There has been many singers of popular songs in India. Many great singers who have delighted us throughout the years. Many have been superbly trained. Many were at home with Classical music as well as modern music. Many were specially brilliant in romantic songs and many sang duets with great felicity. But there was none who could match the way Kishore Kumar made his way into the heart of the everyday Indian. The raw student, the middle class hardworking clerk, the housewife in the middle of her humdrum daily routine, the retired civil servant sitting on his easychair---all were enamoured by him.
There was something in his tonal quality, something in the notes he hit,that no one could really reproduce but wanted to desperately, thinking it was achievable.He coud take a simple song and transform it into a major hit. Perhaps because he was not classically trained as other singers, his voice had a few rough edges which brought him closer to his listeners like no one else. So 22 years after his death, he is still revered and respected and followed than ever before.
| ChalKe_Tujhe Kisho... |
Kishore lived in a world of his own. He talked to his trees, locked himself up for a couple of days, erected a notice stating Pagalkhana outside his house in Mumbai. He used to come to the studio with an imaginary boy and engage in a conversation with him. "A bakwas song", the boy would say(actually Kishore Kumar's voice) and Kishore would reply that these comments had better be made at home!!!!
Kishore was driving a car in a film shoot when the director missed saying "CUT". Kishore just went off driving right up to Khandala!!!!
Once when a producer failed to pay him his dues in time for a film in which Kishore was a hero. Kishore reported the next day with his hair shaved off the right side of his scalp, as well as his moustache shaved on the right side only. He further stated that he would shoot like that. Needless to say he got paid promptly!!!! A master at yodelling, comic songs, a wonderful dancer in his own style, and a comedian with impeccable timing, film maker and director, he inevitably was copied by many. Kumar Shanu, Abhijit, Gautam Ghosh, etc. to name a few. But no one could match his versatility. I do not think ANYONE still would dare to sing the following song!!!!
| Ki kore bojhai - K... |
Kishore was a restless personality who could not stand still. he fell in love and married the sweet Bengali singer Ruma Ghosh in 1951. Amit Kumar was their son. Amit did sing some great songs but did not have the special talent to overcome his technical deficiencies. Kishore divorced Ruma in 1958 and subsequently married the beautiful Madhubala in 1960. This marriage was opposed by both sides, as Madhubala was a Muslim and was suffering from a hole in the heart which the doctors in London had predicted would kill her in a year. Kishore insisted on the marriage. Madhubala died nine years later and it was rumoured that Kishore had married her to give her emotional support . Both married on the rebound. Kishore, after his divorce from Ruma and Madhubala after the ending of an affair with Dilip Kumar. Madhubala died in 1969.
He surprised everyone by marrying Yogita Bali in 1976 but divorced her after 2 years. No one really found out the reason for this strange liason. In 1980 he finally married Leena Chandravarkar, who lost her previous husband Siddharth Bandodkar on her wedding night. Again it seemed that Kishore married her to give her solace and support. Their son Sumeet is a promising musician but yet to do something world shaking.
Ruma Guhathakurta Madhubala
Yogita Bali Leena Chandravarkar
Sumeet Kumar Amit Kumar
In the mid Seventies, he refused to support the Emergency imposed on the country and rejected Sanjay Gandhi's request to sing at a Congress rally. He was then subjected to numerous Income Tax raids and was blacklisted for a couple of years. He was refused contracts, his voice nor his songs could not be aired over AIR or Doordarshan, and he was not even allowed to sing duets. He flourished after Indira Gandhi lost the elections and produced some of his greatest hits after that.
In the mid Eighties, Amitabh Bachchan refused to do a guest role in one of his films. Peeved and irritated, Kishore hit back by refusing to sing for him. Amitabh ,then in great financial difficulties, was forced to take up Kaun Banega Crorepati and the rest is history.
After Yogita Bali left Kishore and married Mithun, Kishore refused to sing for him. But he relented later and sang for him in Disco Dacer, Muddat etc.
Kishore died on October 13, 1987.
But he left us with the vision of a world of his own. And even now when I see teenagers listening to his songs and humming them, that I realise that his vision was universal. for all generations, for all times....
| Neel e Neele Ambar... |
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