It was 13th October 1987. Sun was setting slowly. I was in a mood to listen to the lilting melodies of Hindi film music as usual. When I was listening to it, somewhere in Mumbai at the same time a voice came to a halt. Kishore Kumar died. This is the same guy who once said, he wanted to go back to his hometown Khandwa in MP and wanted to sit with his son Amit and wife Leena (chandavarkar) and watch the sun setting. Was it a co-incidence that the sun was setting and Kishore died? I still do not know.
Aabhaas Ganguly, which was his original name, even though was a Bengali, he was brought up in Khandwa of Madhya Pradesh. At the age of 19, Kishore was initiated into playback singing by none other than Khemchand Prakash who put Lata Mangeshkar at heights by composing Aayega Aanewaala from Kamal Amrohi's Mahal. By that time Kishore's elder brother Ashok Kumar was already at the heights of popularity. But Ashok insisted that Kishore must act more than singing. But to tell you, Kishore hated every moment of acting. He had been dreaming that one day, he would be as famous as KL Saigal whom Kishore considered as a demi-god (till the end of his life!!!!). He wanted to meet KL Saigal at least once. But he never had a chance. Kishore was, at that time, more into acting rather than singing. A series of films portraying Kishore a comic character started making sounds at the box office and at the same time he started getting too many films as an actor. Until, SD Burman gave him the huge hits of the Dev Anand starrers. From there onwards, Kishore grew so big that he started shaking Rafi's kingdom. Literally Kishore over took Rafi.
After SD Burman's Aradhana, Kishore never looked back. He sang almost 112 songs for SD Burman. It could have continued without break had there not been a rift between SD Burman and Kishore in 1958. But again, in 1965, they came together through the Dev Anand starrer Teen Deviyan. Between all these Kishore was already a producer also. He produced Door Gagan Ki Chao Mein, which introduced Amit Kumar as a young child artist. With his brothers Ashok and Anoop, he produced Chalti ka naam gaadi. Door Gagan ki Chao mein and Jhumroo saw Kishore as director, producer, singer, music director. Even today lot of people wonder that was it the same Kishore who acted in half ticket typically like a buffoon composed the songs like Aa chal ke tujhe. The worst part in his life was that people never realised the emotional side of Kishore Kumar. In fact by 1970, Kishore had sung just half the number of songs mukesh had and about 10% of what Rafi had to his credit. It was true that Kishore was mad at money. Kishore every day used to count the money and he used to say that he wanted to see the paisa dancing with his hand. Kishore measured the success only in terms of money and not by any sort of quality. He used to say "pehle paise ke peeche bhaago, vapas paisa tumhare peeche bhaagega".
By this time, Ruma Guha, who was his first wife left him. Madhu Bala went head over heels for Kishore and so as Kishore for Madhu Bala. But it was never a happy married life for them. After this he married Yogita Bali (now the wife of Mithun Chakravarthy). Yogita left him complaining that he never cared for her and always attached to paisa. After she marriedMithun, Kishore madly stopped singing for Mithun for some time. After that, he married Leena Chandavarkar. Kishore used to joke that he married only Leena and rest of them married him. There were many situations where he behaved absolute eccentric. Once he called an interior decorator to design his house. He said that he already have a concept in his mind. He told the drawing room will have no door but there will be a ladder from the ceiling through which the guests enter into the room. The room should be filled with water with a centre fixed tablewhere the tea will be kept. There will be boats in the room and the guests will sit in the boats and go the table to pick up tea. This made the interior decorator seeing the stars. But the final part what Kishore told made the interior decorator run out of the house literally is a funny one. Kishore said that the walls of the room will have live crows nested and they should be shouting!!!!!!. Another incident was that, he was doing a film and one day he realised that the producer has paid him only the half. He came to the shooting spot with half moustache and half make up. Kishore screamed at him "poora paisa, tho poora make up. Warna, aise hi shooting karenge". Producer fell at his feet and paid him the full money. Once a journalist was doing an interview at his home and observed some of the Income Tax document totally eaten by rats. When Kishore was asked about it, he said, I am using those income tax notices as a poison for the rats!!!!
Heart of heart he remained a restless soul. Doesn't the song still touch your tymphanum even today? "Chalte Chalte mere ye geet yaad rakhna, kabhi alvida na kehna! Kabhi alvida naa kehna" There is no way that we can forget Kishore.
Probably even our next eneration!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is Kishore enjoying the sunset somewhere from the eternal world?
