Mukesh was born in Delhi, on 22nd July in 1923. Then he was known as Mukesh Chand Mathur. He started earning his living in Public Works Department of Delhi. After joining office, Mukesh took singing seriously and concentrated on voice recording. His singing career was not an instantaneous success for him, but zeal and determination to become a professional singer, gradually made him the living legend.
At the age of 17, Mukesh came to Mumbai to make a career in singing. He was first introduced to the Mumbai Industry by the actor Motilal. Understanding the potential of Mukesh, Motilal decided to help him to playback in films. For his pleasing feature and musical talent, Mukesh got opportunities to perform as a singing hero in a number of films in Mumbai. The first playback singing and acting of Mukesh, was for the film "Nirdosh", where he sang 'Dil Bujha to Phasl-e-bahaar kya'. Mukesh played the role of an actor-cum-singer till 1956.
Acting career of Mukesh was not exemplary, but his songs were getting appreciations. In his last acted film 'Anurag', Mukesh composed two songs, 'Pal bhar ki pehchan' and 'Kisse yaad rakhoon'. Music of Mukesh was highly influenced by the music of his idol, K.L.Saigal. When Mukesh sang 'Dil jalta hai' he got immense popularity among his fan followers. Mukesh has playbacked for many popular directors of his time. However, his singing career achieved the height of fame while singing for Raj Kapoor.
In 1976, Mukesh lost his life due to a massive heart attack. Then he was in Canada on his way to an international performance with Lata Mangeskar. His death was a great loss for the film industry and his innumerous followers.
Achievements of Mukesh
Mukesh had sung many everlasting hits for different actors and music directors. Some of his unparallel songs are:Mukesh led Mumbai film industry during the golden period of Indian Cinema. In 1970s some of his phenomenal contemporaries were Kishore Kumar and Mohammad Rafi. During his singing career, Mukesh has bagged a number of awards for his excellence in the field of playback singing. He won National Film Award in 1974 for the song "Kain baar yoon bhi dekhaa hai" of the film "Rajnigandha". Mukesh was nominated for the Filmfare Awards on several occasions. He won the Filmfare Best Male Playback Award four times in 1959, 1970, 1972 and 1972. Mukesh also won the Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards thrice in 1967, 1968 and 1970
