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Presented byThe Times of IndiaIn association with

Research Centre for Cinema Studies(Affiliated to the NFAI)

The Times of India re-presents

THESflDffllDTHEGLflDOF KISHORE KUMAR

In homage -on his first death anniversaryNehru Centre, 17-22 October 1988

contributions : Khalid Mohamed, Deepa Gahlot,Am it Tyagi

edited : Ashish Rajadhyaksha

cover designed by Mudra Communications Pvt. Ltd.

All rights held by:Research Centre for Cinema Studies

303 Seaside ApartmentsP. Balu MargPrabhadevi

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CONTENTSPaye Nc.

Preface 9

The Fear And The Angst 11

The W\e\ody 2.1

The Performance 48

The Statement 63

Projecting Away 91

Kishore Kumar's filmography 109

PREFACE a t's a complicated procedure, usually - to find an integrityI to so multifaceted an individual as Kishore Kumar was.• Singer, actor, comedian-satirist perhaps without a realparallel in the Indian cinema, music director and composer,he was to participate in taking each of these areas intoseperate and major industries. He was part of this mael-strom ever since he started work, in a new generation ofpost-Independence cinema, and then he was to embody it- as India's best-known and highest priced male playbacksinger, as a performer that took the song-dance-comedyroutine to the stage to participate in initiating the era ofdisco dancing and gigantic live concerts, with all that itimplies to modern India.

At its least, the phenomenon signposts the coming of ageof modern mass-culture in India. He would not have beenpossible without the radio; he was part of a concertedprocess that took entertainment, and its inescapableabstraction, music, to go beyond the bounds of regionalcapital and regional culture. He was finally the era of thegreat music directors, as fundamental an intervening intohow Indian films could be made as the mythologicals ofthe silent era, the so-called 'socials' of P.C. Barua and theNew Theatres filmmakers and the 'realists' who followed.

The last thing this book intends to do is to create yetanother auteur to an already overbloated list. KishoreKumar, however, has become a cross-current of somany kinds of discourses that it becomes fertile territoryforan investigation into just howthe modern was mediatedinto post-Independence India. His films are in fact consid-erably more complex narrative formations than mostpeople seem to realise, not just in the staggering rangeof sources from which they borrow but the dimensions towhich they can take a near-plotless scenario, holding itscontinuities through pure gesture. Kishore Kumar hadsomehow won for himself the freedom to intervene into thenarrative, take it into practically any direction he wished,often revealing in the process its sheer arbitrariness, with-

out ever violating certain quite determined generic norms.The extraordinary bit is these norms are within him, areoften him, in the way he configurated himself as he slippedthrough his various roles and guises. Equally interesting,everyone has an opinion on the man - everyone hasresponded to some degree to the encapsulated mess ofindustry and craftsmanship he represented. The way he isspoken about is in itself an interesting range against whichto mount an investigation.

This book has been a strange, sometimes unique, experi-ence for those who have helped put it together. Ourinvestigation has led inexorably to the man, to his eccen-tricities, his reputation, channelled through the people wemet - and the manner in which we met them; the difficultieswe encountered, the facades of narcissism we had tosometimes blindly meander through. This is generally adangerous method, one that privileges the subjectivitiesand quixoticisms of an individual, and thus merely rein-forces the established hierarchies that, as our evidencehopefully shows, Kishore Kumar himself sought to over-throw. We found it difficult to square the singing superstarwith the essentially B-grade status accorded to the films hemade; we found it difficult to match the allegedly 'crazy' manwith his own, often documented, desires to be 'takenseriously'. Clearly there is more at stake in all this. Thisbook does not intend to suppress any of thesediscourses. Indeed, il is for the first time that we, in theRCCS, are dealing with a theme that has such a surfeit ofthem. The book does make a skeletal effort to construethem into a kind of line, but with the awareness, andpleasure, of knowing that there is nothing to appropriatehere. And that there is something to celebrate.

It is also, in a sense, a reconstruction - different people aredoing it in their own way, and it necessarily combines withreflection and revaluation a tinge of nostalgia. For an erathat Kishore Kumar's death brought to a close.

1.

ANDTHE ANGST

Khalid Mohamed

|is was a voice set free. Above all, a music man, hevas an entertainer. He was popular but withoutsandering to the rah-rah, give-us-our-daily-kicks

benches. His struggle, his battles with the sappy showbizelements were laid to rest a year ago with his departure. Hewrote his own comedy, his own tragedy - the story of a boywho became a man who became a cult only to be devoured,Dionysus-like, by some beyond-his-control, self-destruc-tive bent.

Kishore Kumar was considered eccentric sometimes,sometimes a genius. The truth perhaps lay in between.Supremely gifted, he had to deal with charlatans, peoplewho didn't know the craft or the art of the medium they weredealing with. They looked up to him for redemption, natu-rally he was wont to treat them with a bit of mischief, a bitof contempt even. In his dancing eyes, in his exquisitelysing-song speaking voice, in his light-hearted, quick-witted banter, you could hear the troubled vibe. The achingblue note. He could, wheneverthe mood grabbed him, singwith a tear in his voice. He could have the cosmic blues.His low phrases could be deep as a valley you suspect, hisheartaches hidden and prolonged. His romantic aura bringsto mind an artist half-in-love with despair.

He would emerge from his reclusiveness to play in the parkof the recording centres, and the studio lights. Wanderlustwould lead him to perform at concerts, in London and LosAngeles, though he always came back to nis fiercelyguarded bungalow in Juhu, just a stroll away from the once-deserted beachside, now an enclave for Sunday holiday-makers. And it was to his home that they brought himwhen he died, to his posters and pictures of CharlieChaplin, fluffy dogs, Persian cats, among his giganticvideo collection of horror movies, and so many discsand cassettes which he would lend an ear to whereverthere was a break from the career's huriy burly.

He could be a charmer. He could be melancholic.Thematuration of the singer-performer was impressive towatch. From ranking third or fourth in the chart of playbacksingers, he progressed to become a very personal singer,songwriter and composer of pieces that revealed broadskills and even broader ambitions. If Kishore Kumar hadnot entirely shaken off the callowness of earlier outings,his later work still represented a breakthrough. Strong andauthorial, his voice developed confidence, establishinghim as a peer. In fact, he became the first film singer toshow an interest in bridging the gap between pop music andserious music.

Rooted in the simple strains of the 1940s, he movedinstinctively towardsthe electronic beat of the eclectic 80s.Restlessness was also the key to his personality; he wasan innately conservative man who wanted to be a swinger.He would be an iconoclast, too, and had an understand-able mistrust for institutions. What had the system everdone for him? The movies often meant crassness and hehad to rise above that. If it brought money and sunshine,they were fringe benefits.

He could mimic a rock-and-roll or ghazal star. He had fun,he could jeer and jibe at others because they didn't havetheclass and they accumulated more honours and awardsthan they deserved. His unaffected pleasure in a soloperformance, before the mike, on stage or in front of thecamera, surprised everyone. He seemed to be grateful tohis audience, anxious to please. How does he do it, you'dwonder, where does that energy and elan come from? Itpossibly had to do with the absence of snobbery that'sassociated with artistry. He appeared to be sounspeakably relieved to have been sprung from the prisonof anonymity that he married his audience and moved in.

Kishore Kumar was just in time for any generation. Hedanced and sang just the way you wanted to feel, he made

Kishore Kumar 14 you escape fromthe bleakness oftheconditions. He could

combine the lowest common denominator with the highest,common factor. Like Mohammed Rafi, he sent out soundsthat reverberate within, uniting so many hearts withoutapparent effort, it's true that sometimes iie did not catchthe listener right in the lead belly. But he was not too youngto love or to console the tired spirit, and he kept up thewhistle on the long, long way to your very own Tipperary.

Born on August 4, 1929, he died on October 13, 1987. Inhis 58years he had become a paradox. A mask of tragedyanc comedy rolled into one. Son of Kunjbehari Ganguly,a barrister from Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh, his storybegins in 1951. A man in his early 20s, he left home forBombay, where elder brother Ashok was already a majorstar. That, young Kishore thought, was the ticket to ameeting with his all-time hero K.L. Saigal.

The fan never got to meet Saigal but he was persuadedto stay back in the city where fame and fortune are up forgrabs. Later their brother Anoop joined the movies tooand played supporting roles, the trio teeming up in 1958 forChalti Ka Naam Gaadi, perhaps the most uproariouscomedy to be confected in the Indian studios.

But beforethat, Kishore Kumar had established himself aswhat was then known as the 'singing star'. This meant thathe did his own playback singing instead of depending ona ghost voice. Among his earlier lot of films, he always hada certain regard for Bhai Bhai, Bandi, Lookochuri,Shachuri, Shararat, Musafir, Asha with that superstomper of a song, Eena Meena Deeka, and New Delhi.He also gave a bulk of the credit to filmmaker M.V. Ramanfor encouraging him to take on the role of an actor in anera when the premium was on Greek-god looks, or whatcame to be known as 'chocolate faces'.

