Kishore Kumar

Kishore KumarAbhash Kumar Kanjilal Ganguly or Kishore Kumar was born on August 4, 1929 at Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh. He was born to Kunjalal Ganguly and Gouri Devi. Actor Ashok Kumar is the elder brother of Kishore Kumar. 

As a child Kishore Kumar was keenly interested in music and movies. His elder brother was already an actor when he was a child. Kishore Kumar was more interested in singing than acting. 

However, Ashok Kumar wanted that Kishore become an actor like himself. Kishore Kumar was married for 4 times. He was married to Ruma Guha, Madhubala, Yogeeta Bali and later Leena Chandavarkar. Kishore Kumar died following heart attack on October 13, 1987 in Mumbai.

Kishore Kumar was one of the greatest singers of the Indian film industry. He did not have any formal training in music. Nevertheless he became one of the legendary playback singers of his times and for generations to come. 

He was known for versatility and uniqueness in singing. Kishore sang romantic, light classical, sad songs and soft songs. Kishore Kumar was particularly noted for yodeling. 

He yodeled for innumerable songs. Kishore Kumar sang in many languages including Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Punjabi, Assamese, Gujarati, Kannada, Bhojpuri, and Oriya and so on. Kishore was greatly influenced by the singing of Kundan lal Saigal and he also tried to follow his singing style. 

But later he developed his own style of singing which was copied by other singers. Kishore Kumar gave many successful songs for music directors such as SD Burman, RD Burman, Lakshmikant Pyarelal, Salil Chowdhry, Khaiyyam, Kalyanji Anandji, Rajesh Roshan, Jaidev and Bappi Lahiri etc. 

Kishore was the voice behind many actors like Dev Anand, Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bacchan, Dharmendra, Jeetendra, Shashi Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Mithun Chakraborty etc. His brother Ashok Kumar was an actor while Kishore was still a child. Kishore Kumar started his career in cinema as a chorus singer at Bombay Talkies where Ashok Kumar worked. 

Kishore Kumar’s talent as a singer was nourished by music director SD Burman. Kishore Kumar sang wonderful duets with Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle. He also sang with Md Rafi in some films. Other than singing as playback singer he also performed in many stage shows. Kishore Kumar was an actor per excellence. 

His first film as an actor was “Shikari”. He worked for the Bombay talkies film “Andolan”. He also starred in the film “Naukri” and “Musafir”. His film “Chalti ka naam gadi”, “padosan”, “Aasha”, “Half Ticket” was very popular.

Kishore Kumar was a multi talented personality. He was also a director, producer, lyricist, composer and script writer. He produced, directed and acted in the film “Jhumroo”. He also wrote the lyrics of the song “Main hoon jhumroo”. He also composed the music for all the song of the film. 

He was the director and producer of the film “Door gagan ki chao me”. He wrote the script and also composed the music of the film. Other films made by him are “Door ka rahi” and “Door wadiyon me kahi”, “badti ka naam dadhi”, “Zindagi”. 

Kishore Kumar is the golden voice behind the songs of many films. His songs are still remembered for several films such as “Munimji”, “Taxi driver”, “House no 44”, “Funtoosh”, “Nau do gyarah”, “Paying guest”, “Guide”, “Jewel thief”, “Prem pujari”, “Tere mere sapne”, “Chalti ka naam gadi”, “Padosan”, “Aradhna”, “Sharmeele”, “Abhiman”, “Zanzeer”, “Mili”, “khushboo”, “kati patang”, “amar prem”, “Parichay”, “Namak haram”, “anamika”, “Aap ki kasam”, “Kudrat”, “Mehbooba”, “Heera panna”, “sagar”, “Ghar”, “Do raste”, “roti”, “Hathi mere sathi”, “dost”, “Amar Akbar Anthony”, “Karz”, “Chor machaye shor”, “Thodisi bewafai”, “Safar”, “Kora kagaz”, “Mukkaddar ka sikandar”, “Johny mera naam”, “Zindagi ka safar”, “Jiwan se bhari”, “pal pal dil ke pas”, “mera jiwan kora kagaj”, “Julie”, “wo saat din”, “Mr India”, and so forth. The songs sung by Kishore were hugely popular. His songs are the classics of the film industry. Some of the very popular songs of Kishore are “Mana janab ne pukara nahi”, “Hum he rahi pyar ke”, “ek ladki bheegi bhagi si”, “Haal kesa he janab ka”, “chor do anchal”, “ankhon me kya ji”, “Panch rupaiya bara ana”, “Gata rahe”, “ye dil na hota”, “mere samne wali kidki”, “kehna he”, “ek Chatur nar”, “mere sapno ki rani”, “roop tera mastana”, “phoolon ke rang se”, “Khilte he gool yaha”, “o meri sharmeeli”, “meet na mila”, “badi sooni sooni he”, “o majhi re”, “ye sham mastani”, “ye jo mohobbat he”, “kuch to log kahenge”, “musafir hoon”, “diye jalte he”, “meri bheegi bheegi”, “zindagi ke safar me”, “hume tumse pyar”, “mere naina saban bhado”, “Chingari koi”, “dil esa kisi ne mera”, “Khaike paan banaras wala”, “Hazar rahe mud ke dekhi”, “Pag ghungroo bandh meera nachi thi”, “Hume aur jeene ki”, “manjile apni jagah”, “sagar kinare”, “Gadi bula rahi he”, “My name is Anthony Gonsalves”, “Om shanty om”, “Koi hota”, “Hazar rahe”, “Bhool gaya sab kuch”, “dil kya kare” etc.

Kishore Kumar received many awards and honours. To mention a few: He was the winner of 8 Filmfare awards for best male playback singer. He thus holds the record for the most number of wins in this category. 

He received Filmfare awards for the songs “roop tera mastana”, “dil esa kisi ne mera”, “Khaike paan banaras wala”, “Hazar rahe mud ke dekhi”, “Pag ghungroo bandh meera nachi thi”, “Hume aur jeene ki”, “manjile apni jagah” and “sagar kinare”. 

The Madhya Pradesh government awarded him with the Lata Mangeshkar award. The Madhya Pradesh government also initiated a new award “Kishore Kumar award” for contributions to Indian Cinema.