‘He is celebrated more for his melancholic songs although he sang an equal number of happy songs.’
IMAGE: Singer Mukesh at the Vividh Bharati studio during the Jaimala recording. Photograph: Kind courtesy All India Radio/Twitter
Key Points
- ‘To be loved in equal measure for being a good human being and a good singer is to me the highest achievement. I am so proud to be my father’s son.’
- ‘My father was very keen that I pursue my studies. How was I to convince him my true vocation in life was singing?’
- ‘All my life I suffered for these unfair comparisons with my father. People would compare my singing with him when the fact is I never tried to copy him. How could I be like him?’
“It is fifty years since he passed away, and he is still remembered so fondly. I wish I could be half the human being that my father was. Do you know of anyone who doesn’t have good things to say about my father?” asks singer Nitin Mukesh about his father, the legendary singer Mukesh.
“To be loved in equal measure for being a good human being and a good singer is to me the highest achievement. I am so proud to be my father’s son,” says Nitin.
“When I was 24, young brash and self-absorbed, I went to my mother and said I’d like to use my father’s car to go to college. When she told my father, he readily agreed and handed over the car keys to me. I zipped off without a second thought.
“A couple of days later when I drove out of our building, whom do I see standing at the bus stop? Yes, my father had switched to commuting by bus since his unthinking son had taken the family car! That’s the kind of humility, simplicity and purity my father possessed. In our very humble home as a child my parents slept on the kitchen floor, literally.”
As a child Nitin remembers his father’s insistence on a formal education.
“My father was very keen that I pursue my studies. How was I to convince him my true vocation in life was singing? He would say, ‘Beta, pehle padhai phir jo jee chahe karna‘.”
“I was packed off to boarding school in England from where I returned in exactly two months. I cried and cried, begged and pleaded with my father to let me come back home. Finally I threatened to kill myself if I wasn’t allowed home.
“My father immediately had me back. Today looking back I have no regrets about not getting a higher education like my siblings. I chose to be near my father rather than in a boarding school.”
About the fabled friendship between Mukesh and filmmaker-actor Raj Kapoor, Nitin recalls, “They were not just inseparable professionally. They were very close friends in real life. Raj Uncle called my father ‘Mukesh Chand’, never Mukesh. In fact when I was leaving Bombay to go to boarding school Raj Uncle and Krishna Aunty saw me off at the airport as my father was away.
“They came home any time. Our home was like their own home. Raj Uncle would be distressed by my father’s insistence on a humble lifestyle. He would see there was no airconditioner in our home. But he knew Papa wouldn’t agree to being gifted one.”
IMAGE: Raj Kapoor in the song Jaane Kahan Gaye Woh Din from Mera Naam Joker.
Interestingly Mukesh turned film distributor on Raj Kapoor’s suggestion.
“And do you know which film Papa distributed first? Mera Naam Joker!!! It wiped him out financially. But look at Raj Uncle’s grace and kindness, When Bobby became a blockbuster he insisted on compensating my father. When Papa refused, Raj Uncle insisted, ‘No, Mukesh Chand. I have to do this. I won’t listen to you this time.'”
IMAGE: Mukesh and Raj Kapoor.
On Mukesh’s vast repertoire of songs, Nitin says, “He is celebrated more for his melancholic songs although he sang an equal number of happy songs. In fact one of his biggest hits was the very happy song Dum Dum Diga Diga Mausam Bheega Bheega. The great religious guru Murari Bapu saw it as a song addressed to divinity rather than to the beloved.”
Nitin confesses that professionally being Mukesh’s son was not easy.
“I was constantly compared to him. People would say, ‘Haan achcha gaata hai. Lekin Mukesh ki terah nahin.’ But I wasn’t trying to be like my father! There can never be another Mukesh, just like there can never be another Lata Mangeshkar.”
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff
