Kishore Kumar: A tribute to a legend

A tribute to the legend Kishore da. 

1971, MEHBOOB KI MEHNDI

 

Rajesh Khanna, Leena Chandavarkar...

 

Kishore Kumar, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Anand Baxi.

 

Kishore ruled the roost from 1969 till 1987 in Bollywood. Luckily he had stars who wanted only Kishore to sing for them, like Dev Anand, Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Shashi Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor etc: Hence his immense popularity. 

Once Kishore became a busy singing star, he left acting which he always found boring. He said he acted in nearly 350 films as hero from 1950 till 1969 so as to sing his own songs only. Also he was not in demand as a singer and had a lot of time for acting. It is said he won’t practice much for the songs : He would understand everything in one go.

Would rehearse much less with Lata and Rafi but in the final outcome he would come on par with them.To that extent he could be called genius. He was not a fan of classical music, but he avoided that variety of songs. 

He was a great fan of KL Saigal, like Rafi, Mukesh, Lata and several other singers.He was very jovial all the time. Lata would say that in a duet when his part would be over, he would go away from the mike : Tap bald head of a musician while she would be singing and watching all this. She says she would always worry whether he would come back in time near the mike to sing his lines again. She would say that he was never late even once. Great people...Great singers !!

Khandwa based  Kishore Prerna Manch,  group set up to propagate the memory of legendary singer Kishore Kumar,  sought that he be given the Bharat Ratna posthumously and his ancestral home in Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh be declared a “heritage site”. Kishore Kumar was born in Khandwa on August 4, 1929 and was cremated  in Khandwa after his death on October 13, 1987 in Mumbai, The crematorium having a memorial of the legend, which is visited by people in large numbers with offerings of “doodh-jalebi”, a favourite snack of the singer-actor.