Tansen (1943)

One of Saigal's best-known later films features him as Tansen, a legendary classical musician at the 16th-C. court of Mughal Emperor Akbar who composed some of the best-known ragas, including the <i>Darbari</i> and the <i>Malhar</i>. Director Desai, who appears after the credits surrounded by camera equipment, presents the story as a love fantasy between Tansen and a shepherdess, Tani (Khursheed), and rehearses several legends about Indian music, including its ability to calm animals, cause trees to flower and cure gravely ill people. Having joined Akbar's (Mubarak) court, which separates him from his lover, Tansen has to sing the raga <i>Deepak</i> to cure Akbar's daughter. Since the raga is supposed to have the power to create fire, it almost consumes the singer and he is saved by Tani's singing of the rainmaking raga <i>Megh Malhar</i>. Both songs, <i>Diya jalao</i> and <i>Baraso re</i>, were big hits. One of the films' 13 songs, Madhok's <i>Ho dukhia jiyara rote naina</i> was composed, uncredited, by Bulo C. Rani. This is Khursheed's best-known performance, holding her own as a singer alongside the legendary Saigal.