Imagine Kishore Kumar in his 90s
He must have made a one-of-a-kind veteran entertainer if he was alive. After all, there was only one such person in the history of Indian cinema!
True genius — there is perhaps only one word to describe Kishore-Da, for he defies any one definition for an artist. He could sing and dance; act and mimic; write and compose; make you laugh and cry, and he lived a life that challenged all social norms.
Kishore Kumar’s hilarious movies and his ever-enchanting songs make him one of the most memorable multifaceted talent of all time.
The Early Life of Kishore Kumar
Born on August 4, 1929, in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh, India, Abhas Kumar Gangoly (his real name) was the youngest son of Kunjhalal Gangoly and Gauri Devi. Music and culture were in his blood.
In Kishore’s own words: “My father Kunjalal Ganguli, was a pleader (advocate) who earned Rs 30 a month. My mama (maternal uncle), Dhananjay Banerjee, a classical singer, was the only family link I had with music. But I was never trained to be a singer. It was my brother Dadamoni (Ashok Kumar) who learned music from the well-known Saraswati Devi.”
The Musical Journey of Kishore Kumar
Neither school nor college interested him. As he once said: “I used to compose different tunes for different subjects. For instance, I composed a tune for a paragraph on the Malthusian theory of population.”
Music was the heart and soul of Kishore. “Very early in life, I was fascinated by K.L. Saigal. I used to save my pocket money to buy his records. He’s my real guru.”
When his elder brother Ashok Kumar became a favorite Bombay Talkies hero, Kishore and his younger brother Anoop were still struggling to pass out college exams. The family finally moved to Bombay in 1946, in the hope that Ashok Kumar, whose career as an actor has just taken off, would be able to find jobs for the boys in films. That’s how Kishore Kumar went on to become an actor, which he never wanted.
“I only wanted to sing…But somehow…I was persuaded to act in the movies. I hated every moment of it and tried virtually every trick to get out of it.” But Kishore did make a successful film career. As he said, “I was the biggest draw after Dilip Kumar. “There were so many films I was doing in those days that I had to run from one set to the other, changing on the way.” He acted in some eighty films in all, the most remarkable being Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, Door Gagan Ki Chhaon Mein, and Padosan.
Today, Kishore Kumar’s fame rests almost entirely on his wonderful legacy of songs. Beginning with Ziddi in 1948, Kishore Kumar produced thousands of soulful songs with immense fervor, intense emotion, and exceptional versatility.
He sang for almost all the music directors of Bollywood, from Sachin Dev and Rahul Dev Burman, Anil Biswas, and Salil Chowdhury to Hemant Kumar, Shyamal Mitra and Bappi Lahiri to Kalyanji Anandji and Lakshmikant Pyarelal.
He received many national and international awards and did stage shows all over the world. He is often compared with the likes of Bob Hope and Danny Kaye. Kishore also produced and directed about a dozen Hindi movies as well as a few Bengali films. His favorite director was Alfred Hitchcock.
This exciting person, who made us laugh and cry with his scintillating performance, was not really a very happy man in his personal life. He had a tumultuous tryst with relationships and married four times, all actors — Ruma Ghosh, Madhubala, Yogeeta Bali, and Leena Chandravarkar. Kishore Kumar died of a heart attack in Mumbai on 13th October 1987. He is survived by his wife Leena and sons Sumit and Amit Kumar, himself a leading playback singer of the last century.
Kishore Kumar will always be remembered for his lively, sonorous and mellifluous voice that singers of all generations love to emulate. Kishore Valicha, in his book Kishore Kumar, The Definitive Biography, writes: “It may not be wrong to say that Kishore Kumar’s was the second golden voice India has produced if the first is that of Kundan Lal Saigal. Kishore’s voice was not only a magnificent intonation in itself but belonged to the tradition-governed glorious era of melody, which ended, in a way, with his departure. Kishore Kumar marked the end of an era of great film music.”
If Kishore Kumar Lived to be a Nonagenarian
If Kishore were alive today, you can be sure how sad he would have been with the lamentable state of today’s film music — surviving on remakes of old originals!
Today, on his 90th birthday, we fondly miss his creative genius as much as his immortal voice. Because despite his modern approach to music and the evergreen appeal of his songs, he was an orthodox artiste inside, who truly valued old-fashioned creativity.
Would he have approved of remakes of his own songs? Who knows? Perhaps he would have sung them himself. Oh, what a treat it would be. Even after more than three decades after his death, Kishore’s voice sounds as fresh as ever.
