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 superstar era

In 1969, Shakti Samanta produced the movie Aradhana with newcomer Rajesh Khanna. The composer was Sachin Dev Burman and he had divided songs equally among his favorite singers - Kishore, Mohammed Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar. Kishore sang the romantic duet Kora kagaz tha yeh man mera with Lata. S D Burman fell ill before he could record all the songs. He had already created the tunes for the songs Roop tera mastana and Mere sapnon ki rani. R D Burman took the responsibility of completing the recording. In doing so, the tunes were created by S D Burman and the instrumentation was that of R D Burman. Pancham got Kishore Kumar to sing these two songs. These two songs became overnight hits and launched Kishore's playback singing career. Kishore Kumar got his first Filmfare award for the sensual song Roop tera mastana.

Related Topics:
1969 - Shakti Samanta - Rajesh Khanna - Mohammed Rafi - Lata Mangeshkar - Filmfare

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The Burmans single-handedly made Kishore the numero uno playback singer in Bollywood. They got Kishore to sing for all the leading heroes - Rajesh Khanna, Randhir Kapoor, Shashi Kapoor, Dharmendra, and Sanjeev Kumar among others. S D Burman and Kishore worked together in many of Dev Anand's movies. In 1970, Dev Anand's directoral debut, Prem Pujari, flopped. But the songs penned by Neeraj, Phoolon ke rang se (Lena hoga janam hamein) and Shokhiyon mein ghola jaaye (duet with Lata) are still popular. Neeraj, S D Burman, Lata and Kishore came together again for the Shashi Kapoor starrer 1971 hit Sharmilee, for which they recorded Khilte hain gul yahan, Aaj madhosh hua jaaye re, O meri sharmilee. S D Burman also got Kishore to sing for the 1973 Dharmendra-starrer Jugnu, where Kishore sang Pyaar ke is khel mein.

Related Topics:
Rajesh Khanna - Randhir Kapoor - Shashi Kapoor - Dharmendra - Sanjeev Kumar - Dev Anand - Neeraj

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In the 1970s, R D Burman got Kishore to sing virtually every remarkable tune he created for the male voice. The single Tum bin jaaoon kahaan (Pyaar Ka Mausam - 1969; lyrics by Majrooh), which was also sung by Rafi, proved that Kishore could sing as well as Rafi, even though he wasn't classically trained. Songs like Yeh shaam mastaani (Kati Patang - 1970; lyricist - Anand Bakshi) made Kishore extremely popular among the youngsters. In 1971, Pancham and Kishore collaborated on many memorable tunes, ranging from the romantic Raat kali ek khwab mein (Buddha mil gaya; lyricist Majrooh) to the tragic Yeh kya hua, Chingari koi bhadke, Kuchh to loge kahenge (Amar Prem; lyricist Anand Bakshi; picturized on Rajesh Khanna). 1972 saw hits like Meri bheegi bheegi si (Anaamika, picturized on Sanjeev Kumar), O Mere dil ke chain (Mere Jeevan Saathi; lyricist Majrooh; picturized on Rajesh Khanna) and Kanchi Re, Phoolon ka taaron ka (Hare Krishna Hare Rama; picturized on Dev Anand).

Related Topics:
1970 - 1971 - 1972

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Even after so many hits, only the Burmans gave patronage to Kishore Kumar. Other composers like Shankar Jaikishan, Madan Mohan, etc. used to give him second-rate songs. In 1972, Pancham got Kishore to sing for a newcomer in the movie Bombay To Goa. The 'newcomer' was none other than Amitabh Bachchan and thus Kishore became the voice of the next great Bollywood superstar as well. The song Meet na mila re man ka (Abhimaan 1973) established Kishore as Amitabh's singing voice. Hit after hit followed, and Kishore, Amitabh and Pancham became all the rage. Before buying an audio cassette, people would make sure that there was at least one Kishore Kumar song in the album. Producers would insist on using Kishore Kumar as a hero's singing voice. This forced other music composers like Laxmikant Pyarelal ("LP") to sideline Rafi and adopt Kishore as their lead singer.