Kishore Kumar 15

Kishore Kumar

Shararat

Actually, Kishor Kumar was crooning a number forRaman's film Bahar when the filmmaker was floored by hissaucy style of singing and cast him in his next productionLadki.

lJe had acted before but had gone virtually unnoticed in thesupport of brother Ashok Kumar opposite Veena inShikari. Neither did roles in Andolan and Tamasha helphim any. It was Ladki and Lehren directed by H.S.Rawail that brought for him a cloudburst of applause.The veteran director of the times. R.C. Talwar, cast him

opposite Meena Kumari in llzaam while Bimal Roy usedhim as representative of the unemployed youth in Naukri.Came the hilarious Baap Re Baap in 1955 and KishoreKumar found a place in tinsel town as actor-singer-cum-comedian. Then, there were New Delhi, Naya Andaz,Miss Mary, Begunah (in which he did a take-off of DannyKaye's act in Knock On Wood), Dilli KaThug and onceagain the unemployed youth in Hrishikesh Mukherjee'sdebut feature Munimji.

Around the same time he became the voice for Dev Anandwhen his songs for Paying Guest became juke-boxdelights. For Dev Anand, his numbers in Munimji werealso instant hits. Earlier he had sung for the star in Baazi.On screen, his one-man laugh riots continued, culminatingin the belly-cluncher Half Ticket. As the black-and-whiteera faded, Kishore Kumar went slow on his actingassignments, popping up only to do an occasionalPadosan. He almost quit acting, except in his own homeproductions, preferring to concentrate on playbacksinging. There was a lean phase followed by a whoppingcomeback with the release of Aradhana in 1969. If he hadbeen Dev's voice earlier, he now became the ghost forRajesh Khanna, the country's first acknowledged super-star.

It would be futile to compile a list of the golden numbersKishore Kumar had done down the decades. But theoldies from Funtoosh, Rim Jhim, Fareb, Jhumroo inwhich he acted, sang and also composed music, Mr X InBombay, have a special resonance. So do his later rendi-tions in Guide, Amar Prem, Mehbooba, Khamoshi, Miliand Saagar. And all these precious melodies from a manwho had no formal training, noguruand.it is said, he neverever learnt to read the notations. He did not feel the needto.

His directorial efforts ranged from the introspective DoorKishore Kumar 17 Gagan Ki Chaon Mein and the semi-autobiographical

•

Kishore Kumar

Door Gagan Ki Chaorc Mein

Shaabash Daddy to the bizarre Badhti Ka Naam Daadhi.He could talk eruditely of film craft or he could crack cornyjokes (most often aimed against income-tax officers), heliked talking to the trees (or so he said), and he likedproclaiming that he was a teetotaller and a non-smoker.It was work, evidently, that sent him on a high. At onepoint, he was recording as many as five songs in a day.

Kishore Kumar would not get bulldozed. The moststriking example of this was V.C. Shukla's ban on his songs

18 from radio and television during the Emergency. He had

re'used to publicise the 20-Point Preg.-amme. The axe fellon him but he didn't seem to care. WPien the clouds lifted,Shukla had to make a public apology. .

Colourful, Kish«jre Kumar could be. Decked up inHawaiian r.iirts once, he had then taken to the silk kurta-lungi and a white fur cap for stage shows. He liked to bedapper for he laughed, otherwise his wife wouldn't carefor him. He married four times, and each time it was to abeautiful actress: Ruma Devi, Madhubala, Yogeeta Baliand Leena Chandavarkar.

It was in '85 that he expressed his angst, his wish to getaway from the madding crowd. He announced that hewould like to retire to the tranquillity of his hometownKhandwa. But that he wouldn't was a foregoneconclusion. Because the best entertainers never giveup.

A man of extremes, he could either adore you or detestyou. As it happened, you sampled both facets. He likedyou for appreciating his Shabash Daddy but hecouldn't accept you for saying that his Door WadiyonMein Kahin wasn't up to the mark. It was a mess ofcrime, love and deceit set against a snowy backdrop thatleft you strangely ice-cold. You had to state that, put itdown in words, even a wonderman could go wrong, yousaid. Kishore Kumar was furious, obviously the filmmeant a lot to him.

He was annoyed that you hadn't really understood him;between him and you there was this suddencommunication gap. He had even taken out thisenormous advertisement in a film paper, slapping you ashe would slap a spoilt child.

You were hurt, maybe, but that couldn't whittle youradmiration for the man, the artist. You could never denyhis super gift for entertainment. You saw him pump lifeinto music, you saw him on the Shanmukhananda stage

Kishore Kumar 19 transforming the long black mike wire in o a live partner.

He would not get bulldozea.Kishore Kumar singing at the Congress Centenary, 1985

You watched him on the revolving platform of New York'sMadison Square Gardens You heard his voice ghostingfor every movie hero, teenager or senior, you heard himon the radio as soon as you woke up, you collected hisrecords, cassettes, some video tapes. You Kept in contact.And then he pulled another number. He went away.

Kishore Kumar 20

2.THE MELODY

THE CRY

New Delhi

Kishore Kumar 22

Talking about his brother, kshoV Kumar ssys:

He was not a trained Ginger. In fact he had a very poorvoice in his childhood. One day, when he was five years old,my mother was cutting some vegetables when he blun-dered in. He cut limself so badly - in fact he cut a toe rightoff - that he cried for a month. Finally when he felt better andhe stopped crying, we discovered, miraculously, that hisvoice had cleared. The hoarseness and the sniffle hadgone.

When he came to Bombay I told him that I would try and gethim roles as an actor. He wasn't terribly interested either

way. But he practiced his music, day and night. I think thetalent he really had was to hit the note - unerringly, everytime. He never deviated off the sargam, not even once. Andthen he had an almost uncanny sense of rhythm. Thesewere the two things that made him a singer. These, andpractice.

Music historian Roshan Shahani:

I think one of Kishore Kumar's greatest achievements wasthe way he was able to bring speech back into music.This was supposed to have been the central, definingaspect of classical Indian music: the way they could bringmusic so close to the act of speech, mould language todiscover its poetry and musicality, rather than imposemusical forms on verbal compositions.

By and large our film music directors afterIndependence - Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Kalyanji-Anandjiand the rest - did of course use orchestral forms, but strictlywithin the limits of melody. This is not how harmony, forinstance, should really be understood. Because KishoreKumar was never afraid to play with words, and verbalrhythm, he was able to make something quite different outof these melodic scores where every instrument just paral-lels what other instruments play, rather than usingcounterpoint.

Music director Kalyanji:

Kishoreda's ability really lay in the way he was able tomake dialogue from music. He was not bound by rhythmor notes. You didn't know where or when the speakingwould start and the singing began. When we did stageshows together, he didn't even require to be given the sur,he would be speaking, then would just burst into song, thenhe would improvise, he would speak in between the song.No he didn't do riyaz as such. He observed. That was his

Kishore Kumar 23 riyaz.

MUSICAND THE MACHINE

•ORCHESTRATION/ORGANISATION

ben Kishore Kumar arrived on the musical scenefilm music had already been through at least twofmajor periods of transition: the first, when sound

came in and music had to actually invent a soundtrack;the second - even more painfully - when the studioscrumbled in the late 1940s to leave it to music directors toonce again invent, through music, a genre of film whichcould sustain an all-India market that would go beyond bothcultural and economic limitations of the regional cinema.

Sound came into Indian cinema in 1930, and only wors-ened an already severe problem: of the sheer antithesisbetween Indian music, classical and folk, on the one handand orchestration in whatever form available on the other.Indian music survived, till then, on continuities of scale, ona rhythmic pattern bound only by its cycle, a system thatfreed the singer into improvisatory explorations as muchas it freed the percussionist from merely keeping taal (thebeat).

Music directors in the early years were generally cluelessas to how to compose with precisely defined time lengths- in film, lengths specified by fractions of seconds. For thismeant reworking both Indian instruments in terms of har-monic and, even more particularly, melodic patterns -which of course is not how a sitar or sarod is supposed tobe played - and then, in addition, integrating Westerninstruments, like the piano, for instance, into a nativeorchestral mode.

In this section we provide some evidence on just howorchestration came to the Indian cinema after Independ-ence, the complicated transitions of some of the mostfamiliar instruments being used today, what orchestrationitself came to mean.

Kishore Kumar 24

Mazhe Sangeet-Rachana Ani

Digdarshan

-Mauz Prakashan,Bombay.

Tr:Ashish Rajadhyaksha

Kishore Kumar 25

Keshavrao Bhole, music director of the Prabhat Studio andof films such as V. Shantaram's Amritmanthan(1934),Duniya Na Mane (1937) and Fathelal/Damle's SantTukaram (1936), was one of the first music directors tointernalise the forms and problems of Western orchestra-tion. He learn! a lot from watching American films, as hehas written, in his book Mazhe Sangeet - Rachana AniDigdarshan. We carry an excerpt:

Between 1919 and 19301 had seen several excellent silentfilms at the Capitol, the old West End, the Opera House. AtCapitol and Opera House, the theatre had an orchestra pitin which was seated a full-scale English orchestra, whichwould play while the film went on, and would elaborate theemotions portrayed with its myriad combinations of toneand volume. The conductors of orchestras at these twotheatres were particularly good...Lady With The Camille,Faust, Scaramouche, Gold Rush, City Lights, The BlueAngel, were some of the great films brought to life by theseorchestras. I wasn't even aware then of the tremendousimpact these orchestras were to have on me. I hadn't a clueat that time that I too would one day be making music fortheatre and film. The myriad tones of instruments, theirparticular timbre, and how these could come together somagnificently, engaged my mind. During the interval Iwould move up close and stare at the instruments,sometimes listen to them - out of sheer curiosity! I wasbaffled by the way they played different notes (swaras) ondifferent scales yet could actually play together, without amistake, and without sounding flat. Those lined sheets ofmusic before them, the way some instruments weresilenced while others were introduced - and theircombinations, sometimes so soft and at others so grand,evoking such sentiments! When we played or sang ourmusic in groups, everyone would follow the same swaras,play and sing the same thing. But here everyone wasdifferent. Now I understand the system of chords (wherethree notes combine at the same time), sometimes inharmony, sometimes in vivadi. I was particularly fasci-

nated by the pianist. He would hold the rhythm with his lefthand but play something quite different with his right.When I tried to play different things with my two hands onthe pedal-organ, I only produced chaos. The pianistexplained, later on when I met him, "We have been trainedto do this from our childhood. When we sing, everyonehas his own swaras. And when we play the piano, we holdthe chord with our left hand and play the melody with ourright, following the notes written down by the composer".

