Mukesh

1923–1976

Mukesh Chand Mathur began by imitating K. L. Saigal and was told to stop; what he found instead was a voice with an ache in it that Raj Kapoor took as his own for thirty years. If a Raj Kapoor character sings, it is usually Mukesh.

He sang far less than Rafi or Kishore and is remembered for a narrower, sadder band of songs - Anand's *Kahin Door Jab Din Dhal Jaaye* among them. He died on tour in Detroit in 1976, aged fifty-three.