Early Demises of Bollywood Artists due to Alcoholism.

Recently I have noticed youngsters uploading videos paying tribute to a yesteryear famous singer, Kundan Lal Saigal.  Stage singers are following suit by singing his songs.  He was a legend and his songs are still popular even among young music lovers. 

In 1945, Producer/Director A R Kardar was making his period film “Shahjahan” with K L Saigal in the lead role. The movie had five solo songs that were supposed to be sung by the legend.  The music composer of the movie was a newcomer in the industry, then a young man of 26, called Naushad.

Saigal had a negative thinking of himself, in that if he records songs in a state of being tipsy, the result would come out better.  This belief was strong and he always used to have couple of shots before any recording, although it was against the advice of his physician, as his liver was already damaged. 

Naushad had the opposite view but being a novice and much younger than him, he approached A R Kardar with a humble request; to try recording his songs while he was in a totally sober state.  They decided to record two versions of the same song and judge which one was carrying more weight.  After listening to both versions all the “judges” including the “defendant” were unanimous in favour of song that was sung sober.  K L Saigal paid a gratitude to Naushad by saying if they would have met a couple of years earlier, then he might have had a few more years to live, and that he would also have sung better!

“Shahjahan” was released in 1946.  Besides the movie, all its songs became hits and are still popular. 

K L Saigal passed away in January 1947 due to his liver ailment.  His last wish was that his funeral procession be lead with a musical band playing the tune of the “Shahjahan” signature song; “Jab dil hi toot gaya, hum jike kya karenge“

With this, I am reminded of other great film artists who met their premature death because of alcoholism.  Below is a short list:

Composer Jaikishan (42)

Composer Madan Mohan (51)

Lyricist Shailendra (43)

Actress Meena Kumari (42)

Actor Chandra Mohan (42)

Here I will add a bit more information, as I feel many of the readers may not be aware of Chandra Mohan:

Chandra Mohan was brilliant actor, famous for his dialogue delivery in his era of early forties.  

His most acclaimed films were “Pukar”, where he played the role of a Moghul King Jahangir. In “Shaheed” he acted as a lawyer who defends his son, a freedom fighter, played by Dilip Kumar. In the court scenes his powerful dialogue delivery was par excellence. 

He was K. Asif’s first choice to play the role of Akbar in Moghul e Azam.  His premature death in 1946 caused the movie to be shelved.  Later K. Asif resumed filming the same movie, but with a different cast. Prithviraj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar were substituted for Chandra Mohan and Sapru respectively.

The filmy world has truly lost too many of its precious jewels early due to this vice.

A.K. Bagha

Mwanza

Tanzania.