MUMBAI: Rich tributes were paid to late playback singer Mukesh at a musical function organized by cultural society Jan Gayak Mukesh Manch  on Sunday, 17 April 2011, at Azad Bhawan Auditorium, New Delhi.

Speaking on the occasion, Amarjit Singh Kohli, who had founded  the Mukesh Memorial Society in 1983 and also written a book on Mukesh, said that although the legendary singer was born and brought up in Delhi, it was regrettable that even after 35 years of Mukesh's death, the Delhi Government has neither established any memorial in his name nor named a road after him. Kohli noted that Maharashtra Government had installed a statue of Mukesh along with a brass bust at the crossing of Neapean Sea Road and Warden Road (located close to his house) on 29th June, 1983 and also named it as Mukesh Chowk.

Kohli appealed to the Lt Governor of Delhi, Tejinder Khanna, to build a befitting memorial in Mukesh's memory either near Chakki Wala Makan, Masjid Khajoor in Old Delhi (where Mukesh was born) or near 24 Daryaganj, Delhi, where he and his family finally settled down.

Well-known classical singer and art promoter Suresh Gandharv, who is closely associated with the Mukesh Manch, said the Manch will popularize Mukesh's contributions through music concerts, theatre, clubs, publications and media.

Narendra Singh, a music researcher, whose compendium of entire songs of the period 1981-1990 (about 5500 in number) is ready for release, urged music lovers to join the Manch and make it a strong movement 

The function was followed by a programme of Mukesh's songs produced jointly by Pradeep Sharma and Parminder Chadha and sung by many upcoming singers including RP Malhotra, Atul Bachheti, Inderjeet Grover, Sumita Saxena and baby Videhi Goyal. It was compered by Shiv Chaturvedi and Kriti Singh, who made her maiden appearance under the tutelage of media trainer Zaki Hashmi.

Mukesh was born on July 22, 1923 in Delhi and studied at Municipal Boys Higher Secondary School, Mandir Marg, New Delhi upto matric. Thereafter, he worked for about 7 months in CPWD, New Delhi as assistant surveyor and then shited to Mumbai in October 1940 at the young age of 17 

He made his debut in the film Nirdosh in 1941 playing the hero against actress Nalni Jaywant in which he sang his first song  Dil Bujha To Fasle Bahar Kya under music direction of Ashok Ghosh. However, it was the song Dil Jalta Hai To Jalne De (film Pehli Nazar, 1945) composed by music maestro Anil Biswas that made Mukesh popular overnight as a playback singer throughout India 

In his 35 years of singing career Mukesh sang only about 1100 songs, a fact which has now been established after 30 years of painstaking research by Harish Raghuvanshi of Surat who has published Mukesh Geet Kosh.

Mukesh died in Detroit, USA at about 6 pm US time on 27th August 1976, where he had gone with Lata Mangeshkar for a musical programme, but collapsed in his bathroom just 30 minutes before the start of programme. His last recorded song was Chanchal Sheetal Nirmal Komal  for Raj Kapur's film Satyam Shivam Sundram, which he finished recording only hours before his departure to the USA.