are many KL Saigal songs that I have really come to appreciate over time.
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