Lockdown Legends (Day 17): Captivating Kishore

The life and times of Kishore Kumar have been replete with interesting events and happenings involving the multi-talented genius. His idiosyncrasies were talked about and there are not many anecdotes which are unknown , in this era of Internet.

A few of them are recounted here showing the innate talent of the actor-singer. A brief background will make the incidents more insightful.

Kishore da  was passionate about singing since a very young age. Inspired by the singing sensation K.L Saigal, poet Rabindra Nath Tagore and Danny Kaye, the voice of the Hollywood, singing was no less than meditation for him. 
Being the younger brother of Ashok Kumar, an already established name in  the tinsel town, acting was forced upon him; singing continued to evade him. Though he had not acquired any professional training, singing in a chorus in Bombay talkies in the early 1940s marked his entry in the Indian film industry.

 He  made his first appearance on the silver screen with Savak B. Vacha’s Shikari (1946) in which Ashok Kumar was playing the lead role. Extremely  reluctant to act, Kishore Kumar did not hesitate to test the patience of his directors and producers and disagreed to cooperate. His dislike for acting was no longer behind the wrap and was reflected in the flops that he was delivering.

He said once in your interview, “I only wanted to sing. Never to act. But somehow, thanks to peculiar circumstances, I was persuaded to act in the movies. I hated every moment of it and tried virtually every trick to get out of it. I miffed my lines, pretended to be crazy, shaved my head off, played difficult, began yodelling in the midst of tragic scenes, told Meena Kumari what I was supposed to tell Bina Rai in some other film – but they still wouldn’t let me go. I screamed, ranted, went cuckoo. But who cared? They were just determined to make me a star,”


Kishore sang in his own films and for Dev Anand after Ziddi ( 1948), in which he sang two  songs, out of which one was serious,  but he was generally known for light-hearted, peppy songs such as this one...                                         

In early 50s, one afternoon Anil Biswas, at his residence, was in the company of celebrated actors –Dilip Kumar and Ashok Kumar. He played on his harmonium and hummed the   tune of a forthcoming melody, which , he explained, was a slow romantic duet . Regarding  the female singer, there was absolutely no doubt about Lata Mangeshkar,  but the choice of the male voice was a more difficult decision. After all, at that time , there were a host of singers: Talat Mehmood, Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh and Hemant Kumar, all of whom were competent to sing serious, sad songs.
“Dada it should be Talat”-said Ashok Kumar. Whereas Dilip Kumar suggested –“Anil Da, considering the serious lyrical notes, the  male singer should be your favorite Mukesh.”
Anil Da had something else in his mind.

 “What about  Kishore singing with Lata ?", enquired the maestro  
“Kishore ?’ –Dilip was taken aback; “If Kishore will sing such a serious song, then ‘आपका जूता और मेरा सर' added Dilip Kumar.

“मैं जूता लेकर हूँ , तुम सर तैयार रखो  ” replied Anil Biswas !

Kishore Kumar was called, who at the first instance, bluntly refused to sing the said duet with Lata. But, the maestro’s conviction prevailed and , as a result,  a heart-throbbing duet was created!

• The songs of the comedy film Padosan ( 1968) as well as the picturisation were unique , in a sense as most of it was done by brainstorming and since both Mehmood and Kishore Kumar were very spontaneous and creative artistes, the results were expected to be different.
  
  For the song Ek Chatur Naar , Manna Dey was reluctant to sing for this song because he would be singing for Mehmood's character who would lose to Sunil Dutt's character (Kishore Kumar's voice) in the movie. He finally agreed after Mehmood, who also produced the film, reminded him of a similar situation in Basant Bahar( 1956), when, singing for hero Bharat Bhushan, had a musical duel with Bhimsen Joshi  ( singing for Parashuram) and won that contest. 
• The song is an adaption of a song composed by Saraswati Devi for the film "Jhoola" (1941) and sung by Ashok Kumar. The original song was titled similarly but had different lyrics. Portions of the song also borrowed from "Ban Chale Ram Raghu Rai" ("Sant Tulsidas", 1939) composed by Gyan Dutt and sung by Vishnukant Pagnis and "Chanda Re Ja Re Ja Re" ("Ziddi", 1948) composed by Khemchand Prakash and sung by Lata Mangeshkar.
  
  A 10 day rehearsal and 12 hour recording ensued for this song, which is one of the best songs to have been made in Hindi films. Manna Dey said after the song that despite all his classical training, he had to make a huge  effort to match Kishore's brilliance.

 J.Om Prakash had been a renowned producer since 1953 and when he turned director in 1974,  he chose the pair of Rajesh Khanna and Mumtaz as the lead pair in Aap Ki Kasam . The composer was R.D.Burman. As J. Om Prakash   was the producer also, he was conscious of keeping the project within the financial budget planned and for which he had to get financiers.
It is said that R.D. Burman had called extra musicians and chorus for the recording of Jai Jai Shiv Shankar as he wanted to create a sound to go in sync with the intended picturization of the song.This led the song's budget to shoot up from the planned 25000 rupees to 50000 rupees, .
 J.Om Prakash complained to Pancham about high cost of a  song ( Rs.50,000).  Apparently, he wanted the song to be scrapped.When Kishore Kumar came to know about this,on seeing RD in a sombre mood, he went  up to him to enquire on the matter. RD promptly narrated the issue to Kishore who asked him not to worry and to go ahead with the recording.   Kishore Kumar, naughty that he was,improvised in the song during the final recording, singing
 " बजाओ बजाओ इमानदारी से बजाओ, पचास हज़ार लगे हैं" ,which was not in the original lyrics !  

This line was never removed and has been part of the song. A chart topper in Binaca Geetmala 1974; Jai Jai Shiv Shankar ranks among the all time hits!!!


Leaving you with the chartbuster