Anyone who has grown up on Hindi film music will instantly recognise that voice: the power, the playfulness, the pain. Forever young, forever romantic, forever eccentric. It’s difficult to imagine that Kishore Kumar would have been 84 today had he lived. Kishore Kumar, an old man? His legion of admirers would shudder at the thought, such was his persona, the youthful charm he exuded through his songs and his performances. A man who could never grow old.
Today, as every music station and TV channel celebrates his 84th birthday by playing his hits over and over again, it’s pertinent to understand why “Kishoreda” as he is called even by people who never ever met him or knew him, remains the most contemporary voice in the Hindi music world long after his passing.
Ever since he burst into the Hindi cinema firmament way back in the forties primarily as an actor who could also sing, Kishore flirted with acting and singing together, with movies like Aasha, Half Ticket, his family home production Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi and the classic Padosan under his belt where he regaled his audiences with his impeccable comic timing and his voice.
If there was one complete entertainer in the making at the time, it was he. Much has been written and discussed relating to his career and how he climbed the popularity charts quickly as an actor-singer, making a deep impact even as a serious actor in his home production Door Gagan Ki Chhaon Mein (1964). But perhaps his biggest triumph as a singer came with Aradhana, where he sang for Rajesh Khanna who was then on the threshold of becoming a legend in the world of Hindi cinema.
The runaway hits of Aradhana firmly established Kishore Kumar as one of the most important entertainers of our time and he belted out hits as if by habit thereafter, singing for Khanna and several other leading actors of Bollywood, including Amitabh Bachchan, who succeeded Khanna later to become the numero uno in Hindi cinema. If his songs for Khanna in Amar Prem, Safar, Haathi Mere Saathi and several others became fairytale hits, those for Bachchan in movies like Manzil, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Don and Bemisal are also enormously popular even today.
Fans of other greats like Talat Mehmood, Mukesh, Hemant Kumar and Mohammed Rafi may not necessarily agree with this, but what distinguishes Kishore Kumar from these legendary artistes is, perhaps, the power and contemporariness of his voice, the reason it remains youthful and relevant even to this day. Not surprisingly, Kishore songs have, perhaps, seen the most number of remixes as a new generation in the 2000s and beyond groove to his voice.
To be fair, Kishore would not have become the timeless legend he is had it not been for his partnership with a few other greats of our times – music director Rahul Dev Burman and songwriters Gulzar and Anand Bakshi. Together, they took Hindi film music to an altogether different level, with classics like Tere Bina Zindagi Se Koi in films like Gulzar’s Aandhi and the sublime poetry penned by Bakshi in films like Amar Prem.
The brilliance of Kishore Kumar also lay in his ability to get under the skin of the actor he was singing for, something few other playback singers of the time could do as effectively. If it was Rajesh Khanna whose voice he virtually became, or Amitabh Bachchan or Sanjeev Kumar, Kishore would effortlessly adapt his singing style to suit these actors in a manner where the audiences could be forgiven for thinking these actors were singing their own songs. The fact that Kishore was a legendary mimic helped. The range of his songs – from the playful Paanch Rupaiyya Baara Aana (Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi) to the heart-rending Chingaari Koi Bhadke (Amar Prem) was evidence that Kishore was a singer for every occasion, every emotion. That was his biggest quality.
Today, Hindi film music has stepped into a new phase. Exciting music directors like Amit Trivedi, Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Vishal-Shekhar, Ajay-Atul and, of course, the celebrated A R Rahman have given a new dimension and paradigm to Hindi film songs with several talented new singers singing for them. But even then, Kishore Kumar’s songs continue to regale music lovers on the same radio stations and music channels and many of today’s music directors wish they had a chance of working with this multifaceted genius.
Calling Kishore Kumar a singer would be doing grave injustice to the man. Kishore was a complete entertainer, someone who could make you laugh or cry with him through his songs or his performances on screen. He made madness fashionable with Half Ticket, pulling off a performance only he could as a man posing as a boy, even singing a ‘duet’ single-handedly in the movie. His madcap ways endeared himself to his audiences, but he could also make you cry with his movies like Door Gagan Ki Chhaon Mein and Door Waadiyon Mein Kahin.
A keen student of Hollywood, Kishore successfully adapted contemporary Hollywood styles in his performances both on screen and in his songs, yodelling his way into the hearts of generations.
Since Kishore’s passing, Hindi film music has seen several singers follow in his footsteps, adopt his singing style. But Kishore Kumar will always be an artiste who defies emulation, a kind of Indian Chaplin, if you will. The kind they don’t make anymore.
