D.V. Paluskar • Raga Shree and some plates reissued on LP

D.V. Paluskar • Raga Shree and some 78 rpm's
HMV - EMI India - EALP 1263 - P.1962



Side A

A1 Raghupati Raghav Rajaram
A2 Jab Jankinath
A3 Thumak Chalat Ramchandra
A4 Payo Ri Maine Ram Ratan
A5 Chalo Man Ganga Jamuna Teer

Side B

B1 Raga Shree - Hari Ke Charan Kamal



Pandit Dattatreya Vishnu Paluskar (May 28, 1921 - October 25, 1955), was a Hindustani classical vocalist. He was considered a child prodigy. D.V. Paluskar gave his debut performance at the Harvallabh Sangeet Sammelan in Punjab at the age of fourteen. He inherited the Gwalior gharana and the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, but he was always open to adopting aesthetic features of other gharanas and styles.


He had a very sweet and melodious voice. His alap clearly outlined the raga he sang; this was followed by the bandish embellished by beautiful taans in an effortless enchanting style. He was a master at presenting an attractive and comprehensive picture of a raga in a very short duration. He cut his first disc in 1944 and visited China as a member of the Indian cultural delegation in 1955. Besides pure classical music, he was also a great bhajan singer. He introduced the famous bhajan "Payoji Maine Ram Ratan Dhan Payo" to the modern generation. He is also famous for an unforgettable duet with Ustad Amir Khan in the film Baiju Bawra. The only other film he sang for was a Bengali film called Shaap Mochan.

snipped from Wikipedia

D. V. Paluskar was gifted with a rich and melodious voice and the recorded performances he has left behind are replete with many a graceful pattern of skilful workmanship. On one side of this record is offered a classical exposition entitled "Raga Shri" which the artiste recorded barely three weeks before his death and which remains the last recording of his brilliant though shortlived career. The other side comprises of selections from his standard records on different themes all devotional in character and rendered in a light classical style.

from the liner notes on the back of the sleeve

So, I said that there was a severe shortage of D.V. Paluskar here, as he was not even represented on this compilation here earlier with all sorts of other greats, it is really a shame! But here is a more comprehensive collection and together with the next post it will at least make up for some of my previous negligence.

Also, I feel I must explain to the more hardline ICM listeners and the veteran rasikas that I really intend this place to be some kind of archive for music that is about to fall into oblivion at least among the many that maybe even never were touched by this wonderfully rich traditions.

So, I will keep on posting some records you already have, or have already heard . I find it impossible to post only extremely rare recordings because it would not do justice to this increadibly rich music tradition. There is no shortage on rare records to post but to the many even this D.V. Paluskar is rare, even in India.

Also, if I can make some of the "dub steppers" and "drum and basers" and "hip-hoppers" and "shufflers" (there are two of those in my house) or anyone else of the younger generations, to get in the slightest interested in any of these recordings, well, then at least a part of my mission is done. Especially now when they have discovered vinyl records and think tube amplifiers and open reel tape recorders are really cool ;-)

I hope that those of you that already have this record have not forgotten how wonderful the voice of Paluskar is, and still would consider giving it a spin (or a decoding as the case may be), and that those of you younger kids that maybe just thinks he has a funny hat, will still stop for a moment and listen.

I hope you enjoy!




Music ▼ +

K.L. Saigal - The Immortal Saigal

K.L. Saigal - The Immortal Saigal - Mere sapno ke rani and other Songs

Hindusthan Records LP-1418-0002 P.1977

Side One

01 Mahabat Sey Kavi (Parwana)

02 Milan Ko Din (Tadbir)

03 Hum Apna Unhey (Banwara)

04 Mahabat Ke Gul (Kurukshetra)

05 Merey Sapno Ke Rani (Sahajan)

06 Muskuratey Huey (Banwara)

Side Two

07 Oos Mast Nazar Pey (Parwana)

08 Kidhar Ho Tu (Kurukshetra)

09 Mai Kismat Ka (Tadbir)

10 Diya Jisney Dil (Banwara)

11 Janam Janam Ka (Tadbir)

12 Kaya Hamney Bigara (Banwara)

So, when it comes to Indian filmi and old plates. Here is the real object of my undivided musical love and nostalgia for almost forty years now. There is so much music, especially from India that I will share with you here but I cannot any longer keep him from you, and hopefully I can turn some of you on to this absolutely delightful pleasure. There is nothing more foolproof than being nostalgic for locations one had no chance of being in, at times one have not lived through. At least not when they were happening! But who is concerned with such trivial details, and anyhow, not even the future is what it used to be!