Related Topics:
Shankar Jaikishan - Madan Mohan - 1972 - Amitabh Bachchan - 1973 - Laxmikant Pyarelal

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LP and Kishore had many hits to their credits in the 1970s, including Mere dil mein aaj kya hai (Daag 1973; lyricist: Sahir Ludhianvi), Mere naseeb mein aye dost, Naach meri bulbul (Roti), Chal chal mere haathi (Haathi Mere Saathi) etc. Most of these songs were picturized on Rajesh Khanna and penned by Anand Bakshi. The team also recorded many songs in Amitabh Bachchan starrers e.g. My name is Anthony Gonsalves (Amar Akbar Anthony). LP also got Kishore and Rafi to sing together in many films like Dostana, Kranti, Ram Balram etc. LP will be chiefly remembered for the duets that they recorded with Lata and Kishore - Achchha to ab hum chalte hain, Kal ki hansi mulaakat ke liye, Gore rang pe na itna gumaan kar, Ti kitne baras ka etc.

Related Topics:
1973 - Sahir Ludhianvi

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The duo of Kalyanji-Anandji also adopted Kishore as their lead singer in the 1970s. The team produced many hit songs in movies like Dharmatma (1975), Laawaris, Muqaddar ka Sikandar, Kabeela, Johnny Mera Naam and Don among others. The Kishore-Asha duet Vaada to nibhaya from Johnny Mera Naam was a superhit. The songs O Saathi Re (Muqaddar ka Sikandar) and Khaike Paan Banaraswaala (Don) became extremely popular as well.

Related Topics:
Kalyanji-Anandji - 1975

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In 1975, S D Burman went into a coma, while Kishore was singing Badi sooni sooni si hai zindagi (Life is lonely) for the movie Mili. He died some time later. R D Burman completed the score of the movie. R D Burman continuted with his patronage to Kishore. He got Kishore to sing for both Dharmendra and Amitabh in the 1975 bumper-hit Sholay. Manna Dey was called in only when a sequence required both the heroes singing together (Yeh dosti hum nahin todenge). In 1970s Kishore sang in many of Dev Anand's not-so-successful movies under the baton of R D Burman - Warrant (1975), Heera Panna, Shareef Badmash etc. Although these films did average box office business, the music was always hit. The songs like Ruk Jaana O Jaana (Warrant) and Panna ki tamanna (Heera Panna, duet with Lata) and Neend chura ke raaton mein (Shareef Badmash) were chart-busters. Even while recording intricate songs of Aandhi (1976; lyrics by Gulzar), Pancham used Kishore's voice, instead of using somebody trained in classical music. They recorded many more beautiful songs, including the title song of Agar tum na hote and Humein tum se pyaar kitna. Their comatose songs like Mere naina saawan bhado, Chingari koi bhadke, O maajhi re made them popular among the mature audience as well. Of course, Kishore also sang Pancham's trademark 'peppy' pop numbers picturized on young heroes like Rishi Kapoor and Sanjay Dutt. Kishore and Lata sang trendy numbers in Sanjay's first movie Rocky - Kya yehi pyaar hai, Hum tumse mile (lyricist: Anand Bakshi). R D Burman and Kishore worked together in many movies including Aapki Kasam, The Burning Train, Apna Desh, Dharam Karam, Takkar, Seeta Aur Geeta, Joshila, Kasmein Vaade, Rampur ka Laxman, Kaaliya etc.

Related Topics:
1975 - Dharmendra - Sholay - Manna Dey - 1970 - Dev Anand - 1976 - Gulzar - Rishi Kapoor - Sanjay Dutt

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New musicians like Rajesh Roshan, Sapan Chakravarthy (Pancham's assistant), Bappi Lahiri and others also preferred Kishore to any other singer. Rajesh Roshan's first hit movie Julie had memorable numbers sung by Kishore and Lata - Bhool gaya sab kuchh, Dil kya kare jab kisi se etc. Rajesh Roshan worked with Kishore in many other movies like Do Aur Do Paanch (1980), Doosra Aadmi, Manpasand etc. Sapan Chakravarthy recorded the popular Tum bhi chalo, hum bhi chalien (Zameer) with Kishore and Asha. Bappi da, notorious for lifting western numbers, got Kishore to sing many of his popular songs like Chalte chalte, Aaj rapat jaayein (duet with Asha), Pag ghunghroo(Namak Halaal - 1982; picturized on Amitabh), jahan chaar yaar (Sharaabi - 1984) and the filmfare award winning Manzilen apni jagah hai (Sharaabi - 1984).

Related Topics:
Rajesh Roshan - Bappi Lahiri - 1980 - 1982 - 1984

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