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It was the unfateful day of August 27, 2024, when Indian Cinema got the news of legendary singer Mukesh’s death. The voice that had immense pain. The voice that made one welled up when it sang Jeena Yahan Marna Yahan, Iske Siwa Jaana Kahan! The voice that was the soul of Raj Kapoor!
The singer had a heavenly bond with the Showman of Indian Cinema. They were more than friends, more than brothers; they were each other’s heart and soul. When the news of the singer’s death arrived, it was more than a heartbreak for the Awara actor.
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The singer was performing for a concert in Detroit on August 26 – 27, 1976. He was accompanied by Lata Mangeshkar and his son Nitin Mukesh. But none knew that this would turn the last concert of his life, turning the lines Jeena Yahan Marna Yahan true and how.
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A day before the singer died, he performed the song Jaane Kahan Gaye Wo Din on stage. As Yahoo quoted that final performance, “While Mukesh sang, ‘Saaya hi apne saath tha, saaya hi apne saath hai…,’ Nitin continued with the lesser-heard verse from the song – ‘Iss dil ke aashiyan mein, ab unke khayal reh gaye, Tod ke dil woh chal diye, hum phir akele reh gaye, Jaane kahaan gaye woh din… (Mera Naam Joker 1970)…the lines casting a sense of foreboding.”
Mukesh died on August 27, 1976, the day he was to perform with Lata Mangeshkar. The news broke in a packed theater, ready to witness his magic. Audiences were shocked. But Lata Mangeshkar performed that day, leaving her singing companion lying breathless in a coffin, waiting to go to India!
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Hell broke loose when the dead body arrived at the airport. Raj Kapoor, the singer’s best friend, broke down once he saw him coming. He was inconsolable and kept crying! And the first thing he said was, “He left as a passenger and came back as luggage!”
It was that tragic day when Raj Kapoor lost his voice. He used to call Mukesh his soul. “There was Mukesh – my soul, my voice; I was a mere body. It was he who sang to the hearts of the people all over the world, not me. Raj Kapoor was an image, just a carcass of flesh and bones. When he died, it was destroyed, I felt there goes my breath, there goes my soul. I know what went away from me,” read an excerpt from the memoir Raj Kapoor Speaks.
Mukesh recorded for Satyam Shivam Sundaram before leaving for his concert. The last song he recorded was Chanchal Komal from the film. He had a liquor bottle he wanted to open with his bestie, Raj Kapoor, once he finished shooting the song. But the day never arrived. Ironically, when Raj Kapoor got the news of his death, he was shooting the iconic flood scene of the film in Pune but stopped the shoot and rushed to Mumbai, not even thinking about the losses he incurred.
For more such throwbacks, stay tuned to Koimoi.
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