Great Songs by Forgotten Composers

KHEMCHAND PRAKASH-The Composer that  gave us 2 Gems,LATA and KISHORE KUMAR

Khemchand Prakash was born in Jaipur 0n 12th Dec 1907 where his father Goverdhan Das was a Dhrupad singer & Kathak dancer in the royal court of Madho Singh II, and the boy, Khemchand got his first training in music & dance from his father. Soon he became a popular for his Kathak dancing talent and for his unmatched skills in drawing animal sketches with gulaal on the floor using his feet while dancing!

Khemchand prakash singing in Street Singer

In his teens, he joined Bikaner Royal court as a singer performer and later moved to the royal court ofNepal. But the destiny landed him in Kolkata and he joined the legendary New Theaters. He was assistant to composer Timir Baran in Devdas (1935 film), and he sang a comedy song 'lo kha lo madam khaanaa' in Street Singer (1938). 
His debut as music director in 1939 with Supreme Pictures' films Meri Aankhein and Gazi Salauddin, and was soon signed up by Ranjit Movietone Film Studio.

Song from Meri Aankhen 1939

In the movie Gazi Salauddin his assistant was Naushad.in an interview Naushad said that because of him he became the great Music Composer.Daan Singh another forgotten Music Composer was also his assistant.Balu C Rani was another Music composer who was given to this industry.Manna Dey was also his gift to industry.

Song from Pardesi 1941

His initial years had a few more significant films like Pardesi, Holi and Fariyaad. Khursheed was his leading singer and both of them gave a lot of hits of the early 40s. 1941’s Pardesi turned out to be a big hit and made Khursheed a big star.
In 1943 the film Tansen released the songs of that film sung by K L Sehgal became very popular,even now these songs are being listrned by the real music lovers.

Song from Tansen K L Sehgal

 Songs like "Diya jalaao jagmag jagmag", "Rumjhum rumjhum chal tihari", "More balpan ke saathi", "Sapt suran teen gram", "Hath sine pe jo rakh do to karara aa jaaye" were big hits.
1948 marked yet another significant film of his career, Bombay Talkies’s Ziddi. He gave first major break to Kishore Kumar as a singer for the song “Marne ki duaaen kyun maangu”.^[1] Ziddi featured a beautiful song of Lata Mangeshkar "Chanda re ja re ja re".

But what followed Ziddi was another hit film Mahal (1949 film). Mahal made Lata Mangeshkar a popular name. Prior to Mahal, the records used to feature only the character name on the record. Hence the first lot of records had “Aayega aane wala” credited to Kamini. The first time when the song was played on All India Radio many calls were received by AIR to know the singers name. AIR had to in turn ask the record company and announce Lata Mangeshkar's name on air.

Though Lata was singing before Mahal but the song Aayega Aane Wala made her LATA,the film Mahal was  a landmark for Rajkumari, too. Ghabra ke jo hum sar ko takraayein to achchha ho became one of her most recognisable songs that gave her a long lease of life on music reality shows on TV, many years after her singing-career had come to a halt.
Another famous singer of 30s and 40s Khursheed once said that Khemchand Prakash was the most important composer in her career with films like Pardesi, Shadi (1941) andTansen (1943). And Tansen, of course, is regarded as KL Saigal’s most importantmusical film, with his Diya jalaao in Deepak, and Sapt suran teen graam in Dhrupad ang.

Its very unfortunate for Hindi Film Industry that Khemchand Prakash died at a young age of 43 on 10th Aug 1950.He composed music for about 45 films in a career of 11 years. 

He shaped and defined Hindi film music when it was still in its nascent stages. In a short career spanning just about a decade, he left behind a legacy that exceeded his output as a music director.