A tribute to KL Saigal

M Syed Alam, who leads Delhi-based Pierrot’s Troupe, staged a popular musical on KL Saigal in Mumbai

M Syed Alam, who leads Delhi-based Pierrot’s Troupe, is often asked why he stages so many biographical plays. “Because it is a genre seldom done in theatre,” he says, adding, “Also because, since childhood, I have been interested in biographies.”

Alam staged a popular musical on KL Saigal at the Nehru Centre on Friday, July 4. Uday Chandra played the role of the legendary singing star and Tom Alter was the narrator.

Interestingly, the play was first performed earlier in Mumbai, directed by someone else, starring Faisal Khan (Aamir Khan’s brother) as Saigal, with Chandru Aatma (who sounded just like Saigal) doing the playback.

“When I saw it,” says Alam, “I felt it wasn’t right that the actor should not be singing.” He took over the play; through Alter, he met fellow FTII-an Chandra, and the production was redone, after the actor had undergone rigorous training in the Saigal style of gayaki.

When Alam was assigned to do a play on Saigal by Nehru Centre’s LA Kazi, he found a couple of books and a documentary on Saigal, but still not enough material about on his life. “Even I used to make fun of Saigal when I was younger, saying naak mein gaata hai (he sings through his nose) because I didn’t know better.”

Not one of Saigal’s children was alive and his grandchildren didn’t know much. So Alam met people who knew Saigal well – like music director Naushad and bureaucrat SP Sinha. So a lot of the research came from oral accounts, which he cross-checked.

“I was told when he died he was listening to Jab Dil Hi Toot Gaya, which I thought was far-fetched, because Saigal never liked his film songs, just his Ghalib compositions. But it was dramatic, so we used it. So imagine my surprise, when after a show in Delhi, a lady came up to me and said she was the niece, Durgesh, seen in that death scene, and her uncle had indeed listened to that song on his deathbed.”

“There was that lovely incident, when a young Saigal went around singing in the streets of Kanpur to collect money for a poor man. Saigal had told his friends that he had collected Rs 80, which in that era (early 20th century) seemed unlikely, but we let it be. Then there were little things, like Anil Biswas’ daughter pointing out that we had shown the actor playing her father wearing glasses, when in fact, he started wearing them much later in life.

There is a bit of dramatic licence, but most of what is seen in the play is true.” The play has been appreciated as much by young people, as by nostalgia-laden older folks and Alam plans to stage it again in Mumbai in a couple of months.