My first lesson, then, was to see how the Westernmusician 'read' the music before him. Our harmonium ofcourse just follows the singer's notes, while various percus-sion instruments like the tabla, mridangam, jhanj, tuntuna,ektari, would keep the beat. While we emphasised theaural, they concentrated on the written score -this, I thenconcluded, was the basic difference. Listening to thismusic at that time proved useful later, leaving me with thesole regret that I didn't formally train myself within theWestern musical system at that time.

The talkies came in 1929, and I saw films like Showboatand My Sonny Boy at the Capitol and the Excelsior inBombay. As I heard Paul Robeson's magnificently pow-erful voice and Al Jolson's sentimental renderings, I knewthat I was participating in the very first experiments beingmade in talkie film music. Because this music wasrecorded on the print itself, it had done away with the liveorchestra, which is something I regret. I believe that thereis substantial difference between live and recorded music

. and we have still to assimilate the possibilities of the latter.

Even today, in the theatre for instance, pre-recordedmusic falls completely short of the effect a live violinist, forinstance, can provide - the very placement of the loud-speaker, in our theatres, militates against the term back-ground music: it is right there, in front, even if it issupposed to come from somewhere in the back....

Kishore Kumar 26

\

Classical music was itself hardly immune from thechanges taking place. The establishment of theGandharva Sangeet Mahavidyalaya in Gwalior at the turnof the century had heralded a new era in classicalperform-ance music, of proliferating music schools and a vast andgrowing audience of music lovers trained, not to sing, butto listen to music. Singers had long moved out of courtsand into public performances by the time the GramophoneCompany of India arrived in 1910 in Calcutta to capitaliseon the growing musical marketplace. GCI/HMV was fol-lowed rapidly by the Hindustan Record Company andthen other commercial record companies even asRabindranath Tagore's explorations into choral and or-chestral music gave rise to the first major popular musicalform in India in this century: the Rabindra sangeet. Classi-cal music performances became more and more compactto respond, for example, to the 78 r.p.m. disc; performersdrew from, as much as they influenced, popular stagemusic (the natya-sangeet); by the mid '30s a form ofbhava-geet had become a simplified and highly distilled mode ofclassical singing adapted especially for the recording in-dustry and, later, for the radio. In film, the actual presenceof ancillary industries such as the recording industry - andthe publishing industry, which had already popularised e.g.novels like Devdas - provided tremendous economic sus-tenance to the studio system: and it accepted this supportas completely as it established its own systems of culturalproduction with Prabhat, New Theatres, Bombay Talkieand the rest of the big studios.

The collapse of the studios coincided with the end of WorldWar II and, later, Independence.

The S.K. Patil Film Enquiry Committee appointed by theGovernment of India in 1951 still most accurately chron-icles the shift that occurred:

Kishore Kumar 27

Report Of The FilmEnquiry Committee,

1951,

Ministry of Information& Broadcasting,

The War ended at a time when the industry was enjoyinga boom. Cinemas, old and new, were earning largerevenues, and since the annual production of films hadbeen curtailed - from about 170 at the beginning of the Warto about 100 when it ended, the distributors and producersalso earned good returns on every film. So when controlswere lifted by 1946, there was a sudden spurt of activityboth in production and in exhibition. Theatre equipmentimported in the two years 1946-47 amounted in value to acrore of rupees. Studio equipment costing another croreof_ rupees was also imported and installed in the sameperiod. Within three months of decontrol, over 100 newproducers entered the field, attracted by the prospectsheld out by the industry, and new films released numberedover 200 in 1946 and 283 in 1947...

Within three years of the end of the war, the leadership ofthe industry had changed hands from established produc-ers to a variety of successors. Leading 'stars', exactingfinanciers and calculating distributors and exhibitorsforged ahead. Freelancing became the rule among theartistes, and 'stars' on the payroll of established producersbecametheexception...Filmproduction, acombination ofart, industry and showmanship, became in substantialmeasure the recourse of deluded aspirants to easy riches,and neither internal correctives nor external inspiration orpressure intervened to halt the process.

Kishore Kumar 28

What kind of music were these exacting financiers anddistributors and producers coming up with? Dalsukh M.Pancholi's Khazanchi had already shown something ofwhat was to come, with its flattened out spaces, decorativemotifs interspersed with song-dance routines; earlier, AnilBiswas had sensed some of the potential, in sheer Bre-chtian terms, of popular music in Mehboob Khan's films,particularly Roti (1941). Shankar-Jaikishen, Naushad,and later O. P. Nayyar and Madan Mohan were to usher inanother kind of music, another era where the very formof orchestration was to mean something else: the coheringof vastly different cultural and regional tastes into anall-India 'formula' that could go heyond language-specific-ity and into a market that even spilled outside India tovirtually rival Hollywood in its dominance over the MiddleEast, Africa, and large parts of South East Asia.

The technical challenges were awesome.

Kishore Kumar 29 Performing with Rahul Dev Burman

Film Seminar Report,1955,

organised and hostedby the Sangeet Natak

Akademi.Ed: DrR.M. Ray,New Delhi 1956.

In 1955 Anil Biswas pointed to the urgency of the problemsof orchestration:

Little research has been made in the field of film music.Orchestration is yet in its infancy in India. Indian instru-ments have not yet been tested for all their tonal values, forpurposes of orchestration. Electro-mechanisation, as afactor, is yet new to most of our musicians. Microphonesand projectors have enabled us to annihilate space andtime, but we have not been fully able to appreciate theirqualities and adapt ourselves to their needs as yet. Themarriage between music and the machine is a bafflingphenomenon to comprehend, and we have not been ableto master the situation to the extent required of us.

Any researches undertaken in the field of music will have totake into account this new factor of mechanisation, andmusical instruments and those who handle them willhave to adapt themselves to the new conditions. Anexhaustive inventory of Indian musical instruments in thefields of classical and folk music will have to be preparedwithout delay.

Kishore Kumar

Nevertheless these composers introduced an extraordi-narily wide variety of new instrumonts. Musicologist Bhaskar Chandavarkar reveals the extent of adaptation and theconsequent cultural syncretism that new explorations inorchestration brought about, especially in the late 1940s

30 and 50s:

Song OfThe Instruments

- The Tradition OfMusic In

Indian Cinema

- Cinema In India,Apr-Jun 88, Bombay.

Kishore Kumar 31

Singing brings into use the most basic of instruments...Asvocal chords and resonators are also used for spokenlanguage, the voice is deeply rooted in culture. A musicalinc-rument is an external aid...(In consequence), a Hawai-ian or an African instrument would be accepted in Indianruusic with much less intolerance than a correspondingvoice from a singer...

Fifty years ago, when film music directors were lookingaround for new sounds and different colours for theirorchestras, they welcomed musicians who played unusualinstruments. Many came from unexpected quarters: somefrom outside Bombay, some from city hotel bands andrestaurants, others from the army and from among folkartists. Yet others set out to teach themselves unusualinstruments - and many became valuable contributors tothe tradition of film music.

The mandolin is an instrument of Italian origin. It has afretted finger board and four pairs of strings. Played witha plectrum, it could pass for an Eastern instrument becauseof its tonal colour. Three decades ago, it was very popularwith our music directors, and one of the best performerson the mandolin then was Sajjad Hussein. He could get the-instrument to 'sing'.Indian melodies. Sajjad was a[so acompetent comboeer (and i directly) helped manyyoungsr musicians to take to p c* 'i j t'Tie mendolin. FromNaushad to C. Ramchanc'ra to Shankar-Jaikishen, thisittle Italian inst ument was a favourite of arratigers...

Another instrument that film musicians borrowed from theWest did not adapt so easily. The clarinet was perfected ii'rt ©West aroi'nd 1830. It came to India with the British viathe'r pol'ce and military bands. At silent film shows ilr>theatres, with wedding brass bands, the clarinet becamepopular. The music for the Prabhat emblem (using) a*melody in Raag Bhoopali was played E-Flat on a high-pitched clarinet...Today, although the clarinet has a I butvanished from film soig studios, we can go back to W aster

Ibrahim's 78-rpm. discs and the wonderful songs ofKhursheed, Kanan Bala and Noor Jehan (and songs like)Leke Pahela Pahela Pyar, that all-time hit from O.P.Nayyarthat used the clarinet beautifully...

