"From all the relationships one has - that of a husband, brother, son, friend, father, he was the best as a father. He was a doting parent -an indulgent, pampering father, so that we could have easily got spoilt but we didn't because he taught us values too. In fact the way he gave us our values was worth seeing. He'd never thrash us or be angry but in his own gentle way make us understand," his son reminisces.
"But to go back to his life in films, he got his first break with Anil Biswas in the film Pehli Nazar. This is how it happened. It was in his sister's baraat that the great actor Motilal was one of the baraatis. People pushed my father to sing in front of him. He sang one of K.L.Saigal's songs and Motilal was struck by his voice. He invited him to Bombay and when he did go, true to his word, got him to sing for Pehli Nazar in which he was the hero. The song catapulted papa into fame immediately. Thereafter Motilalji kept papa in his own house as a son. That's when he started training. He'd had no training earlier. He was very young when he came to Bombay, almost penniless and one of 11 children, but it was his keen desire to become a singer that brought him here. He was a great fan of Saigalsaab. After that he continued to learn almost till the end of his life. He always said that he was a student even after achieving a stature few people do. Motilal was his benefactor.
He got instant success, for a while it was an upswing careerwise. He was singing for Anil Biswas, Naushad and many greats. That's the time when he met my mother. They did not belong to the same community, my mother is a Gujarati and he a Mathur Kayasth. There was stiff opposition from her family so they eloped and Motilalji gave her kanyadaan. He was in fact the grandfather I've never met. Life was much better for my father now. Soon after, my elder sister was born and then, in 1950, I was born. Around this time he sang for Awaara and his peak period started. Then again there was a lull in his career, for heaven knows what reason. This went on for almost five years and anyone else who had seen so much popularity would've found it intolerable, particularly because one could not pinpoint why it happened. But papa was a great believer in destiny and God. This helped him survive and then the innate fondness of a person does pay - and papa was for me decidedly the best, not just one of the best human beings I've ever known and many others will share this view, his concern for people, his generosity was apparent . The way I see it, I have to make an attempt to be nice, but papa was a natural. There was no effort in his goodness whethe
Kesariya Balam