Kundan Lal (K.L.) Saigal (April 11, 1904 – January 18, 1947)

This is one of my big "singing heroes". I am a bit nutty about anything by Saigal. Especially the sentimental tunes and fortunately most of them are ...

As far as I have been able to find out there is only one biography over Saigal in english and it has long been out of print.

But here is another, altho brief account, to get a little background.

The Legendary K. L. Saigal

By: Farhana

Eons have gone by since his voice left people awestruck. K. L. Saigal was really the first male superstar of Indian Cinema who set the tone for musical melodrama acting in the 1930s and 40s. He was the pioneering singer of Hindi films. In the span of 15 years, he acted in 36 films and sang over 200 songs.

The virtuoso of music appraises Saigal as the 'Ghazal King'. Recognized as the greatest singer of the century, K. L. Saigal was a musical genius who mesmerized his audiences with his powerful and mystical rhythm, which had a touch of the divine. Without any formal training, Saigal stunned the music maestros of his time with his intuitive discernment of the (note/tune) 'ragas' and his splendid and reverberant voice.

Kundan Lal Saigal was born at Jammu on 12th April 1904. At the age of twelve Saigal gave a rendition of Meera Bhajan in Pratap Singh's court. The Maharaja was impressed and predicted that Saigal had a bright singing future. He was introduced to music by his mother. His only formal training apparently came from a little known Sufi peer, Salman Yussuf.

In 1932 K.L. Saigal's film career launched when he signed a contract with New Theatre to act and sing in films. Though not conventionally good-looking, people responded to his every man demeanor, that voice and his dialogue.

Saigal's first film was Mohabbat ke Aansoo (1932) but it was with the success of Chandidas (1934) that he became a star. Bhakt Surdas (1942) and Tansen (1943) were big hits and consolidated his popularity. The songs of Tansen are brilliant in their royal glory. The film successfully shapes the classical and semi-classical thumris and dadras to the need of cinema. Above all, the film is still remembered for Saigal's astonishing rendering of Diya Jalao in raag Deepak. Meri Bahen (1944) is technically one of Saigal's best films at New Theatres and was known of course for its music. As an actor-singer, Saigal attained unprecedented fame and popularity.

In 1935 Devdas benchmarked the star-singer's popularity. The story of a love-struck and doomed Devdas, based on Bengali writer Sharatchandra Chaterjee's novel and directed by P.C. Barua, the film was a triumph for Saigal and took him to dizzying heights. Saigal brought alive the character of Devdas creating the archetype of the relentlessly luckless, tragic hero. His brooding looks, the vagrant lock of hair, the sonorous voice filled with love and despair drove the nation into frenzy.

Saigal the singer surpassed Saigal the actor. The singing tradition he assimilated emphasized the poetic blending of syllables into musical forms. Saigal loved Urdu poetry. His musical interpretation of the ghazal gave a new form and content to the meaning of the verse. He produced an amazing array of emotions and sentiments. In fact, he succeeded in striking similar chords in the listeners' hearts. Many Urdu poets like Zauk, Seemab, Bedam, Arzu and Hasarat became famous, thanks to Saigal's translation of their poetry.

But Saigal's most favorite remained the great Mirza Ghalib. He immortalised Ghalib by singing his verses with his heart and soul, interpreting the deep meaning of every syllable. It is through Saigal that Ghalib gained vast popularity even among audiences who were foreign to Urdu. His renditions of Mirza Ghalib's poetry and his identification with its tragic iconography formed the famous Saigal persona. It is a less known fact that Saigal himself was a poet and is said to have recited his own compositions.

He brought music to the masses and, with his unique style, gave a totally new dimension to the music of his time. Up till 1946 right from 1932 the Hindi film world was called as K. L. Saigal musical era. Saigal had taken to alcohol and hence his health began failing. Saigal breathed his last on 18th January 1947 in Jalender, his hometown. The legend passed away depriving music lovers of his celestial voice. Sixty years since his demise, the immortal singer's haunting resonant voice continues to enchant listeners on early morning radio or on some fanatic collector's old gramophone player.