One of the first songs to earn inter-cultural popularity wasAwara Hoon-GardishMein.... Itwastowardstheendofthe40s that Shankar-Jaikishen introduced the instrument thatwas later associated with Raj Kapoor and his Awarasongs: the piano accordion. The instrument came to Indiaonly after the First World War. Its sound is moreaggressive than a conventional hand-operated harmo-nium. Large instruments also had buttons that couldchange the tone-colour from three to six different ways.Before electrical/electronic organs came to India, theaccordion was a very popular instrument in film songs.0- Ramchandra, Shankar-Jaikishen, S.D. Burman, O.P.Nayyarand many others usedit-RoopTeraMastanaandMere Sapnon Ki Rani both sung by Kishore Kumar are buttwo of the great hits of the recent past. Goody Seervai,they say, was the pioneer of this instrument. He gaveit currency and popularity. However, as the instrument wasso much like the good old harmonium, many musiciansshifted from the harmonium to the accordion and several ofthem were sought after at recording sessions.

Clavier, or Klavier, is a word for keyboard in German. Sowhen an instrument that had a keyboard but sounded likea violin was invented, they named it the claviolin. Subse-quent generations of this early ancestor have given ussynthesisers where the valves were replaced first bytransistors and then by chips. An early model was broughtto Bombay's film studios by a youth named Kalyanji VeerjiShah. He reportedly played it for the Nagin songs. Itsimulated the sound of a snake-charmer's been. Tan DoleMera Man Dole and OOnchiDuniyake Deewari were hitsof the period. And Nagin will be ever remembered forHemant Kumar's music and the synthesiser or claviolin

Kishore Kumar 32 sound he used.

In many ways these instruments were the forerunners of anew sound vocabulary that audiences would accept inlater years. Kalyanji Shah went on to team up with hisbrother Anandji, and the team is still a big commercialdraw.

The family of drums and percussion instruments is themost varied in the film song orchestra. (Although) we havea large number of all kinds and sizes of drums in India, itwas...natural that music directors started looking beyondthe tabla andmridangam -the two most common concertrhythm instruments. The jazz drum set, or trap drums, werebrought into films early on -we were introduced to them inIndia at clubs and hotel dances. They combined well withsome percussion instruments from Latin America...Someyears ago, bongo drums were very popular. And othersAfr Caribbean in origin: castanets, resoreso, kabas,Chinese blocks, rattles, bells, marakass - and anything elsethat could produce a musically useful sound when hit bysomething else. These instruments are now familiarsounds to us, thanks to the percussion or 'rhythm special-ists' of the film industry. O.P. Nayyar, S.D. Burman,Shankar-Jaikishen, Kalyanji-Anandji, Laxrnikant-Pyarelal,R.D. Burman - all these music directors have sought veryspecial effects from their rhythm sections, using non-Indianinstruments and blending them into our own taal.

K.K. and Lata Mangeshkar with Laxmikant-Pyarelal

Kishore Kumar 33

Mani Kaul says about Kishore Kumar:

He seemed to have the freedom to move almost anywherehe liked. He had both the emotional and musical dispositionto make a song, let's say, of table and chair and bottle andsky, a sort of musical Rene Magritte. His yodelling isextraordinary, I don't even know where he could have gotit from, but it showed how he could so easily slip into andoutside the given beat. I believe he sang the Malthusiantheory of population as it was, once.

And Kamal Swaroop:

I think what happened was that he could move from themusical to the spoken via the image. If you say, as youquote Kalyanji-Anandji on him, that observation was hisriyaz, what it means is his ability to mime. That is, toconvert the music through whatever he sees in it into amode of speaking singing.

Rajat Dholakia was the music director of Kamal Swaroop'sOm Dar-b-dar made last year, and is therefore the manresponsible for one of the most exciting soundtracks in theIndian cinema for quite soms years. He is extremelyfascinated by some of the less-then-obvious achievementsof popular, even mass-consu vptiort music (e.g. MichaelJackson, whom he has wei remarkably in Om Dar-b-dar), and speaks of Kishore Kumar here:

Kishore Kumar 34

Kishore Kumar was our first real synthetic singer. By this Iofcourse equate him not just with the synthesising thattook place in his music, but the synthesiser, whose age heembodied.

This synthesiser had a peculiar coming- preceded by theklaviolin, \* was initially just a series of simple shortcircuitings, like the kind of sound you'd get if you justtouched the input and output wires of a speaker. Kalyanjiused it for Nagin and made h-sound like a snake charmer'spungi. But of course it was a completely defined series ofnotes. On the other hand, the Hawaiian guitar was also asound-effects instrument because it was so close to thespeaking voice. It had the advantage of microtones, be-cause it was not fretted. They say that Sajjad Hussein wasvery inportant in finding new uses for many of theseinstruments, and Rustom Sohrab were the first efforts atassimilating Western musical influences. There were alsoChristian arrangers, like Sebastian, who were able toexplain new kinds of orchestration to music directors likeNaushad.

Now, in singing, a singer like Saigal was evidently aclassical-influenced singer - he used classical meend andgamak, and ii was an extension of earlier thumris. In factKishore Kumar initially tried imitating Saigal, and certainlyMukesh did. But it is evident that the singers who followedhad to find new personal equations with their music -something that could equate Saigal's sheer commitment,but in a different way, in a way that would include theinstruments, the direct impact that pop music had on theaudience. Mohammed Rafi found his equation through folkmusic, Punjabi folk, Fakiri music, whioh he must haveheard. His was a gift, but a 'pure' gift - unlike Kishore whosegiftedness was entirely synthetic. I mean, to make itgraphic, Rafi must have learnt through what he saw andheard, moulded himself to that, but Kishore Kumar learntthrough playing with toys. The quality of ashcharya was

Kishore Kumar 35 ' t s e " dif erent. Like the molecules and waves of radio

replacing the wandering Fakir. Mukesh was a failure, andhe must have known it - Saigal worked on swar-bhav andtaan vistaar, but his pain came from somewhere else, whileMukesh worked purely on the appeal of such music. Hislearning came from listening to Saigal, or so it would seem.Now if such singing is a divine gift, Saigal was aware of thereligious connotations, but Mukesh must have known thathe wasn't achieving something, so he used emotion as asort of additional factor. He was extremely self-consciousof the appeal that such music would have, but it is perhapsinherent to the kind of music he was singing that he not beself-conscious. Something like that.

But the way Kishore worked this through is most interest-ing. I think that the impact his films had on me as a child hasnot changed even today - I saw this song with him andMadhubala on Chhaya Geet a few days ago, and it wasexactly what it was years back. Now the childlike emotionhas a purity about it, classical and pop music and all thatcomes later. And he must have instinctively hated the taan,so he replaced it with a la-la-la-la, and it sounded better. Itactually sounds better. But in that shift he was able tostraddle a world.

And it includes not just humming wires and sound effects,but brass, and the bongo - some time while having a bathhe must have tried a Ru-pa-pa or a bum-chick and foundyet another toy to play with. He had to mediate his childhoodthrough his giftedness, otherwise he'd have not worked.Children look at the future, the day they will gro v up. Adultsare the ones who keep saying, 'When I was a child I usedto...'.

Kishore Kumar 36

THE YODEL

Kishore Kumar 37

Kishore Kumar was central to the technological transitionfrom an earlier to newer mode of orchestration. The shiftwas self-evidently that of a new mass-culture demanding toburst forth from. its confines of the popular, that is fromconfines that had their own nationalist overtones beforeIndependence, but which now had to cater to the technical,cultural and aesthetic demands of a new audience. Anaudience that filled the rapidly expanding urbaii metropo-lises, which could not speak for itself, or of itself eitheras in any sense rooted to a geographically defined region,or as being an urban proletariat.

That new carriers of mass-communications had to beinvented to cater to this audience had already been indi-cated in the post- War boom, when large-scale commodity

production had established its indigenous bases. Thecinema, simultaneously a decentralised industrial sector,and yet the fifth largest 'industry' in the country, hadreplaced most of the earlier modes of mass-culturaldissemination: it was, by 1955, the definitional elementof social congregation and the marketplace.

And then came the radio.

Broadcasting InIndia,

P.C. Chatterjee

Sage Publications,New Delhi, 1977. Pg 36

Kishore Kumar 38

The radio, above all perhaps, demonstrates the extent ofsheer cultural invention that defines the mass-art of the1950s.

The first man to give it any policy-directions after Independ-ence, the Information & Broadcasting Minister B. V. Keskar,was himself implacably hostile to film music. His emphasison classical music is considered one of the main reasonsfor its revival in modern India, and was, in itself, a remarka-bly progressive decision. The later capitulation, however,into commercialism, and the reason why it took place in themanner and at the time it did, is perhaps revealed by a muchmore recent statement made by P.C. Chalcrjee, 'ormerDirector General of All India Radio:

The Indian film has developed its own brand of music. It isknown as film music and consists of sentimental songs,sometimes bordering on the vulgar. The music is a hybridof Indian and Western elements, where the. singer issupported by what is known as an 'orchestra' - a couple ofdozen instruments, strings, wind and percussion, Indianand Western. The harmonizations which precede andintersperse the stanzas of the lyric, bear little relation tothe melody. Film music is extremely popular and isaffecting the character of all forms of light and folk musicin the country. Responsible critics balieve that film musicis one of the prime factors in corrupting taste. Dr Keskar,who was Minister of Information and Broadcasting fornearly a decade beginning 1951, virtually banned thebroadcast of film music on the ground that it is vulgar in form

and content. But this policy had to be modified becauseit cost the broadcasting organisation too much in popular-ity.

