Khemchand Prakash was a music composer in the Hindi film industry. He had few peers in 1940s, the decade for Indian film music which started with Saigal very active on the scene and ended with Lata Mangeshkar firmly established in the industry. Lata had fruitful association with him 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.
Career
Born in Sujangarh, then located in Bikaner State in Rajputana Agency of British India, he got his first training in music and dance from his father, who was a dhrupad singer and a Kathak dancer in the royal court. In his teens, he joined the royal court of Bikaner as a singer 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 , and he sang a comedy song 'lo kha lo madam khaanaa' in Street Singer. 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. In a radio programme, famous composer Anil Biswas credited Khamchand Prakash for sticking to historical perspective and musical traditions by making K.L. Saigal sing the song 'Sapt Suran Teen Gram' in the Dhrupad style, instead of the Khayal genre, which was done in other films on Tansen, as he knew well that during the life and times of Tansen, the Khayal genre did not exist. 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". But what followed Ziddi was another hit film Mahal. Mahal made Lata Mangeshkar a popular name. Prior to Mahal, the records used to feature only the character name on the record. Hence the first lot of records had "Aayega aane wala" credited to Kamini. The first time when the song was played on All India Radio many calls were received by AIR to know the singers name. AIR had to in turn ask the record company and announce Lata Mangeshkar's name on air.
Death
Khemchand Prakash died at an early age of 41 on 10 August 1949 due to Cirrhosis. Kamal Amrohi wrote the opening lines of 'Khaamosh hai zamaana..' while Naqshab completed the rest. The first tune that composer Khemchand Prakash played on the harmonium was approved by Kamal Amrohi. Sadly Khemchand died at the Harikisondas Hospital two months before Mahal released and his creation 'Aayega Aanewala' became a sensation. Javed Akhtar quoted Khemchand Prakash's name in his maiden speech in Rajya Sabha on 17 May 2012 by mentioning that Khemchand Prakash's wife had to beg to be able to survive in her last days.