Another label from one of the numerous 78 rpm's.

Himself of plain background was always the elegant mild mannered gentleman.

He brought brilliant love poetry and refined music to the masses

Here is what another, anonymous snippet, has to tell:

Songs of K. L. Saigal

Famous Hindi Cinema actor and playback singer K. L. Saigal was born on April 11th, 1904 at Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir. Apart from his playback singing, he was also an actor and is considered the first superstar of Bollywood. He was born to the family of Amar Chand and Kesar Bai. His father was a tehsildar at the court of the Raja of Jammu & Kashmir and his mother was a deeply religious lady who was very fond of music. He was fourth of five children in the family and his formal schooling was brief and uneventful. His mother used to bring him in religious functions where ‘Bhajans’ and ‘Kirtan’ and ‘Shabad‘ were very commonly sung. Those bhajans or krtans were based on classical music which later inspired him. Later he was dropped out of school and he started working as a railway timekeeper. He married Asha Rani in 1935 and had three children.

Later he joined the Remington Typewriter Company and worked as a typewriter salesman. His work allowed him to tour several parts of India and once he moved to Lahore where he met with Meharchand Jain. Later both moved to Calcutta and had many a mehfil-e-mushaira. By that time Saigal was a budding singer and got the appreciation from his friend Meharchand. His passion for singing continued and became more intense with the passage of time. Then he was hired in 1930s by B.N. Sircar who was the head of the Calcutta-based film studio named New Theatres. Here Saigal met with some respected music composer and his contemporaries like Pankaj Mullick, K. C. Dey and Pahari Sanyal. He was employed by New Theatres on a contract basis of rupees two hundred per month. In 1932, K. L. Saigal made his debut in the Hindi Cinema with the movie titled ‘Mohabbat Ke Ansoo’ which went unnoticed.

Later in the next year 1933, he gave his voice in the movie ‘Puran Bhagat’ where he sang four bhajans which created a sensation throughout India. He was shot to fame with those bhajans and he never looked back. Once, legendary Lata Mangeshkar is alleged to have said that she wanted to marry K.L. Saigal after seeing his performance in Chandidas. It was the year 1935 when he appeared in ‘Devdas‘ as a lead actor and also he had given his voice to the songs in the movie. His songs “Balam Aaye Baso Moray Man Mein” and “Dukh Ke Ab Din Beetat Naahi” created history in India. Some of his movies in which he acted as lead actor such as President (1937), Street Singer (1938) and Zindagi (1940) became famous for his singing. Saigal moved to Bombay in 1941 where he worked with Ranjit Movietone. His movie ‘Tansen‘ in 1943 was always be remembered for his song “Diya Jalao” and “Sapta Suran”. He died at the age of 42 at Jalandhar on January 18th, 1947.

Some Hit songs of K. L. Saigal :

1. Thukra Rahi Hai Duniya - Bhanwara

2. Jab Dil Hi Toot Gaya - Shahjehan

3. Diya Jalao - Tansen

4. Dukh Ke Ab Din Beetat Naahi - Devdas

5. Mere Sapnon Ki Rani - Shahjehan

6. Babul Mora Naihar - Street Singer

7. Avasar Beeto Jaaye - Puran Bhagat

Here is a clip from one of his movies. The song is "Mere sapnon ki rani"

Two compilation LP covers from the sixties of Saigal's songs.

Here are some more YouTube links to famous songs

these first few are some of my real favourites:

Clip 1

Clip 2

Clip 3

Clip 4

Clip 5

Kundan Lal Saigal died of cirrhosis of the liver on 18th January 1947.

The band played Jab dil hee toot gayaa at his funeral as per his dying wish.

Just around 250 soulful songs and 28 films had made K.L. Saigal immortal in the Musical Hall of Fame.

This LP was presented to me by a friend in music and I thank him much for that!

