S. Mohinder

Mohinder Singh Sarna (24 February 1925 – 6 September 2020), known professionally as S. Mohinder, was an Indian composer. He was born in a small town called Sillanwali in 1925. At the time the city was located in the Montgomery District of Punjab (British India). Mohinder’s father Sujan Singh Bakhshi was a sub-inspector in the police forces.

His father was transferred and the family moved to a comparatively larger city Lyallpur, British India now Faisalabad, in Pakistan, where young Mohinder in the 1930s started an apprenticeship with an accomplished Sikh religious vocalist Sant Sujan Singh.

He honed his skills for several years in accordance with classical music in the tutelage of Sant Sujan Singh. Initially he strived to be a singer. Later his family moved to Sheikhupura (now in Pakistan), close to Nankana Sahib, the birthplace of the founder of Sikhism (Guru Nanak).

He later received his further training in classical music from Sikh religious musician Bhai Samund Singh. Frequent transfers of his father kept the family on the move. Since Mohinder’s education suffered, his father enrolled him in Khalsa High School during the 1940s in the village Kairon in Amritsar.

In 1947, the rest of his family moved to East Punjab in India. The love for classical music brought S. Mohinder to Benares, the Mecca of Indian Classical Music. After some years of grooming, S. Mohinder moved to Mumbai, the centre of the film industry. His first successful film was Nili (1950), which was musical hit but the film was a disaster at the box office.

Mohinder Singh eventually moved to become a music director in Filmistan Studio, which was churning out films. He composed music for them for almost half a decade. By the turn of the millennium, he was settled in US, often attending meetings with local music enthusiasts to offer his insights in 1990s and early 2000s. He died in Mumbai at the age of 95 on September 6, 2020.