On 4 August 1929, Kishore Kumar was born to a Bengali family in the small town of Khandwa (now in Madhya Pradesh). During those days, he was known as Abhas Kumar Ganguly. His father, Kunjilal Ganguly, was a lawyer, and his mother was Gouri Devi.
He was the youngest out of four children. His brothers Ashok Kumar and Anoop Kumar entered the arena of Bollywood when he was still a child. Spending time with his brothers, the charm of Bollywood movies too intrigued him, and his family seconded his interest.
Post Ashok Kumar's stardom, the Ganguly family shifted base to Mumbai. This was also the time when Abhas Kumar Ganguly changed his name to Kishore Kumar. His first venture into the big cinema career was as a chorus singer in the film "Bombay Talkies."
His first film as an actor was in the film called "Shikari," which was released in 1946, wherein Ashok Kumar was the lead hero. In 1948, Kishore Kumar got a chance to sing "Marne Ki Duayen Kyon Marangu" for the film "Ziddi." After this, he worked on many other assignments, but he did not seem to be making a place for himself in the music industry.
Kishore was a huge fan of legendary senior Indian actor-singer Kundan Lal Saigal, and he soon started mimicking his style. He gradually developed his own yodeling singing style after music director SD Burman advised him to stop copying Saigal.
The period of the 1960s was a lean patch in the career graph of Kishore. Most of his films bombed at the box office. However, in 1969 the tables turned once again, as R. D. Burman took over the recording after S. D. Burman fell ill for the film "Aradhana."
R. D. Burman got Kishore Kumar to sing the songs "Mere Sapno Ki Rani" and "Roop Tera Mastana," which gained instant success. Kishore Kumar also won his first Filmfare award for the song "Roop Tera Mastana." He then worked with other leading music directors such as Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Rajesh Roshan, Sapan Chakravarty, and Bappi Lahiri.
Kishore always knew what he wanted to do. And he also knew what he didn’t want to do. During the Indian Emergency in 1975-77, he refused to sing for Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's 'Emergency Propaganda.' In retaliation, she banned his songs on the national media. And he remembered his grudges. When superstar Amitabh Bachchan refused to do a guest appearance in his film, Kishore stopped singing for the actor.
Kishore Kumar sang in at least 1,200 movies and a total of about 3,000 songs.
His songs, Ek Ladki Bheegi Bhaagi Si (Chalti Ka Naam Gadi), Pyaar Deewana Hota Hai (Kati Patang), Main Shayar Badnaam (Namak Haraam), Rim Jhim Gire Saawan (Manzil), Diye Jalte Hain (Namak Haraam), Hume Tumse Pyaar Kitna (Kudrat), Ek Ajnabee Haseena Se (Ajnabee), Tere Bina Zindagi Se (Aandhi), Dekha Ek Khwaab (Silsila), among others have been blockbuster hits and favorites for millions of Indians.
Experimentation with expressing different emotions or the same emotion in different ways and generating varied emotions almost came naturally to Kishore Da – it is also because of him that India fell in love with yodeling, otherwise famous with the artist's Tex Morton and Jimmie Rodgers.
An unparalleled comic actor, a producer, a director, screenwriter, lyricist, music composer, distinguished playback singer not only for Hindi but other languages like Urdu, Marathi, Bhojpuri, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, and Odia, there will not be another entertainer who can stand up to Kishore’s eccentric genius and the electrifying energy in his music.
Interestingly, even though there is an award instituted by the Madhya Pradesh government in his name (Kishore Kumar Award) for contributions to Hindi films, the legendary singer was never awarded a national honor (Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, or Padma Shri), unlike his contemporaries.
Kishore Kumar won 8 Filmfare Awards for the Best Playback Singer. He even holds the record for winning the most Filmfare Awards in that category. Yet, he was not considered worthy of a national honor by the government. Why not Kishore Kumar? Why not Kishore Kumar? Why not Kishore Kumar? Why not Kishore Kumar? Why not Kishore Kumar? Why not Kishore Kumar if Lata Mangeshkar, Satyajit Ray, and MS Subbulakshmi could get the Bharat Ratna, why not Kishore Kumar?
His brother, Ashok, wanted Kishore to be an actor like he and Anoop. Still, Kishore resisted relentlessly, delivering deliberately mediocre deliveries in his unspectacular, roguish film career and willfully turning directors to acrid hostility. When he was finally permitted to sing, he was ridiculed for his rustic voice and his apparent lack of classical, or even rudimentary, training in music.
An interior designer took to his heels after Kishore suggested a swimming pool in the midst of the living room. And this one takes the cake: when an eminent producer brought forth a legal injunction mandating that Kishore Kumar obey his director, Kishore would have his revenge in driving to Khandala for an otherwise dull scene because the director had forgotten to say ‘cut.
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It is nearly impossible to believe that he had no formal training in singing or music. The demand for his voice in Bollywood was that he recorded his last song (an unremarkable guru) a day before his death on October 13, 1987, at the age of 58.
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