Kishore Kumar

Kishore Kumar (August 4, 1929 - October 13, 1987), born as Abhas Ganguly, was a Bengali Indian film playback singer (Hindi, Bangla, Marathi, Assamese, Gujarati, Kannada, Bhojpuri, Oriya) and actor. He also worked as producer, composer and lyricist but is chiefly remembered as one of the three leading male playback singers in Bollywood (the other two being Mohammed Rafi and Mukesh). He sang extensively with the songbirds of Bollywood - Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle.

The lean patch in Kishore's career

After his wife Madhubala's death in 1969, there was a lean patch in Kishore's career. Most of his films as an actor flopped. Very few of his songs from this phase are memorable - Zaroorat hai, Zaroorat hai (Manmauji - 1962), penned by Rajinder Krishan and composed by Madan Mohan) stands out from this period. Mohammed Rafi and Mukesh were the favorites of most music composers, so Kishore never got to sing very good songs. A few of his songs picturized on Dev Anand and composed by S D Burman, got him recognition - Gaata rahe mera dil (Guide 1965, a duet with Lata), Yeh dil na hota bechara (Jewel Thief 1967), etc.

Related Topics:
Madhubala - 1969 - 1962 - Rajinder Krishan - Madan Mohan - Mohammed Rafi - Mukesh - Dev Anand - 1965 - 1967

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In 1966, S D Burman's son Rahul Dev Burman burst into the music scene with superhit score of the movie Teesri Manzil. He had got Rafi to sing all the songs in the movie. But, later R D Burman (also known by his pet name "Pancham") gave great patronage to Kishore Kumar. Their first hit movie together was the laught-riot 'Padosan' (The Neighbour). In this movie, Kishore Kumar played the role of Sunil Dutt's guru. Sunil Dutt's role was of boy who was in love with his next-door neighbour, a girl obessed with singing. To impress the girl, he gets his guru to do 'playback' for him. Kishore Kumar did the 'playback' in the movie, both on-screen and off-screen. Kishore and Pancham created the superhit song Mere saamnewali khidki mein. In one scene, there was a verbal fight between Mehmood (who acted as the girl's guru) and Sunil Dutt/Kishore Kumar. Kishore insisted that it would be boring if the dialogues were spoken in a plain manner. Mehmood fully agreed with him. So, Kishore, Mehmood, lyricist Rajinder Krishan and Pancham sat together and came up with the 'musical fight' - Ek chaturnar, karke singaar. The song, sung by Kishore and Manna Dey (who sang for Mehmood) became very popular.

Related Topics:
1966 - Rahul Dev Burman - Sunil Dutt - Playback - Mehmood - Rajinder Krishan - Manna Dey

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