Khemchand Prakash
| Khemchand Prakash | |
|---|---|
Khemchand Prakash
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| Background information | |
| Born | December 12, 1907 |
| Died | August 10, 1950 (aged 42) |
| Genres | Hindustani classical music, Indian film music |
| Occupation(s) | composer, music director |
| Years active | 1935–1950 |
Khemchand Prakash ; 12 December 1907 - 10 August 1950) was a music composer in Hindi film industry. He had few peers in 1940s, the best decade for Indian film music which started with Saigal very active on the scene and ended with Lata Mangeshkar firmly established as the brightest star in the industry. Lata had fruitful association with him (in films Asha, Ziddi, Mahal) when she started making a name for herself. Many years after Khemchand Prakash's death, the ace composer Kamal Dasgupta rated him the best composer.
Khemchand's brother, Basant Prakash, was also a film composer.
Born in Sujangarh, Rajasthan he got his first training of music and dance from his father who was a dhrupad singer and a Kathak dancer in the royal court. In his teens, he joined Bikaner Royal court as a singer performer and later moved to the royal court of Nepal. 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' (लो खा लो मॅडम खाना) in Street Singer (1938). He then moved to Mumbai and made 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.
His initial years with Ranjit Movietone produced significant films like Diwali, Holi, Pardesi, Fariyaad, etc. Khursheed was his leading singer and both of them gave many hits of early 40s. His biggest hit with Ranjit Studio was the film Tansen in 1943. 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”.Ziddi featured a beautiful song of Lata Mangeshkar "Chanda re ja re ja re".
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