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Songs of the scions

All in the family Amit and Sumit at a show

Kishore Kumar’s singer-sons Amit and Sumit Kumar were bombarded with ek hi question — about the musical escapades of the golden-voiced Kishore Kumar. “His fascinating life story cannot be cut short. I could narrate untold anecdotes and sing his timeless numbers for two months at a stretch. And you are giving me just 15 minutes,” Amit smiled. And continued, “But I am delighted to inform all Kishore fans that a full-length biopic is being made on him. Also, Sumit and I are singing some unreleased compositions of my father in a forthcoming film.”

Amit, who since childhood accompanied his father to recordings, music discussions, rehearsals and stage shows, “has seen him face the lows, be at the peak for 19 long years, take on challenges, draw flak and laugh off criticism. But he and his music remained as colourful and versatile as the seven notes and nine rasas.”

It must have been difficult for the son not to be his father’s clone and still be heard. “My father would jokingly say ‘if you cannot be gold, then turn silver but not rolled gold. Originality is the essence of music’.” Kishore Kumar was just repeating what the legendary Kundan Lal Saigal had told him. Saigal was Kishore’s inspiration and guru. “My father once decided to release an album of Saigal’s songs. On the day of the recording he refused to sing saying, ‘I cannot try to be one up on my guru’,” recounts Amit.

Director, writer, composer, singer, actor and, above all, perfect entertainer, Kishore Kumar excelled on several fronts. “I cannot imagine jumping around the stage without losing grip of the sur. He could do it. But more than anything, it’s his humility that appealed to me the most. I remember during a recording at Pancham Da’s (R.D. Burman) studio, he told him ‘Pancham agar main besura ho gaya to bolna’ (tell me if I falter in the tune). Pancham looked at me and said ‘see how simply he puts it’.”

What about those stories of his eccentricities and frequent mood swings? “Funny and childish, yes, it was part of his character. Most often, it was his way of dealing with situations he did not want to confront. But deep inside he was a soft-hearted man, who made people laugh. He would shrug off the charges saying, ‘This world calls me mad and I call this world a mad place.’ Kuch to log kahenge, logon ka kaam hai kehna…

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