So ja Rajakumari so ja K.L. Saigal

So ja, Rajakumari, so ja - K.L. Saigal

Kundan Lal Saigal, known more popularly as K.L. Saigal was an early star in the world of Hindi cinema. In the 30's and 40's, the silver screen followed in the tradition of the theatre, and actors sang in their own voices. Many stars like Pahari Sanyal, Suraiya, Talat Mehmood, and even Ashok Kumar sang in their movie roles. It was not until the 50's that playback singing brought us the precious voices of later years like Mohammed Rafi, Lata, Mukesh, and many more.

I would like to take a short break from our journey into that masterpiece, Mughal-e-Azam, and its songs, to step briefly into an earlier era of film music in India for this page of my blog. I dedicate it with love and respect to my dear brother, Mr. S.R. Ananthanarayan, who has given generously of his love to all in our family. Mr. S.R.A. is a gentleman in the true sense of the word, now as he was in 1940 when K.L.Saigal sang this song in P.C. Barua's film, Zindagi. I believe that was the year of his marriage, and this song is one of his favourites, as it is mine.

Zindagi was made at New Theatres in Calcutta. In the tradition of Bengali cinema, it ventured boldly to depict a young man, played by K.L. Saigal, who falls in love with a married woman who is the subject of cruelty and abuse from her husband. The relationship is a platonic one, but the love was still a taboo subject, and the film created quite a furor in its day.

K.L. Saigal,
Credit: The Hindu, article
by M. Sai Gopal, April 12, 2012.

K.L. Saigal was encouraged by his mother to learn music at a young age. He accompanied her to many bhajans, kirtans and other prayers, where he sang along with the rest of the devotees while developing his talent. Working for Remington Typewriters as a salesman, he toured all over India. In pre-partition Lahore, he had a chance meeting with Meherchand Jain in the Anarkali market. Anarkali market exists even today in Lahore as a bustling bazaar. Meherchand Jain moved later to Calcutta, and Saigal followed him there. With their mutual love of music, they attended mushairas, and Saigal was introduced to movie icons like B.N. Sirkar, Pankaj Mullick and Pahari Sanyal. He played roles in many movies starting in 1932, acting in Bengali movies as well as Hindi movies. He became fluent in Bengali after moving to Calcutta, and has sung in Punjabi and Bengali in addition to his Hindi film appearances. The moment that probably made Saigal a favourite of movie fans was his performance in Sarat Chandra Chattopadhya's Devdas, which was made by P.C. Barua in 1935.

In later years, Saigal moved to Bombay and took acting roles in many more movies, and also recorded many songs, bhajans and ghazals outisde movies. His love for alcohol became his bane, his health deteriorated, and he died at the young age of 43 in 1947. While in Bombay, the family lived on what is known today as R.P. Masani Road in Matunga, the same street where the Kapoor family had a house, and the many famous children of Prithviraj Kapoor grew up. In those days, it was known as Punjabi Gali. I remember, in my college days, getting together with my friends some evenings, and Saigal's son, Madan Mohan, would entertain us with his singing. The son had a voice that sounded a lot like his father's. At the time, I only knew his name as Gogi. Unfortunately for all of us, his attempts at a career in singing for films were not as fruitful despite the support of Lata Mangeshkar, who is an ardent fan of K.L. Saigal's music.

In the late forties, new singers like Kishore Kumar and Mukesh made their bids in films and as playback singers. So great was the influence and popularity of Saigal in those days, that these new singers also sang in the same style. Mukesh recorded the song,'Dil Jalta hai to Jalne De' in the film 'Pehli Nazar', a song which has remained evergreen all these years. The music director Naushad Ali encouraged Mukesh to develop his own style, and he never looked back. In fact, Mukesh sang the same song in his last ever concert in Detroit (1976), but this time in his own style. 

'So ja Rajakumari, So ja' was a perennial favourite of Hindi music fans even for long after Saigal's death. It was often featured on the morning program at 7 on Radio Ceylon, in the time slot for old songs. There are no prints of the movie available for the movie now, so it is difficult to find any good quality videos on Youtube. The song still carries the same beauty as the original. To listen to the song, please click here.


There is also a video on Youtube which features a tribute by Lata Mangeshkar to K.L. Saigal, where she follows the original with her own soulful rendition of the song. To hear this version, click here.

Lyrics in Hindi:

सो जा, 

सो जा राजकुमारी, सो जा

सो जा मैं बलि हारी, सो जा,

सो जा राजकुमारी, सो जा

सो जा मीठे सपने आयें

सपनों में पी दरस दिखायें

उड़कर रूपनगर में जायें

रूपनगर में सखियाँ आयें

राजा जी  माला पहनायें 

चूमें माँग तिहारी,सो जा

सो जा राजकुमारी, सो जा

In English script:

So jaa Rajakumari, so jaa

So jaa, main bali harii, so jaa

So jaa Rajakumari, so jaa

So jaa, meethe sapne aayen

Sapnon men pi daras dikhayen

Udkar  roopnagar men jaayen

Roopnagar men sakhiyaan  aayen

Raja ji mala pahnayen

Choomen mang tiharii, so jaa

So jaa Rajakumari, so jaa

Translation: 

Go to sleep, my princess, sleep

Go to sleep, my sweetheart

Sleep, and let the sweet dreams come

In the dream, your lover will appear,

And together you will fly away to the fairyland

In the fairyland, your friends will come,

The king will hang a garland around your neck

And he will gently kiss you on the forehead

Go to sleep, my princess.

I hope you enjoy this gem from years gone by. Those were the beginning days of Hindi film music, and such songs were the seeds from which we reaped many more precious creations in later years. Thank you, Mr. Saigal.

As usual, thank you for your support of my blog pages, please share on your Facebook page, Twitter, and elsewhere. We will continue with Mughal-e-Azam on my next page.

Venkat 

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Disclaimer: I was not there to observe and report on all the events and details in my blog above. The miscellaneous facts come from various sources on the internet. Most of them are mentioned in more than one or two websites, and it would be impossible for me to discover the original owners of the bits. All of the narrative is in my own words. If you have an exclusive copyright to any of the facts or fiction that I have paraphrased here, you can send me a request to remove them if you like.

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