An Honest Account of a Legendary Artist

Kishore uncared for the gorgeous Madhubala when she wanted him probably the most – that’s one other trope that generally circulates in casual Bollywood histories. The e-book reveals, the truth is, that Kishore was a  devoted lover and husband to Madhubala.Their romance began round 1957, and so they received married in 1960. Madhubala married Kishore out of assorted suitors as a result of her “pagla”(harmless madcap) made her chortle. 

In flip, he sorted his “hoor-pari”(angel, fairy) devotedly until her final breath.Kishore spent practically 9 years consistently by her aspect until Madhubala’s demise in February,1969. As per the authors, throughout most of this time, she was so sick that the couple may get pleasure from no intimacy in any respect, her fragile coronary heart couldn’t take the thrill.Think about the frame of mind of the caregiver on this depressing state of affairs; certainly it will need to have taken a toll on Kishore’s psychological well being.

At coronary heart,Kishore was a small-town, conservative male who needed an ardhangini (higher half) all his life and went via three unsuccessful marriages making an attempt to get one. His personal music “Zaroorat hai zaroorat hai ik shrimati ki, kalawati ki, sewa kare jo pati ki” (I would like a proficient,dutiful spouse who will serve her husband selflessly) appears tailored for him. Fortunately he discovered that soulmate in Leena Chandavarkar, his fourth and final spouse.
In his e-book Ganje Farishte, Sadat Hassan Manto criticizes Ashok for being “berukha”(heartless) in the direction of his feminine admirers. In contrast to his older brother,Kishore by no means noticed that sort of adulation as an actor, though his movies had been fairly profitable and ran parallel to the movies of the holy trinity of Dev, Raj and Dilip. 

He was at all times the “maskhara”, the joker, the court docket jester. And like many jokers, melancholy laybehind the façade. That loneliness shone via  -when Kishore expressed his saddest feelings via his personal compositions for movies he directed, comparable to “Beqaraar dil,tu gaye ja” (oh stressed coronary heart, maintain singing) for Door Ka Raahi(1971).Or “Aa chal ke tujhe essential leke chaloon” (let me take you into a greater world) in Door Gagan ki Chhaon Males(1964).

The Ganguly brothers
This e-book is a crucial piece of movie historical past and will ideally be learn together with Dadamoni written by Nabendu Ghosh, which was just lately re-printed with a foreword by Ashok Kumar’s daughter Bharati Jaffrey (sadly she handed away inside a month of launch of this e-book). Collectively, these two books will assist a movie fanatic respect the depth of contribution by the Khandwa-wale Ganguly brothers to Hindi cinema.

In reality it amazes me how Ashok had his youthful brother’s life in such a decent stranglehold; how he was capable of get away with  consistently interfering in Kishore’s skilled in addition to private life for the longest time. Maybe it was out of a misplaced sense of gratitude (the elders-know-best type that’s typical amongst Indian households )-that Kishore by no means fairly rebelled towards his brother.

Kishore did take an occasional  choice with out consulting his brother,like marrying his first spouse Ruma Guha Thakurta (Ashok was bitterly against the wedding until the delivery of Kishore’s son Amit) ,however when it got here to his profession, it appears Ashok made him dance like a puppet on a string endlessly. 

Would Kishore’s profession have been higher with out Ashok’s interference? Maybe not, as a result of Ashok was one of many founding fathers of the Hindi movie business and his community positively opened the doorways for Kishore. On second ideas, being recognized with the Ashok Kumar camp is prone to have value Kishoresome good alternatives of working with rival banners,especiallyin the 50s and the 60s . That’s a subject for an additional e-book, maybe.

Gaata rahe mera dil: Kishore and Lata 

The songs of Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar have been an integral a part of the rising up expertise of 4 generations of Indians .“Kishore”, in spite of everything,means youth. And his voice remained fittingly youthful until the tip;the voice of a virile man ,as Lata Mangeshkar as soon as known as him,and the right foil to her personal candy,virginal voice.

The 2 singers sang roughly 300 duets, most of which had been tremendous hits. This quantity doesn’t embody tandem songs they sang ,comparable to “Rimjhim girey saawan”(Manzil), or “Khilte hain gul yahaan” (Sharmilee) or “Mere naina sawan -bhadon”(Mehbooba). Really the Kishore -Lata phenomenon just isn’t troublesome to decipher. Each of them dominated the airwaves throughout a time when romance was a vital ingredient of movies. Kishore was the voice of the dashing lover/husband, whereas Lata was the voice of the virtuous lover/spouse. Starting with the 50s, when Dev was romancing girls in each movie, this romantic part peaked within the 60s and the 70s, with Aradhana proving to be a landmark. 

Hey, kitne sapne, kitne armaan laya hoon essential,dekho na

Kishore turned synonymous with Rajesh Khanna after Aradhana. Then got here different actors like Shashi Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor and at last Amitabh Bachchan, who dominated the movie business at a time(the Eighties) when melody didn’t matter. It’s outstanding how Kishore modified his tone and tenor to match the distinctive persona of every of those actors. Kishore sang some actually mediocre songs too throughout the 80s, which he clearly regretted. These songs had been sometimes recorded for South-based “quickie” productions, normally remade from the unique Telugu or Tamil movies. RD Burman additionally went via a low part throughout the identical part, throughout which Kishore’s songs had been picturized on Jeetendra (“Ek Aankh Maroon toh”, Tohfa) and sometimes a pot bellied Rajesh Khanna (“O Devi, O child”, Maqsad), music for each movies was composed by Bappi Lahiri. However the two pals saved their heads via this somewhat poor decade for  movie music, even delivering some memorable songs for movies comparable to Shaan (“Janu meri jaan”), Shakti (“Jane kaise kab kahan”) and Kaalia (“Tum saath ho jab apne”, “Jahan teri yeh nazarhai”).

Achha to hum chalte hain…

Coming again to Lata and Kishore, we Indians have been lucky sufficient to listen to Lata Mangeshkar’s voice via varied levels of her life, from the candy voice of a teen in Mahal (“Aaye gaaane wala”) to  the mature voice of a married girl in Libaas (“Khamosh saa fasana”). We additionally loved a number of non-film albums of Lata. We weren’t so fortunate with Kishore.

He did some Pujo (Durga Puja) albums fairly late in life; it was solely within the 80s that stiff higher lip Bengalis accepted that he may sing Rabindra Sangeet, even supposing Kishore had sung “Ami chini go chini” for Satyajit Ray’s Charulata (1964), in addition to “Bidhir Badhon” in Ghare Baire(1984), each movies being based mostly on Tagore’s brief tales. 

 The inherent biases within the minds of individuals towards the untrained singer Kishore, I dare say, exist even right now. Folks don’t respect the struggles each artist goes via.Success didn’t come simply to both Lata or Kishore; each of them labored arduous to grasp playback singing and set up their respective positions within the movie business. It’s to the credit score of each singers that their melodies sound recent even 5 many years after these had been first recorded and launched.

Whether or not it’s “Kaali palak teri gori” (Do Chor) or “Diwana kar ke chhodoge” (Mere Jeevan Saathi),or “Aasman ke neeche” (Jewel Thief), I think Kishore-Lata songs will proceed to be the right pick-me-up to kick begin a boring winter morning, for a number of generations of Indians to come back.