Such cultural back' -ardness was hardly equipped to keepthe rising dem::ids being made by the growingmarketplace at bay. In early '953, Radio Ceylon started itscommercial service that beamed Indian film-music basedprogrammes directly to India, and for six years held anextraordinary monopoly over Indian airwaves. EveryWednesday evening, thousands of Indian transistors wouldtune into the Binaca Ceet Mala as it played the week's hitparade.

Nearly all of Kishore Kuma '9 own favourites, Dukhi ManMere from Funtoosh, Koi Hamdam Na Raha in his ownJhumroo, and dozens of others - Men Lottery, thefamed retaliation for the harassment he received fromincc.ne tax officers, Jai Covindam Jai Gop-lam - havebeen introduced to us via adio Ceylon and this particularprogramme. It was in 1958 that the All India Radio,belatedly realising all the rsvenue they were losing, to saynothing of the drop in popular music listenership, started acommercial channel themselves, the Vividh Bharati.

And it was by no neans accidental, even though ironic, tosee in retrospect how, two decades later, it was the radiothat was used as a bargaining counter to get Kishore Kumarto toe the government line during the Emergency in 1975.The Emergency was the final culmination of a process ofcultural and economic lumpenisation that had started along time previously: precisely with the efforts lo yokepolitical propaganda to mass-culture. It is not only ironicthat the radio should have tried to ban, as obscene, one ofits own creations and greatest icons, it is anencapsulation of those two crucial decades from 1355 to1975.

Kishore Kumar 39 Of a genie that grew too big for the bottle that carried it.

The Business of (This is a piece of ^peculation - about how the genius ofKishore Kumar Kishore Kumar read d out, survived and flourished in the

- Amit Tyagi midst of the 'industry' and 'business' of cinema. 'Industry'and 'business' are in quotes precisely because theyinvoke images that are normally considered antitheticalto'genius', 'talent' - ihe words repeatedly used to describeKishore Kumar. It is based on conversations with filmdirectors, music industry sources and film traders-distribu-tors, exhibitors and financiers).

Cinema is generally accepted today as c.n art form. Equallyaccepted is the notion of the artist's struggle to develop hisvision and talent in the course of wo king in the cinema.When Kishore Kumar began his career in the hte '40s, in

The Business

Kishorp Kumar 4U

Bombay, such notions were alien to him. He came fromKhandwa, not quite sure of what he wanted to be, perhapswith notions of himself as a K.L. Saigal-like singing star. Hehad come to Bombay, not to follow some profession orpractice his art but, really, to 'seek his fortune': the onlyreality he had was that of the star firmament of the popularcinema, and he wished to belong to that. This is a keynotion, because it differentiates him, for instance, from e.g.Satyajit Ray, whom he knew, but who followed a completelydifferent notion of cinema. The'other part of this is to seehow glamour, money, the sheer aura of recognition that thepopular Hindi cinema in India generates as being more thanjust addictive to an artist like Kishore Kumar - his unselfcon-sciousness and instinctive drives needed the throbbing onthe hearts of an appreciative audience to survive, to rise togreater heights. This notion defines even Kishore Kumar'sown sense of his work and its worth.

For most people today he is identified with his voice, theprodigious talents he brought to work in his singing. Hebegan as a singer fairly early, around the same time ^sMohammed Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar and Mukesh, but it tookhim longer to reach the top. Music industry sources confirmthat his coming to the top could have happened at any pointin Kishore Kumar's career but he chose not to; and when hedid, the rank was his within a few years. Anyone looking athis sheer versatility can equally argue that, had he chosento, he could have been a comedy star, a top rankingcommercial filmmaker or even a music director. Why ttiendid he concentrate his ei rgies on playback singing? Whatwas the business side of this d cision? What was the regret- the fact that even i.i his days of singing superstardom hemade Badhti Ka Naam Daadhi, the only pure comedy ofhis entire career?

His first recognition was as a singer - quite distinctive withhis freewheeling style. But he became famo1 is as an actor/star, a lead-role star as distinct from a mere 'actor' (the term

Kishore Kumar 41 i s u s e d f o r non-lead role players in Bombay film). He had

the capacities to handle comedy, but not e.g. ShammiKapoor's looks; he had to depend on his singing, his abilityat mime, his natural dancing ability. He gradually edgedinto a position where he not only helped, but often took overfrom directors with whom he was working, devising hisown gags; his films were more distinctively his than thoseof his directors. Sometimes the narrative intention runseven counter to the performance - look at Baap Re Baapwhere he is functioning in consistent opposition to therather straightforward storyline. Som time? this was re-sented, one of his" producers even got a court order to gethim to follow the director's orders on the ^et.

But the films were successful, and did build a cultfollowing for the man which has remained intact. On theother hand, however, the films he made were nevermore than B-grade, in the strictly economic sense, whichmeant that he had to function to the requirements of thegenres within which he worked; he had to play theromantic lead; he had to suffer from the fact that the so-called A-grade films were more 'serious'stuff. And he had

to aspire for that too. The point is he was building a spacewithin which he could act, for which he had littleprecedent-for him personally, it was the 'guy fromMandwa1, 'Ashok Kumar's brother', a guy acting basicallyto make money and return. If Chalti Ka Naam Gaadiwas the zenith of his collective past, with both brothersacting in the film along with him, we also see his comicsense pefectly counterpoised with Ashok Kumar's stiffupper lip bunglings and Anoop Kumar's Woody Allenstyle nervousness. There is Madhubala, then thepinnacle of beauty and sophistication in the Hindi cinemaplaying her upper-class role as opposed to KishoreKumar's 'ordinary man'. Until the coming of video, thiswas the film that I predictably, defined him for latergenerations as actor-singer.

The problems came up after the success of Chalti KaNaam Gaadi. Until then a 'fun' actor, he now looked for

Kishore Kumar 42 big-time success. As the world opened out, he had the

standard option that the commercial industry offered him,to repeat s Success, to find in it a formula. Evidentlydesiring s' dom, as much as amyone else, this successhowever p shed him to greater heights, to try newer thingsrather tha merely repeating himself. He became his ownfilmmake , music director and story writer, in addition toproducing and partnering the production. For him thetransition was to be more dangerous than for most others- he functioned predominantly through anarchic form andmime, rather than through social satire. These filmsflopped, or barely broke even - some of them are virtuallyuntraceable today, the classic signs of commercial failure.Those that are available show pretentious social concern,a no longer young star betraying an unfit body, working -exceptionally - mainly through their songs.

i Ka Naamr ;

^i^hofp Kumar

Im

43

•m*

i

*

And so he concentrated on what he knew best - a breath-takingly beautiful sense of melody, and rhythm, finding inthese the dis a it hums of the past (look at the way he usesthe ThandiHawa Yeh ChandniSuhanim Jhumroo, as firsthis memory, then signifying his mother's - Lalita Pawar's -tragic past, then again as Madhubala's memory, her senseof imprisonment in her house versus the freedom of the'tribals'). Door Gagan Ki Chaon Mein, on the other hand,was what the New Indian Cinema would have perhapsdescribed as a 'good film', except that, in an age beforetelevision and video, a film like that had to succeed purelyon its commercial Jakings. This film is lyrical par excellence,a distinct leap from his earlier anarchy, but its failure alsomeant for him that the old comedy routine was beingresisted its new areas of operation.

It was, they say, a tough time for him - he was not a star anylonger, slipping from top billing to comedy side roles (Pa-dosan is the most famous film of this peri d), worse, hiscomedy was too attractive, taking away the attentior fromthe heroes, and had to be treated with caution: meaningkepU JS far away as possible. Doing playback for Dev Anandand S. D. Bun nan earlier, this v. as the time when he had to'do the rounds' and declare himself available. This was alsothe time when tales of mysterious behaviour abounded, hisunreliability asserted. This changed only when the filmindustry's ideas of commercial success changed, and thecombine that was responsible were Rajesh Khanna and hisplayback voice, Kishore Kumar. They decimated all oppo-sition through nearly a dozen consecutive silver jubilee hits;but the difference now was that as *he Rajesh Khannaphenomenon rolled back, Kishore Kumar stayed where hewas, now the superstar o playback singing.

And le now expanded this status into different arenas - thestage, with his big-time 'Kishore Kumar Nites' usually alongwith Kalyanji-Anandji. The first real superstar of music, heremained a small-time filmmaker, directing an o irightcomedy mainly because he wished to keep an eaiier

commitment to the comic alive within him. When he died,he'd left a film incomplete - Mamta Ki Chaon Mein, in whichhe was not to act. Perhaps this might have been hisresurrection as director too, for reports had it that it was ina sense similar to his earlier Door Gagan Ki Chaon MeinThe word most often used to describe him is genius. Whenthe film industry uses such words, or words like talent, whatthey usually mean is that the person had the capacity tofunction within an industrial set-up but does not understandthe ground rules of the game. The point is of course that theindustry needs such people, like Hollywood needed 'gen-iuses' like Orson Welles and Josef von Stroheim. But thenthe industry ?lso channelises them into relatively 'safe'areas: Stroheim and Welles into acting, Kishore Kumar intoplayback.

Jhumroo

THEPERFORMANCE

THE PAGEANT

Bhagambhag Karodpati

Filmfare, Sept 28. 1956.

