Kishore Kumar – the legend lives on
Growing up in the 1980s, the term ‘Kishore Kumar’ was perhaps the most ‘uttered’ and ‘heard’ words in the household –TV talked people about him, the radio guy played his songs, stacks of ‘Best of Kishore Kumar – volumes, collections, romantic, sad, happy, dance, and all kinds. He kept on going the whole day, non-stop.
That’s not enough though!!
In our family of six, at least one member in the family would be humming some Kumar’s song at any given point of time, sometimes even while asleep like it was some unbreakable family tradition.
Whenever Kishore Kumar came up on TV, someone would shout his name and everybody rushed to the TV room from all directions.
Father’s evening drinking session would become a sermon without Kumar da lightening up his mood. Family gatherings were awkward without his song, parties became boring, and life became more difficult for the adults around us.
For us kids, Kishore Kumar meant the adults were in good mood. We would also hum his songs, watched his funny movies and had great times. Call it psychology, Kishore Kumar gets associated with happiness and fun. Most of his films that we watched were funny.
To this day, Kishore Kumar sounds like a family acquaintance and definitely part of my personal life. However, it sometimes gets tough to explain the kids why despite all the newer fantastic talent, Kishore Kumar is the only one who qualifies to be the legend.
Kishore Kumar although more famous for his gifted voice and effortless singing, he was actually a complete entertainment package — an accomplished actor, lyricist, composer, producer, director, screenwriter. He was a man of unusual eccentricity —both on and off screen.
Kumar has about 3,000 songs (including a duet where he sings the female side in falsetto) from 1,200 odd films. He also went on to act in about 90 films between 1946 and 1982.
The iconic playback singer Kishore Kumar still holds the record for most Filmfare awards in the Best Male Playback Singer category.
— Ministry of Culture (@MinOfCultureGoI) August 4, 2022
Did you know in 1997, the Madhya Pradesh Government initiated an award called the "Kishore Kumar Award"?#MoCRemembers #KishoreKumar pic.twitter.com/IR1L0cWNNj
And why he didn’t do more films is no wonder. He was notorious for asking his servants to ward off filmmakers, biting their hand as they paid him his fees, not turning up for work. It is even said that a director had to obtain a decree from the court directing him to turn up for work. During the entire shoot, Kishore only did what he was expressly told to do. And all these madcap antics only went to endear him and cement his spot as the LEGEND. To remember his birthday, we present you some of our favourite numbers from Kishore Kumar:
