Kishore on "uncommon" faces

Here I list 10 of my all time favourite Kishore Kumar numbers which were picturized on "uncommon" faces, who were no superstars. And tell you what, this is surely going to raise your love for Kishore, knowing how he could give superhits with some miserable faces on screen.

1. Teri duniya se hoke majboor chala(1970)- picturized on Parikshit Sahani- This evergreen sad song from Pavitra Papi(1970), written and composed by Prem Dhawan remains an all time favourite. Soulfully sung by Kishore, the song was lip synced by Parikshit Sahani, whose movies as hero can be counted on fingertips. The song had everything mesmerizing, except the actor and his woodden expressions.

2. Chalte chalte mere yeh geet(1976)- the song which made Bappi Lahiri. I try to memorize the name of the hero lip syncing this song and I forget everytime, now that I have given up at last. Was he some nephew of Dev Anand or something? Good that I did not see him too many times on screen. Again, leaving him apart, the song is a timeless beauty.

3. Dil kya kare jab kisise(1975)- Even Vikram's shorts looked better than his comic expressions on screen. This was supposed to be a sensous number, an all time favourite for teenagers even today, and yes, only to listen to and not to watch!!

4. Jeena to hai par ae dil kaha(1973)- Personally I rate this as one of the finest sad songs created by Pancham and Kishore. And if you have not been lucky enough to see the picturization of this song, dont miss Manu Narang and his acting!!!! Do get back to me after watching!

5. Yeh naina yeh kajal(1976)- Yet another beauty from Bappi Lahiri. Surprisingly, if he had composed some of his crappiests for Kishore, he also did many of his finests also. This is one of them picturized on some Bhishma Sahani.

6. Yeh wohi geet hai jisko maine(1972)- Jaidev and Kishore Kumar: a combination which came together only for 6 songs, and this one is easily the best of them picturized on Jalal Agha, who as expected, overdoes everything on screen.

7. Aap ke kamre mein koi rehta hai(1973)- Ahh...!!! The fabulous Tareq and his colourful glasses!!

8. Savere ka sooraj tumhare liye hai(1972)- Again a beauty from Kishore Kumar. His last recorded song with O P Nayyar and easily the best as well. Masterfully written poetry, sublime singing and striking composition with Dev Mukherjee on screen, who honestly, did not do a bad job.

9. Baharon ka yeh mausam suhana(1986)- The twilight times of Ravi, this sizzling tune was picturized on Pankaj Dheer- the Karna of Mahabharata. Of course, he played the role of Karna better.

And last but not the least, rather the best of this lot of evergreen beauties, the oldest and the most obscure- Jagmag jagmag karta nikla chand poonam ka pyara. I keep it at the last because there is no video available of this song today, but it is only known that it was picturized on Kishore Sahu in Rimjhim(1949). Those days, Kishore Sahu used to be a hero, but today he is most remembered as the man who played Dev Anand's father in Hare Rama Hare Krishna.

S D and his changing preferences

What was going through in the mind of the young Kumar Sachin Dev Burman, when he took the microphone to record a song in Yahudi Ki Ladki in 1933? Sources say, although not validated, he wanted to become an established singer in Bengal. What he turned out to be was the best music director in India. And, I have chosen my bold letters very carefully. S D was a great singer himself, even the lack of recognition as a singer in Bengal might have been one of the major reasons that he moved to Bombay. Another reason could have been to come out of the image of a folk singer and to try out something different. Whatever be the reason, it is a fact today that S D Burman had been the longest standing music director in the history of Hindi Film Music, who died right at the top , giving competition to his own genius son at the age of 69.

The writer admits right at the beginning that he is no scholar on the vast subject of S D Burman. There are far too many people who are delving deep into this man's work and exploring newer things everyday.

Owing to his standard as a vocal performer, S D knew his singers very well. Although he was older to most of the first generation music directors in Hindi films, IE, Khemchand Prakash, Anil Biswas and Naushad- SD started his innings as an independent musician in Bombay late, in fact pretty late, at the age of 40. And the first achievement he got was to come out of his Bengali background and create partnership with people who did not even know Bhatiyali and Dhamail. His first patron was late K C Dey- the blind singer, to whom SD had assisted for a long time in the 40s and then Ashok Kumar of Bombay Talkies, who had given him the first break in Hindi films with Shikari and Eight Days(both in 1946).

SD's peak period cannot be determined in mere periodical figures. He was one of the top three in the 50s, 60s as well as the 70s. This article looks at the various combinations SD had formed with the singers throughout his careers, and interestingly, with all his top 5 singers- SD had a fallout, sometimes or another.

It hardly mattered to the grand old man. His top 4 singers were- Lata Mangeshkar(around 175 songs), Asha Bhosle(around 135 songs), Kishore Kumar(around 122 songs) and Mohammed Rafi(around 100 songs). Tell you what, you can simply count the number of movies where SD had used all these four together( Teen Deviyan, Jewel Thief, Aradhana- all falling in the mid to late 60s , come to the mind immediately). Clearly shows the shift of preferences SD always had.

SD's most famous rift perhaps was that with Lata Mangeshkar. Facts say, he stopped recording with Lata in 1957 and then resumed again in 1962- a gap of five years, whereas, theoretically, Lata had releases with SD right up to 1958- Seetaron se Aagey- which might have been recorded earlier, and resumed again in 1962 with Dr. Vidya. Considering 1961 to be a year when SD had no releases, SD-Lata stood blank only for 2 years..!!!!, quite contradicting to the fallout which have been hyped so much in Hindi film music- 1959 and 1960. SD had three releases in 59- Kagaz ke Phool, Insaan Jaag Utha and Sujata-all sans Lata and six releases in 60- Ek Ke Baad Ek, Kala Bazaar, Bombai ka Babu, Akalmand, Apna Haath Jagannath and Manzil- again all without Lata. He had some more albums which did not have Lata , like Nau Do Gyarah(1957) and Chhupa Rustam(1973), but they fell either sides of the famous fallout period.

So, Lata Mangeshkar- the primary female singer under SD's baton, had a fallout with the Grand Old Man for a couple of years, and still SD kept on going good. Then, almost converging with the same period, SD had a rift with his most used male singer- Kishore Kumar. Although, cannot be termed as a "rift" in true sense, from 1958-1964, SD used Kishore only in four movies- Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, Bewakoof, Apna Haath Jagannath and Naughty Boy- all featuring Kishore himself as the hero. This was quite contradicting to the fact that between 1951-1957, Kishore was the number one male singer for SD singing 33 songs in 17 films. The result for SD, however, was the same- unaffected.

The reason for the fallout of Kishore and Lata were mostly on personal grounds, as the trivia goes. However, there were three serious fall outs which SD had, and all three were taken judiciously by SD with his professional senses proving too strong to his personal likes. The first casualty was Geeta Dutt(ne'e, Roy)- who had given SD his first hit song- Mera Sundar Sapna Beet Gaya and his first hit album- Baazi. Geeta-SD were the first superstar singer-MD combo in Hindi Film Music and rocked the arena with hits like Do Bhai(1947), Pyar(1950), Baazi(1951), Jaal(1952) and Pyasa(1957). But when SD decided to call it a day with Geeta, post-Kagaz Ke Phool(1959) , there were hardly any personal grounds behind it. It was as if SD could read the writings on the wall that Geeta was too tired to carry on the baton and hence Asha should be the first substitute of Lata for his ventures.

Asha also had an end to her dream run. 1958, 1959 and 1960 saw Asha Bhosle featuring as the leading female singer in all the movies of SDB, doing full justice to her role of a substitute to Lata Mangeshkar in SD camp. While Asha did full justice to whatever SDB had given her in that period, when SD patched up with Lata, Asha was simply put to second position yet again. Post-Bandini, Asha Bhosle had hardly anything serious to sing under SDB. Although, with her true genius, she could convert a peppy "Raat Akeli hai" into a timeless classic.