Kishore Kumar:

You know, I'm going to make a 16 mm reel which I'll showto all the producers who come to sign me up. The momentthey start saying, "It's a terrific role" and all that hokum, I'llsay, "Just keep quiet about your role and see this."Then I'llshow them the reel. "Now this", I'll say as it starts, "is myten thousand rupee acting. This is my fifteen. This is twenty.This is fifty, and so on, until I reach a lakh. (During this timehe begins by imitating himself and, as the price goes up,imitates other highly paid actors including his brother.)"Take your pick, pay the money, and go. There will be notalk of roles here"

New Delhi Looko-Choori

Kishore Kumar 48

The early 1950s had already seen a basic fragmentation ofthe major film genres of the pre-independence era, afragmentation that had accompanied the closure of the bigstudios. In Hollywood, the decline of the movie moguls hadtransferred control of the studios to the stock exchange, thebanks and the boa.ds that now took collective decisionsbased on market si >rveys.

In India, as it\ the Philippines and other Asian countries thatalso have large-scale film output, the shift was into thehands of 'independents' - commercial producers/financierswho made their money elsewhere and invested it into thefilm business solely with the hope of making quick returns.

This was, on the whole, a disastrous shift, whose conse-quences were only evident a couple of decades later; butthe apprehensions, even from practitioners of cinema in themid-50s, have been extensivejy recorded (as e.g. in thePatilReport, the SangeetNatakAkademi's Film Senin r f1955, and the film industry's own occasional publications,such as the Silver Jubilee Souvenir of the birth of the talkiein India, edited by B.K. Adarsh in which most 61 the bignames contributed brief essays).

The apprehensions were, generally, ~ hether we would beable to sustain the 'great neritage' of our classical civilisa-tions, which had just been re-presented to us with Inde-pendence and the Nehru era's cultural initiative to- ardsbuilding new instititions.

But the tussle also\ recorded an equally strong effort toarticulate a new ideology of mass-cultum.

The best-known statement for that latter to have thenemerged was from the purveyor of some oi the biggest'spectaculars' Indian cinema nas ever seen: S-.S. Vasan, ofthe Gemini Studios, Mao as a.id maker of Chandralekha,and his statement, Pageants For Our Peasants, pub-

Kishore Kumar 49 lished in 1956.

Pageants For OurPeasants

- S.S. Vasan,Indian Talkie 1931-56,

Silver Jubilee Souvenir,pg26.

Kishore Kumar 50

The.cii.ema can be used both as a means to an end and,in some cases, as an end in itself. Most of us are onlyfamiliar with its employment as a means to an end - as amedium for the communication of ideas, information andknowledge. That is why perhaps it has come under theMinistry of Information and Broadcasting. That is to say,only one aspect of the cinema has come to be officiallyrecognised. But, as I said, it has another, and perhapsmuch more important aspect, namely, as an end in itself,and it is the importance of this latter aspect that is comingto be more and more recognised and emphasised byenlightened public opinion. I will explain what I mean.

A simple story, for instance, can be orally narrated by oneperson to another, in this case the language employed willbe casual ant colloquial, and eked out with a lot of gestures,gesticulations and variations in the pitch of the. voice. If thesame story were, however, to be printed, then the style andthe language of the narration will necessarily have to bedifferent. The language will have to be more formal andgrammatical: otherwise the sense will not be easily under-stood. But the purpose of the narration, e'her oral or written,is the same, namely to cover the plot of the story effectively.The same story can also be presented either as a poem exenacted as a drsma on the stage. In these two cases Jtheemphasis is not on the content of the story but on itspresentation, ss a poem or as a drama. In other words, theemphasis is not on the plot of the story but on the art of itspresentation. Supposing the same story is projected on thescreen, what is the purpose of such presentation? Is it toshow the artistic poss'bilities of the screen or is it to servemerely as another means of conveying the plot of the story?I should say that the latter is the objective in most cases.

Take, for instance, the story of The Count of MonteChristo - why should it be made into a picture at all whenit can be read as a book? Obviously because there aremillions of people who would like to know the story but donot know how to read or do not have the patience to read.

But there is anot ler class of people who might hav "eadthe story but would also like *.o see it as a picture. That isbecause any story becomes much more interesting andlively when viewed as a moving picture than when it ismerely read. Ifthejp >erioritv of the moving picture over theprinted page stops short with its own inherent superiority,as a medium, the credit for that achievement cannotlegitimately goto the picture producer. He can be called anartist only to the extent that he has been able to exploit thisinnate superiority and improve upon it by his own artisticingenuity. It is onl in this sense/.hat a motion picture canbe said to be a work of art. It is presumably this aspect ofthe motion picture, as a fine art, that has attracted thepatronage of our Ministry of Education, through theSangeet Natak Akademi.

It is the lack of appreciation of this dual role of the cinemathat is at the base of all unsympathetic criticism directedagainst the so-called 'unprogressive' quality and content ofIndian motion pictures. Any number of varied and differents h'te ts can be presented through the screen. But it is onlya responsible cinema producer who can be expected toknow, and does know by experience, the exact type ofpicture to be produced at a particular time. He knows, forinstance, that the cinema, for the average citizen, is asource of composite entertainment, if the elements of asuccessful picture are analysed, we find that its attractionlies not merely iruts story, nor solely in its songs, though oneparticular aspect of entertainment might have been givenmore prominence than another. In Tansen, the chiefattraction was music, and in Jhanak Jhanak, the classicaldances. In my own films, Avvaiyar and Chandralekha forinstance, gorgeous spectacles were the chief attractions.

Kishore Kumar 51

Kishore Kumar was certainly part of the pageantry. Thecinema of the coherent narrative had broken down, andeach of the bits had been grabbed by the various sideindustries it had spawned - from investments into technol-ogy and the real estate of studio space, to the big-dimen-sion star system, to a new iconography of the fashionableand new modes of representation that affected every artform from painting to theatre and literature. The musicindustry alone, with radio and records and live shows, hadseeped into the very innards of the celebratory: of Ganapatifestivals and blaring loudspeakers for all occasions festive.

To cohere this again/into the making of a film, the attrac-tions of the cinema, meant that every bit of th narrativehad to be reworked - the way films wpre ceen was nowdifferent, the way they were made had to reintegrate thedisparities of the industry. The story- ne was skeletal, evenincidental, as action was foregrounded. The actor was themedium, he had to offer his persona as the only givencontinuity from shot to shot, as the bits were picked up andnow embodied in the image of the star.

The actor, and his music.

Bimal Roy's Naukri

Kishore Kumar 52

NOSTALGIAAND THE FUTURE

Hrishikesh Mukherjee says:

He was a born genius, and as a result, unpredictable. I tookhim for my very first film, Musaf ir. One real'sed very quicklythat he couldn't really be con rcfclad, tHat he wouldn't stickto the script. You could either force him to do what youwanted, in which case you simply got a bad performance,or you could interact with his abilit'es, even to the extent ofimprovising.

On the last day of shooting Musaf ir, I was waiting for him,all my crew were waiting and he wasn't turning up. I rang hishouse, and his wife said, just come over and see what'shappened. I thought he was 111 or something, so I went.lnside,<-he started shouting, 'Mat aiye, mat aiye'. When iwent in, what did I see? He had shaved off all his hair.

He had just returned ftom shooting a film with Prasad, MissMary, and he had an argument with them and shaved off hishead in protest. They forced him to act, wearing a hat. AndI got my make-up mar to fashion a kind of wig for him, and

Kishore Kumar 53 s o m e o f t h e s h o t s l v e u s e d h a v e h i m i n a w i g '

Acting in the Hindi film had already changed by the timeKishore Kumar arrived, o callow youth from Khandwa.

Elder br ther Ashok Kumar, with his Bombay Talkie films,Dilip Kumar, Batej.Srhani and Ra' Kapoor had, each intheir distinctive ways, assi vila'ed the new modes of sto-rytelling tirough their personae: they had a 'style', andconsequently a kind of. mise-en-scene, all their own.

Ashok Kumar, a protec e of Himansu Rai and a product ofBombay Tal've, was~among those who featured in thevanguard - Bombay Talkie was crucially to determine theforms that the later'All India'Hindi cinema followed, thestar configurations w:(h but thinly veiled socially'realist'themes - Rai, trained tc a cultural packaging of filmsthrough his successful export of oriental exotica in thesilent era - Light Of Asia, A Throw Of Dice, Shiraz andothers - had both the understanding and distribution-oriented infrastructure to predict the Hindi cinema thatfollowed long before e.g. New Theatres could, and AshokKumar was his production controller.

For actors after Independence, the shift meant contendingwith other things - Balraj Sahani and, to a certain extentDilip Kumar, for instance interpreted these modes into anatualist, 'method' style: Kabuliwallah and Dharti Ke Laiand Deedar among others. But Raj Kapoor reconfigu-rated the narrative through the crucial additives of afamiliar singing voice associating with certain singers, andcertain kinds of songs that were inescapably theirs, and sohis (Raj Kapoor always came with the Shankar-Jaikishenand Mukesh combine, fos instance. And it is interesing tosee the role that K. A. Abbas, very much a socialist-realist,anti-music filmmaker, played in giving Raj Kapoor hispersona, or his repeated references to e.g. De Sica'sinfluence on him).

Kishore Kumar's ingredients were quite fundamentallyKishore Kumar 54 different: what they had was an extraordinary absence

of nostalgia. He was perhaps the only actor to possesssuch a quality in his time. In the days of Chalti Ka NaamCaadi, Half Ticket, Jhumroo and Baap Re Baap he washis own everything: an all inclusive ensemble of actor,singer, music director and gag-writer. Remarkably free ofmoorings, he did not carry the guilt of history in hisexchanges. He was the generation of his time, the imper-sonator and then carrier of ebullient hope for the futurerather than regret for a lost home.

