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A legend called Kishore Kumar
RAMA VARMA
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Kishore Kumar’s songs and his personality defy labels and definitions. A tribute to the singer on the eve of his 20th death anniversary that falls on Saturday.
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Only that which emanates from the heart can reach the hearts of others.
Cadences of a maestro: Although offered more jobs as an actor than as a singer, Kishore Kumar’s heart was set on singing.
I have had the privilege of studying classical music for more than two and a half decades from some phenomenal gurus and I give lecture demonstrations about how important it is for a singer to know an instrument and vice versa. And all the while I ho
ld a guilty secret within. Kishore Kumar, who never studied any instrument… or for that matter, singing…yet who sang more perfectly than most classical trained musicians ever did. The more I familiarise myself with his singing, his voice, his poetry, his acting, his live performances, his humour, his dark side, the more I accept the fact that this man defies labels and definitions.
Born as Abhas Kumar Gangopadhyay (abbreviated to Ganguly) in Khandwa on August 4, 1929, he was known almost by as many names as he had faces and voices. Yet, even the people closest to him like Kumar Sachin Dev Burman, Rahul Dev Burman, the Mangeshkar Sisters, Danny Denzongpa and others could never claim to have really “known” the man. Although he never literally sat at the feet of a master and studied music, he considered Kundan Lal Saigal his guru. And modelled himself on Saigal’s way of singing, to start with.
Kishore as a child
As a child, Kishore would entertain friends of his parents, Kunjolal and Gouri, (after whom he named his house ‘Gouri Kunj’), by singing songs. But they had to pay him 25 paise to get him to sing a song by his celebrity brother Ashok Kumar, 50 paise to sing a song by Manna Dey and a full Rupee to sing a Saigal song. But this man who blatantly loved money all his life, refused to record a single Saigal song himself despite the huge amounts of money he was offered during his reign as a superstar during the 1970s and 80s because he believed the originals had to be preserved in Saigal’s voice and that it would be a sin to rerecord them.
He had the greatest respect and reverence for Khemchand Prakash (who scored the music of ‘Jagmag Jagmag Karta Nikla Chaand Poonam Ka Pyaara’), and S.D. Burman. Three of his other heroes were singer/dancer/actor/comedian/entertainer Danny Kaye, (he sang a copy of Danny Kaye’s ‘O By Jingo’ in the Bengali comedy ‘Lukochuri’ as ‘Shing Nei Tobu Naam Taar Shingo’) Marlon Brando and Topol.
His inspiration in yodelling were singers Tex Norton and Jimmy Rogers. The influence of these various artists is palpable in his earlier recordings.
Being the youngest brother of Ashok Kumar, who was a super star even before Saigal came on the scene, Kishore was offered more jobs as an actor than as a singer. But his heart was set on singing.
He would tell Ashok Kumar: “Acting is not real. Music comes from the heart. Only that which emanates from the heart can reach the hearts of others.” But he ended up acting in 102 films, 98 of them in Hindi and four in Bengali.
Much of the Kishore repertoire that is popular today is the work he did in Hindi from ‘Aradhana’ onwards. The songs from a few Dev Anand films and a few comedies starring Kishore Kumar himself, such as ‘Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi’ and ‘Padosan’ have become and remained popular over the years. But many treasures that he sang during the 1950s and early 60s remain undiscovered and/or forgotten by the public.
The sterling work he did in the Bengali language in particular, also remains largely undiscovered by the majority of non-Bengali Kishore fans. In fact, the Bengali versions of many of his Hindi film hits are even more melodious than the Hindi originals. (‘Ae Ki Holo?’ for instance, which is the Bengali version of the song from Aradhana ‘Yeh Kya Hua? Kaise Hua? Kab Hua?’).
Although Kishore Kumar’s relationship with the Burmans is well known, his relationship with Hemant Kumar Mukherjee is less talked about. The same Hemant Kumar who made Kishore sing exquisitely melodious songs such as ‘Woh Shaam Kuch Ajeeb Dhi’ and the duet ‘Aaj Mujhe Kuch Kehna Hai,’ also got him to sing utterly mad songs like ‘Gaana Na Aaya, Bajaana Na Aaya’ and ‘Vaidy Ke Palle Pade.’
Kishore Kumar, in turn, made Hemant Kumar sing the title songs for two of his own most celebrated and poignant movies, ‘Door Gagan Ki Chaaon Mein’ and ‘Door Ka Rahi.’ Hemant Kumar also gently guided Kishore by the hand in recording two discs of Tagore songs, which bring out an altogether different side of the maestro’s personality.
Apart from the many songs he sang for Bimal Roy’s pictures, he sang the Tagore song ‘Ami Chinigochini Tomarey Ogo Bideshini’ for Satyajit Ray’s ‘Charulata.’ Since he had the greatest respect for Ray, he recorded the song totally free of cost, though he insisted that the recording be done in Mumbai instead of Kolkata. Ray obliged.
Kishore Kumar truly epitomised Hindi film music during the 20th century the way few others did. From his first solo ‘Marne Ki Duaayen Kyon Maangoon?’ which he sang for Dev Anand, (where he had to sing one version for the movie itself and one more inside the studio for the78 RPM record) till his swan song in 1987, there was little he had not done.
He sang together with more than 90 male voices and 85 female voices. He also had the unique distinction of having people like Rafi, Mahendra Kapoor and Asha Bhosle sing playback for him, not to mention, singing a duet with himself as both the male and female voices in the hilarious film ‘Half Ticket (‘Aake Seedhi Lagi’).
Tales about his various eccentricities abound. How he married four glamourous women in the film industry despite having sung ‘Kuven Me Kood Ke Mar Jaana! Yaar Tum Shaadi Mat Karna!,’ how he had names for all the trees in his garden (Janardhan,Raghunandan, Gangaram, Jhatpatjhatpat) and so on…
Books on Kishore
Many books have been written on him. Notable among them are the biography by Kishore Valicha and a book of articles on him and information about his work, painstakingly compiled by Vishwas Nerurkar, Bishwanath Chatterjee and the late Vinod Sonthalia where they have listed the details of Kishore Kumar’s songs in Hindi, Assamese, Bhojpuri, English, Kannada, Punjabi and Malayalam (‘A B C D, Chettan Kedi’), Bengali, Gujarati, Oriya and Marathi.
Two major sites are http://www.yoodleeyoo.com/and http://songs.kishorekumar.org/ which contain audio and video recordings from various periods of his rich and eventful life.
‘Dil Aaj Shaair Hai Gham Aaj Nagma Hai’ seems to be prophetic when he sings ‘Jab Hum Na Hote To Ro Ro Ke Duniya Dhoondegi Meri Nishaan.’
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Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
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