And then, there was Rafi- SD's last fallout. Mohd. Rafi was like an esteemed guest in the recording studios of SD until 1957. He sang for SD in Do Bhai, SD's first major hit and since then he had been sporadically there in movies like Ek Nazar(1951), Naujawan(1951), Jeevan Jyoti(1953), Society(1954), Devdas(1955) etc singing occasional numbers. Things changed in 1957 with Pyasa, when Guru Dutt insisted SD to go for Rafi as the primary singer. Rafi obliged with elan and since then for the coming 7-8 years, SD denied to see anything beyond Rafi. SD-Rafi created some of the most memorable songs in that period like Beechhde sabhi bari bari, Khoya khoya chand, Saathi na koi manzil, Hum bekhudi mein tumko, Dil ka bhanwar kare pukar, Sunle tu dil ki sada, Aese to na dekho, Kahi bekhayak hokar, Din dhal jaye, Tere mere sapne etc. What more, it was S D Burman, who played the major role to patch up the long rift between Lata and Rafi and not the latter's other more touted partners like Shankar Jaikishen, Madan Mohan or Naushad.

The late years of the 60s were not good for SD. He had no releases in 1966 and 1968 and only one in 1967. The good work he had done with Guide(1965) was on the verge of getting marred. 69 was crucial for him and he was back with a bang with Aradhana. Kishore, after many years, proved to be the trump card for SD again, and Rafi- his primary singer for the last 12 years, took a backseat. No personal grudge, no singing fault, no artistic difference- SD placed aside Rafi, just like what he had earlier done to Geeta for Asha and Asha for Lata- reading the writings on wall, that the time was changing...

And with all these changes, what remained unchanged was his music, his melody. If he could do a Jayein to jayein kaha with Talat in 1954, so he could a Din dhal jaye with Rafi in 1965 and so he could a Badi sooni sooni hai with Kishore in 1975.

Kishore Kumar and his "Bengali" image

The above image of the chief minister of West Bengal(or, Paschimbanga- as it is currently named) garlanding the artist Kishore Kumar (1929-1987) on his 82nd birth anniversary on 4th August 2011 in her own office, indicates a quantum change in the perception of the Bengalis towards this genius. Not very long ago, entertainment in this state was taken as a lower grade of arts and entertainers were from a species not to be revered but only to be enjoyed. Question comes then, why such change?

Well, Kishore belonged to a period of "artistic brilliance in Bengal". He was not born in Bengal, neither he had a mainstream role in Bengali cinema and music for quite some time. Bengalis were preoccupied with the music of Tagore and Nazrul with intermittent inputs from Hemanta, Manna, Shyamal, Manabendra, Satinath, Sandhya and many other local breed talents. Being hailed from a middle class Bengali family myself, I could feel the indifference major Bengali music lovers had for Kishore Kumar. Too light, too fast and sometimes too modern as well..!!!

Kishore's first Bengali song came almost in the same time of his Hindi debut. The assembled number of Samar(1950) never came to notice in Bengal. He did make a more serious venture into mainstream Bengali movies and music with Lukochuri(1958), but again, a big hit notwithstanding, the reception was "casual". Many people perceived Kishore's antics in Lukochuri a mere translation in Bengali from what he was already doing in Bombay. Also, from Kishore's perspective as well, he might have assessed the monumental task of penetrating into Bengali mass and hence, concentrated more in his Hindi assignments, which were, by then, reduced to only acting.

There are very few anecdotes available today as to how Bengali musicians assessed Kishore's musical prowess that time. The traditional school of Bengali music, lead by the likes of Nachiketa Ghosh, Robin Chatterjee, Satinath Mukhopadhyay etc had hardly anything to say about him. Hemanta Mukhopadhyay was the only one working with Kishore, albeit only in the Bengali movies where Kishore himself was the hero- Lukochuri, Ektuku Chhoan Laage and Dushtu Projapati. Although, even with this limited association, Hemanta had given Kishore some of his best compositions like "Ei to hethay kunjo chhayay" ,"Chholoki chholoki man tanu" , "Shudhu ektukhaani chaoa" (with Geeta Dutt).

Not that there were not exceptions. The above photograph and the song is more than often discussed. But, again, they were taken on a much lighter note(something like the reception of rock band singer Anindya singing a Rabindrasangeet in Rituparno Ghosh's "Shubho Mahorat" today), "exceptions"- that is what they used to say.

Perhaps, the problem with "artist" Kishore Kumar was that his life changing album was "Aradhana" and not "Safar" or "Amar Prem", which came later. It was easy to assume that Kishore was a light singer and Bengal hardly had any allowance of light songs in their school of music.