From role to role - Karodpati

Kishore Kumar 55

Comment from an anonymous Kishore Kumar tan.

On the first of every month, Radio Ceylon would broadcastone song in the morning and it was Kishore Kumar'sfa IOUS Aaj Paheli Tareekh Hai Yeh Paheli Tareekh Hai.And ,ou knew it was the first of the month, you knew itv as payday, you knew you could perhaps get drunktonight. You weren't cynical about Rahene Ko GharNahin Hai Sara Jahan Hamara. You simply hoped for thebest.

Drector H.S. Rawail, who made two films, Shararat andLehren with Kishore Kumar:

Sharara'

Shararat Shararat

He was a comedian.

Kishore Kumar 57

Of what kind?

Ulti seedhi baatein karta rehta tha. He was obviouslyoverw rked, like most actors are, but he didn't really havetheir ego. I remember when I was making Sharant hedidn't have the time to sing a song "hat world be picturisedon him. I went to his house and they seid ' ie wasn't in. But1 laid in wait for him on the roao, • nd vhe his car came by,I said I wouldn't let him go until he yav me a date for arecording. He was genuinely bis1 , o . . a;J I'm going totake Mohamr.tfcc Han to playback foi him. He didn't mind,said it was okay. That was t'.iO :'ferencs - a star would nothave the lime, but would a ro e u e any other solution.Liparvaahitha. He never seemed to fight with life, he eitherfound a simple alternat've or simply backed out.

What was his come iv style like ? Is it true that he improvisedon the set?

t

He didn't do anything that a director didn't want him to do.film is a director's medium, and the only person a directorwill allow on that terrain is the story writer. But he was acomic par excellence. The best we've had. He had thatmusicalit" ored into his very marrow. So he could da ce, hehad tha. lantastic flair for gesture.

Tashlin's Method- A Hypothesis,

Paul Willemen,

in Willemen/Claire Johnstone

ed: Frank Tashlin,Edinburgh Film

Festival,

Kishore Kumar 58

You could see the rapidity wit'., which his personaechanged, as he moved fluidly in and ou ofarole:thesherpamountaineer in Jhumroo, the child and the madman in HalfTicket, tne many and myriaCd'rg< uses in BaapReBaapculminating in surely the wierdest and most extraordinaryimpersonation of a woman, the seduction sequence at theend of Baap Re Baip when he sings to Asha Bhosle'splayback.

He borrowed atWi z.s he sustained films with the thinnestof plots purzy vitl his control over gesture. These plotstook on surreil dimensions as they were pushed waybeyond their conventional lengths, pushed through theromantic and into a space where he could turn the storyaround to whichevei direction he liked, and give the plot thecapacity to absorb ft The influences came from DannyKaye aid from Jerry Lewis, from the tamasha and thenautanki - recall the song with Helen and Pran in HalfVcke*, Woh Ek Nazar To Kya Mili in which nautankicombines with ytftit&ver they understood then of Russianfolk dan e, oY-he copying of&£ Tequila theme in a tribaldance in Jhvmyoi) fte song Mz> Ma Ma Marega.

About Frank Tashlin, director of Jerry Lewis' films, PaulWillemen s?, s what is essentially true of Kishore Kumar"swork too:

A Tashlin film does not profess to be a single work, uniqueor entirely closed in upon itseii. standing as a completelyself-sufficient or 'organic' whole, (recall Kishore Kumar'sconsistent references ot one film in another - the yodellingtheme of Jhumroo in Bnap Re Baap or the autobiographi-cal references in Half Ticket. Door Gagan Ki Chaon MeinorSliabash Daddy). Ra'her, his films present themselvesas comprising part of a network of visual texts produced ina particular society in a particular time...

Direct statements to the effect that a film is not an autono-mous product, but that a film has been manufactured by

many people (recall, once again, the sequence in BadhtiKa Naam Daadhi in which Kishore Kumar announces thatas director, he is like god, and since the costumes have notarrived on time it has been decreed that the next sequenceshall be played without them - Ed). Moreover, apart fromdemystifying the production process, Tashlin incorporatesinto his film various examples of film consumption, thusinscribing into his films the entire itinerary of the art product,from the first idea and/or basic constraints up to the viewingof the finished product...

In fact, it would appear that the elements are chosen witha view to their combinatory potential, or, to put it the otherway around, the fact that the basic procedure of a Tashlinfilm involves combination (addition, subtraction, multiplica-tion, juxtaposition) determines the nature of the elementswhich can function in such a context. This determines, forone thing, the nature of the gags in Tashlin filn s...Theintricate network of quotes, parodies, pastiches, satiresserves to embed one text into another and constitutes onelevel. Another consists of the exploitation of the sta idardand given forms of combinations in all film texts, such assound and image (noise, music and speech plus image).

Actor Shammi Kapoor, the other freewheeling star of the60s and who must have undoubtedly been liberated byKishore Kumar's acting precedent, recently spoke abouthis own style, in a television interview with Nasreen Kabir(Channel 4's Movie Mahal). Asked about how he couldmaintain his crazy rhythms, he said, "I used to try all thesebeats, halfandthenquarter and then one-eighth and othersall my own. And when I came to the end of the rhythmiccycle I would simply exit from the frame, so the director hadto cut". And about the song, Tareef Karoon Kya Uski inthe film Kashmir Ki Kali, he said that when MohammedRafi had to sing it he was worried about too many refrains

Kishore Kumar 59 that repeated the first line. "I showed Rafi-saab how I was

going to sing the song, and I said that in my gestures, Iwould find a different way of singing the first line every timeit came. And I told him to sing it the same way too".

(The above quotations are from memory - Ed).

The first ellipse of visual came when Kishore Kumaragreed to do playback - for the star that now came toembody his voice: Dev Anand. Like Rafi singing toShammi Kapoor's gestures, and Mukesh encapsulating astyle that was to be Raj Kapoor, Kishore Kumar was to notonly comprehend, but provide the nuances to DevAnand'sacting. If, as Kalyanji points out, you didn't know in KishoreKumar's singing when the song left and the dialoguestarted, you also found it occasionally difficult to eewhere the actor left off and the playback s nger took over.

Dev Anand:

I haveavery vivid and clear picture of a young boy in kurtapyjama, a funster, moving around on the premises ofBombay Talkies. I was acting in a film called Ziddi-beingproduced by his brother Ashok Kumar. He used to comethere sing, make us laugh. It was great to have him around.He then prevailed on his brother to let him sing z song. Onscreen, I sang the first song in Kishore's voice, a ghaza. -Marne ki duaaen kyon maangoon.

We got to know each other well and became friends. Weused to confide in each other. Then he got a break as anactor, but he continued to s' g for me. He didn't sing foranyone else till muc' '-'~ . Dev Anand and Kishore Kumarwas a good combination. I used to tell him what manner-isms i would use for a particular song on screen and hesang keeping that in mind. Since he was an actor himself,he could enact a song. We complemented each other, Ithink. We built up a tremendous rapport and if I ever usedsomone else to sing for me, subconsciously, inwardly,

Kishore Kumar 60 n e w o u l d r e s e n t "*•

Then he got married to Ruma. Not many people know thatshe worked with me in Afsarasasecond lead. Wheneverhe had problems in his marriage he used to confide in me.We travelled together by train-neither of us were very bigstars till then - chatted and laughed a lot. He was alwaysa bit eccentric and never got really close to anyone in theindustry, that's why I was very flattered when I visited himat home once and found my photograph in his bedroom.We shared a very close affinity even though for a while welost to c r He went his way and I mine, but we cametogether again after a while.

I would like to complement him as a singer. The resonancethat he attained in his voice when he was properlyrehearsed was unattainable by any other singer. When hesang with emotion, he was unbeatable. He was not atrained singer. He never improvised, he only sang whathe had rehearsed. Once he was thoroughly rehearsed, hecould do several retakes but they would all be the same.Sometimes he even went out of tune but he worked veryhard on his songs. He trained himself and when he waspepared he was tremendous. All the comedy songs hesang for me, he used to come to my office for rehearsalswith S.D. Burman. Nobody knows that.

People said he was erratic, temperamental and moody,which he was once in a while. But nobody bothered to findout why. I analysed his moods and found that when he wasnot ready to sing a song, he would disappear, just vanish,go underground, nobody could trace him. He would comefor the recording only when he was ready. That wasbecause he was not a trained singer and a difficult songmade him nervous. Unless he was absolutely sure ofhimself, he wouldn't turn up for the recording. He didi 'tbother that the producer was losing money, or that themusic director and musicians were waiting. He just didn'tshow up if he didn't want to. I have also found myself insituations when I wanted to curse him, but I could find the

Kishore Kumar 61 reason behind his behaviour.

He was a very fine comic a good actor, a great entertainer,but his great complex was to do serious roles, to be knownas a good serious, emotional actor.In all films that he madehimself, he gave himself serious roles. He was consciousenough of his popularity to go away when he found himselflosing it.

He made a comeback later as a singer. I loved his voice.When I sang on screen in somebody else': voice, peoplemissed him. Except for a few ghazals that Rafi sang forme, Kishore sang all my romantic songs. His voice wasassociated with my presence on screen and vice versa.I remember, one of the last songs he sang was Yehhawayen for my film Sachhe Ka Bol Bak*. He ran awayafter that. A few days later, he said to me," Qvbhai, let'sdo a concert together. Let's do it before it is too ate". Four-five days later he died. He was too you }• C&-, lie wentaway too early.

