To Kishore Da.. With Love

New Delhi: It is his 85th birthday and even the search engine giant Google couldn’t stop from wishing the evergreen actor India could ever have. With four icons on four corners of the picture, Google Doodle paid tribute to Hindi cinema’s legendary singer Kishore Kumar.

Kishore Kumar is one of Bollywood’s most celebrated singers of all time. Though he is best known as one of Indian cinema’s greatest playback singers, he was also an actor, lyricist, composer, producer, director, screenplay writer and scriptwriter. (Also Read: Playful Google Doodle on Venn’s 180th Birthday)

Born on August 4, 1929, Kishore Kumar, also known as Abhas Kumar Ganguly at birth, was introduced to the world of cinema by his elder brother Ashok Kumar who was already a star in the film industry. His father Kunjalal Ganguly (Gangopadhyay) was a lawyer and his mother Gouri Devi came from a wealthy Bengali family. He was the youngest of four siblings. Spending time with his brothers, Kishore became interested in films and music. He became a fan of singer-actor KL Saigal whom he considered his guru and tried to emulate his singing style.

After Ashok Kumar became a Bollywood star, Abhas Kumar changed his name to Kishore Kumar and started his cinema career as a chorus singer at Bombay Talkies, where the former was a star. His first film as an actor was “Shikari” in 1946, in which Ashok Kumar played the lead role. He got many other assignments as an actor, but he was more interested in singing. In 1949, Kishore Kumar decided to settle in Mumbai.

Kishore Kumar never had any formal musical training but this did not stop him.  In his career he showed proficiency in a variety of musical styles.  Furthermore he was able to pick up the piano and played it well. Music director S D Burman is credited with spotting Kishore Kumar’s talent as a singer and advancing his singing career. He recorded with Kishore for Dev Anand’s “Munimji”(1954), “Taxi Driver” (1954), “House No 44”(1955), “Funtoosh” (1956), “Nau Do Gyarah”(1957), “Paying Guest”(1957), “Guide”(1965), “Jewel Thief”(1967), and “Prem Pujari”(1970).

Kishore Kumar has over 2000 records under his name. Apart from Hindi, he was also seen singing in Bengali, Marathi, Assamese, Gujarati, Kannada, Bhojpuri, Malayalam, Oriya, and Urdu.  He won 8 Filmfare Awards for Best Male Playback Singer and holds the record for winning the most Filmfare Awards in that category.

The mid 1970’s saw Kishore Kumar being pulled into national politics.  He was an outspoken critic of Indira Gandhi during the Emergency.  One time Sanjay Gandhi asked Kishore to sing for a congress rally in Bombay, but Kishore refused.  His refusal to perform resulted in his songs being banned by All India Radio and Doordarshan.  His married life has seen many ups and downs. Kishore Kumar married four times; his wives were Bengali singer and actress Ruma Guha Thakurta, second wife being legendary actress Madhubala, third wife was to yet another actress Yogeeta Bali and the last wife was Leena Chandavarkar until his death.

Kishore’s last recording was a playback song for Mithun Chakraborty.  This was a duet with Asha Bhosle for the film “Waqt Ki Aawaz” (1988). In 1987 he suffers a massive heart attack.  He died on October 13, 1987, at the age of 58. 

From ‘Chhookar Mere Mann Ko’ to ‘Yeh Jo Mohabbat Hai’.. From ‘Khaike Paan Banaras Wala’ to ‘Dilbar Mere’, we are now left with a collection of some timeless classics as Kishore Kumar will always be remembered for his wonderful gift.