And this label followed Kishore in spite of his undisputed dominance in the much larger Hindi music arena in the 70s and 80s. Shyamal Mitra was the first to lift the image to a small extent. Unfortunately, "Bipin babur karan shudha" was more popular on the lips of a drunken Uttam Kumar in "Amanush" than "Ki ashay bandhi khelaghar"- a sparkling semi-classical gem from the same film.

Between 1968-1975, Kishore came out with several non-film modern Bengali songs, each and every one being in the highest musical value league. He himself composed Raga Puriya Dhaneshri based "Aamaar deep nebhaano raat", Lata Mangeshkar composed for him " Aami nei aami nei"- a soulful composition sung with extreme vocal accomplishment by Kishore and R D Burman skillfully and delicately composing a lifetime " She to elo na". Kishore Kumar, after a long time, it seemed to have gained a place in the hearts of Bengali music lovers.

Kishore's low involvement in Bengali music in the 70s can be attributed to the fact that Hindi movies were still creating good music that time and hence he might not have felt the need to do something more serious in Bengali as well as to the fact that his major partners in that period like SDB, RDB, LP, KA or RR were not doing any music in Bengali in the 70s. Come 80s, Bengali movies and music underwent a sharp descent just like their counterparts in Bombay. Uttam Kumar was gone and so was, alongwith him, the evergreen romantic musicals. Nachiketa Ghosh breathed his last in 1976, Hemanta was too old to keep on going and Salil Chowdhury decided to focus only on very very limited assignments. The torch bearers left were Shyamal Mitra, who again had drastically cut down on his assignments and the Bomaby "importeds" like Sapan Jagmohan, Bappi Lahiri and R D Burman.

Definitely, not a period to be recalled with fondness, Bappi churned out insignificant numbers one after another, "mumbai-nizing" the Bengali music and Pancham, it seemed, clicked only with his non-film modern Bengali song albums. All his Bengali ventures that period- "Troyee","Kalankini Konkaboti", "Teen Murti", "Anyay Abichaar" do not justify the genius of Pancham- perhaps the greatest ever MD in Hindi films after his father. So, Kishore was reduced to singing in Bengali films largely under Bappi and Ajay Das- with horrible movies for more horrible faces like Sukhen Das..!! So, a gem like "Aaj milon tithir poornima chand" went unnoticed with Sukhen Das and a stray "Ek taanete jemon temon" or "Kheye oi laathi lyang" became cult songs with Mithun Chakraborty on screen.

This made an interesting transformation again. Kishore Kumar now became a "mass popular singer" in Bengal and a hot favourite amongst all the rookie crooners in Puja pandals and Local trains with intellectual Bongs drifting farther away from him. Even two full albums of Rabindrasangeet released in 1981 and 1986 could not repair the damage, as he was singing "Diner sheshe ghumer deshe" and "Rakhalchandra Mataal" in the same year, and yes, "versatility" was a taboo as far as traditional Bengali music was concerned.

So, now the million dollar question- how come sudden change in the perception today, after 25 years of Kishore's death?? Why suddenly reams and reams of papers are spent glorifying how Satyajit Ray used to admire Kishore or Hemanta had given some of his best compositions to Kishore or how his Rabindrasangeets are so unique even today?? The chief minister declaring that Kishore Kumar songs should be played during the traffic signals on the roads of Kolkata was a bit too much to digest for those who had always been fed with Akhil Bondhu Ghosh and Jaganmay Mitra.

Is Bengal desparately looking for a National Hero today? With music being one of their proudest domains, what Bengal can claim today at the National level is Pritam Chakraborty and Shantanu Moitra. Uttam Kumar might have been the superstar of Bengal, but 99% Indians outside Bengal yawn at this name, vaguely recalling Amanush and Chhoti Si Mulaqat.

And Kishore Kumar and Rahul Dev Burman have become youth icons! A gradual study and evolution in music have delved up a strange fact that these two together, had created music which was much much ahead of their times. So, the forgotten gems are revisited, unnoticed numbers that time are awed at and the intellectuals relook at their stances that time. Yes, perhaps, Kishore Kumar was a genius. He was a singing superstar when he died, and a comprehensive artist 25 years after his death.