Music ▼ +

Roots of Bollywood - The New Theatres Era - Filmi & Plates. [1930-1950]

Hindustan Records 78 rpm label

Filmi & Plates - Early Songs from India. [1930-1950]

Early Indian Movie songs - Roots of Bollywood

Saigal, Mullick & The New Theaters Ltd. era

I am introducing a long time passion here, namely Filmi Music, and since the beginning of the seventies, when I started collecting early film music from India, I borrowed, from a fellow student and poet from Bengal, my first LP's of Pankaj Mullick, Satchin Dev Burman and above all, Kundan Lal Saigal, I have never since stopped enjoying the wonderful soothing voices of them and their contemporaries. and have traced down a lot of those recordings. It is a great medicine and I always carry some with me for weary moments.

Calcutta in the 40's

"Filmi" is the indian common expression for songs from movies & "Plates" originally how 78 rpm shellac records were and is referred to in India.

Poster from the movie Tansen a big Saigal hit

"Early songs from India", well it includes music from stagedrama before and during the film era, and I wanted to be able to include songs that were popular but not neccesarily included in any movie or drama, but of similar genre, like light classical, contemporary popular lovesongs and comical songs and ditties.

[1930-1950] Choosing these years for he period may sound strange, and maybe extend a bit too late for my intention, but my hopes were of course not to immediately jump into modern or contemporary "Bollywood" movie songs, rather concentrate on the origins of the same! Even to the point of excluding the sixties and later, even including the fifties, much of what is considered the golden era, I felt I was stretching it a bit looking at what I really had in mind. I will begin with "The New Theatre's Era" including my absolute favourites Saigal & Mullick.

I will first supply a little background to the time by quoting an article about the Hindustani Records company, a very important National label at the time, later on succseeded by INRECO.

Early Indian Movie songs - Saigal, Mullick & The New Theaters Ltd. era

It is said that CC Saha or Chandi Charan had been introduced to Tagore in Heidelberg by Soumendranath Tagore, and the poet was among the 500 shareholders of Hindusthan Record.

Rabindranath Tagore

Chandi Charan visited Germany to buy recording equipment, and subsequently George Neumann from that country helped him trap the voices of great artistes on resin. The company had the distinction of bringing a Neumann disc-cutting machine from Germany in 1932.

This piece of antiquity has since been donated to the Birla Industrial Museum. Hindusthan was the first to transfer from optical film to disc.

At the same time, CC Saha opened a well-stocked music shop at the crossing of Madan Street and Dharamtalla. Although it is dusty, it is still a mecca for lovers of Bengali music. It may sound surprising, but the shop still sells Bengali music from its golden era down to present times.

Hindusthan Musical Products Ltd, as it was officially called, can take credit for making the first recordings of classical music stalwarts such as Ustad Faiyaz Khan and Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, besides launching a star like Kundan Lal Saigal.

The first Indian-owned music company attracted a galaxy of artistes like Pankaj Mallik and Sachin Deb Burman. After BN Sircar set up his film production company named New Theatres in Calcutta, its songs were initially released under that label. From the 1940s onwards, the company extended its repertoire to include songs popular in the Hindi-speaking belt, and numerous recording were conducted in Bhojpuri, UP folk, Chhattisgarhi folk, qawwali, bhajans and aartis. It also made forays into Oriya, Nepali and Gorkhali song markets.

The original entrance to Hindustan Records

But the mainstay of Hindusthan Records remained Bengali songs and artistes like Debabrata Biswas, Subinoy Roy, Rajeshwari Datta, Shantideb Ghosh, Purna Das Baul and Asoketaru Bandopadhyay remain its bestsellers.

The successor of Hindusthan Musical Products was the Indian Record Manufacturing Company (Inreco) set up in 1977, the third record manufacturing unit in India that was Indian-owned.

Inreco started with a wide range of artistes from Punjabi to Bhojpuri to Marathi, Tamil and Malayalam. Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Pandit Mallikarjun Mansur, Kumar Gandharva, Ustad Amir Khan and Manna Dey were among the artistes it recorded.

read the whole article here:

A whole lot of reissues have appeared over the years mostly with songs by K.L. Saigal but one collection exists that is giving a first introduction to some of the early artists on this CD.

Uma Devi, Mullick, Pahari Sanyal, Asit Baran

Songs from New Theatres' Era

Hindusthan Record - IP 6008 - P.1994

More info can be found about most of the reissues on their webpages:

For those with access to Spotify™ you can listen online here:

There is NO download link on this page, but the following posts will contain links to some LP's of reissued 78 rpm material that to listen to by some of the artists mentioned in this post.