Mukesh

Mukesh Chand Mathur (1923-1976), better known mononymously as Mukesh, was an Indian playback singer.

Mathur was born into a middle-class family in New Delhi and was the sixth child among ten siblings. Mathur had a keen interest in classical music since his childhood; to fulfill it, he used to sing at wedding functions and other events. Mukesh’s talent was first acknowledged by his distant relative Motilal at his sister’s wedding. Later, he invited him to his residence in Mumbai, and met an Indian classical music teacher, Pandit Jaggannath Prasad.

During this time, he acted in a Hindi film Nirdosh (1942), which did not achieve success at the Box Office. He got his first breakthrough in singing in 1945, “Pahali Nazar”, and became a Golden Age hit.

After achieving success in singing, he tried his luck again in acting with Mashooka (1953) and Anuraag (1956);. Unfortunately, they both sank at the box office. They stopped getting work, which left him in a financial crisis, unable to afford the fees for the two children, and therefore, evicted from the school. He never turned back after it and gave too many hits, and was renowned as one of the successful and legendary figures in Indian cinema.

In 1976, he died due to a cardiac arrest while performing a concert in the US. Later released posthumous projects, Raj Kapoor’s Satyam Shivam Sundaram (1978) was the last.