As per the universally accepted list compiled in a collaborative effort by eminent filmography researchers Har Mandir Singh 'Hamraaz' & Harish Raghuwanshi and published in the "Jab Dil Hi Toot Gaya" Compendium on KL Saigal, 2004, K.L. Saigal rendered and recorded 185 songs, the bulk of them on 78rpm disc and some which were available only on the sound track of film. Of these, only 170 were considered to be available, with the rest being more or less lost to posterity. |
The target for many a Saigal 'fan' was to some day accomplish the task of collecting all the 170 songs. Thanks to the power of information technology and the Internet, music lovers and collectors came together on the common platform provided by this website. Late Hem Chandra Jain, the Agra-based music lover and collector became the self-appointed 'Mentor' for the website and insisted that the target of collecting 170 songs be taken up in all seriousness.
|
Help poured in from across the globe. Out of 185 songs recorded by K.L. Saigal, 170 came to be posted on the website and thus into the public domain for the very first time. This was followed by the addition of 2 more songs with discovery of two more Bengali songs which were available only on the sound track of film Jiban Maran (1939). Further additions are unlikely to be made unless some of the lost films are either found or unearthed.
|
As many as 290 audio files are now being presented on the website as a result of sound track and other songs which were collected over the last few years. These include : Additional Sound Track version of 4 Saigal songs which were not issued on any other media. 10 Stereo version songs which were synthesised using Saigal's original vocal recording on 78rpm disc, mixed with fresh instrumental music and issued on micro-groove Polydor LP.
|