I was one of the first to rea h his house when I heard tnenews. He looked like he was sleeping.

Whenever he had met me, he was always shouting.Very boisterous and high spirited. Like most artistes, verychildlike. He always gave m , a feel of the good old days.He felt he had a claim on me. When I couldn't go to his sonSumit's birthday, he was very hurt. I had to compensatewith a sweet letter.

What would I say was Kishore's contribution to Hindi filmmusic? Kishore's contribution is to Hindi film music, period.He was the voice of romance, the voice of love. Deep,melodious, resonant, fetching.

Kishore Kumar 62

4.THESTATEMENT

I'M CAUGHT IN AVICIOUS CYCLE OFMY OWN MAKINGIn 1956, Kishore Kjmar wrote a wierd, hallucinatory dia-logue with his ow,: alter-ego. We reproduce a piiantasydiscussion between Kishore Kumar, the star, and KishoreGanguly, the still young lad -from Mandwa, the place hecame from and to which he, towards the end of his life,repeatedly threatened to retire and return.

In 1955

Kishore Kumar 64

Self Portrait- Kishore Kumar

The Tirre: Nearly one-thirty at nigh .

vFi'mfare.September 28, 1955,

The Place : A suburban studio. Night shooting has beenscheduled but has not yet started. They are busy lightingthe set and attending to the innumerable details whichspring up for attention at the very last moment in thebest-conducted studios. The atmosphere is dismalinside the studio. Outside, it is raining, which makes itworse. On a bench in the make-up room a huddled figurecan be discerned, to sing and turning in that state ofsemi-consciousness which hovers on the edge of sleep.

It is Kishore Kumar, one of filmland's busiest stars.Throuph the past foKnighf, he has been shooting night andday, continuously, and filling record;ng schedules in be-tween. It's almost dark in tba make-up room and in thedeceptive gloom one seems to glimpse another figurebeside the bench bending over the recumbent Kishore whoturns over, unwilling to be disturbed.

Kishore-Kumar (irritably): For God's sake, let me sleep. Asit is I get so little time...

Kishore G nguly: So little time is correct. Just'cok at you.You're nervous. You're tired and jittery. You can't sii still amoment. And why? To what purpose'.' Have you thought ofit?

Kishore Kumar

Kishore Kumar: What d'you mean, to what purpose? Youask me that? You, of all people, should know to whatpurpose. Haven't you been with me from the verybeginning? Don't you know what I've been through?The terrible frustrations, the haunting spectre of failuredogging my footsteps, the fruitless struggle, theconstant misery, the never-ending hardship and^privation, and that perpetual nightmare, the grinding,pressing need for money, the terror of every wakingmoment? Those were bad days and you know the fullhorror of them because you went through them

65 with me, every wretched hour of every single one of

them. I promised mysely then that if ever I got the chancefor which I was struggling i would work and work and workand never want lor money again. Well, that time has come.

Kishore Ganguly: (Claps) Hear, hear. That was a prettyspeech. But tell me, seriously now, how do you feel?

-e Kumar: Frightened. Terribly. I don't know what'sgoin~ to happen. I'm caught in the middle of a vicious"k»'« (laughs bitterly), a circle of my own making. (Sits up)It ah started years ago, really. My brother Ashok was afamous star. I was suuggling to make a mark as aplayback singer. I never wanted to become an actor.

In 195^5-New Delhi

Kishore Kumar 56

Those were r arrowing days, and I never want to think ofthem again. lThey've made me what I a.n today. Iremember how I used to stand at bus-stops, and stars -friends of my brother - would fly past in their limousineswithout so much as a glance at me. I wanted to sing andpeople would say, "Your voice is no good. Usmein wohcheez nahin hai. What woh cheez meant for them, Godknows. The unbearable humiliation of it all. "Give us avoice test", they would say. And I swore to myself that theday would come when I'd make these very people enhumble pie, when the shoe would be on the other foot,when I would laugh at them.

Kishon. Ganguly: (Reflectively) And yor've done it alinow, haven't you? All, that is, except tht hugh. I imagine.You don't look much like laughing right new.

Kish re Kumar: What do you mean?

Kishore Ganguly: Never mind, I'll tell you later. Goon now.! see you're in the mood.

Kishore KHmar: (All the suppress' o^ itiemess coming outof his voice an ' expression) The only thrng that matters i ithe world is money. Money, money, money! An what bringsit? Success. There is nothing else that counts. No senti-ment, no decency, nothing. Just money and sue ess. Themagic, inseperable twins. There's nothing else tha* counts.You have them and you belong, you're somebody, oudon't and you're nobody. People laugh at you, even ^purnyou. Oh, I've been through all that. And I kept telling r lyself,"You wait, the time is coming." The hope, the c> .ivictionthat it would come, were the only things that kept me going.I remember the time I was called to give a voice test atFilmistan. Filmistan.mind you, where my closest relatives,Mukherjeeand Ashok, weredemi-gods. They too said, Ismein woh cheez nahin hai. Today Filinistan has offeredme a fat contract. Mr Jalan tells me, Arre, hum h n ko

Kishore Kumar 67 soldier pe bithaiga. He meant shoulder. He said, Aur

picturon mein turn stenotype lagta hai - he meantstereotyped. Hamare saath kaam karke dekho. And I said,"On my terms, friend, on my terms. If they don't suit you,why, (shrucs) Too Lad!

Kishore Ganguly: (A shade of irony in his voice) Soyou're well up on top. That's good. You used to think thatmoney and success were essential for security. Youhave them both now. Do you feel secure? Do you think itwill last?

Kishore Kumar: No I have no illusions. Yesterday I was anobody, today I am a star, tomorrow I may again not beone. I may become a featured artiste, revert to playback

In 1961 - Karodpati

Kishore Kumar 68

singing or even get right out. I'll take my wife and son backhome to Khandwa and work on our land there. I have beenlooking forward to going back for a long time. But while thesun shines, I'll make my hay - and save all of it.

Kishore Ganguly: Aren't you afraid people will call /o amiser?

Kishore Kumar: Who cares? People revile you when youhave no money and are jealous of you when you do. I'drather have them jealous. Do you know...(pause)...I'dalways have been poor but for my wife. She brought meluck. (Reflectively) My family was egainst my marrying her.1 remember Sachin Dev Burman had got me a playbacksinging contract for Bahar in Madras. Before I went there,all our wedding plans were ready. On our last day inMadras, Sachin-da insisted that I stay on for a retake.I finished that retake that very evening and rushec back toBombay. At the airport I was worried. Snould I goto Worli(where my people lived) or should I go to Bandra (wh-^remy bride lived with her people)? If I went home ! knewthere would be no wedding. I went to Bandra.

Kishore Ganguly: And then?

Kishore Kunran (Reflectively) And then my luckchanged. I remember, long ago, they'd called me for asong in Kaneez. I vamped the song bum chick-a chick-a bum and yodelled it along. The style clicked and theyaske^ ne to picturise it. Then Ashok encouraged mo.There's no future in playback singing, he said, switch overto acting, he advised. I was reluctant even tiien. Dadamor iput me on to Shaheed Latif who was to iirect Buzdi/ andwanted me for the younger brother's part. I didn't want toact. But how could I refuse Ashok? He threatened tocheck up on whether I'd gone to see them o- not. So Iwent, dressed in tatters. The producer received me in hisoffice. "So, you're Ashok's brother. Why, you look just like

Kishore Kumar 69 him." Well? There was an awkward silence. Then I said

brightly, I'll sing. I began seriously enough, thersuddenly switched to my bum-chicking. A lot of raisedeyebrows, and I was out. Later, I did begin to act. Mypictures fell like ninepins. Distributors looked askance atme, telling producers I was no good. "His picturescan'tsell", they said.

Kishore Ganguly: And your marriage changed all that?

Kishore Kumar: Yes, for in the early lays of our marriagepeople would say, "What! Ashok Kumar's brother-anc nocar?" We had only five thousand rupees in the bank, saved

In 1966

Kishore Kumar 70

up after a lot of labour. One morning I saw an ad in thepaper: Morris Minor, one thousand rupees. I read nofurther. Taking my wife and a friend, I went to the salesroom. There I got a nasty jolt. The ad had really said athousand rupees less than the listed price! Not wanting tomake a fool of myself, I forked over four thousand rupeesfor the first payment and contracted to pay the rest ininstalments. I still have that car today. It's my lucky car.

Kishore Ganguly: Yes, yes. Go on.

Kishore Kumar: Then my pictures began to click and soonI found myself a famous star. You know, when money firststarted rolling in, I'd developed such a complex about it thatI'd sit for hours in a locked room and count the notes. I'dcount them, then count them again. I became expert atflipping notes at top speed. Then to make sure the total wasright, I'd count them again.

Kishore Ganguly: That's your feeling of insecurity again.

Kishore Kumar: Don't give me those hic,h sounding words.I can tell you it gives me a wonderful feeling. Save! I toldmyself, save! It's the only sensible thing to do. Don't yousee? I'm caught in a vicious circle. The more money I make,the more mone I have to make. Mjch of it goes - toperpetually borrowing from friends, or petrol, clothes,this, that. Then there is cur friend, the income tax man.When I returned from Madrasjhe other day I found thefamilar hng envelope waiting for me. It contained abeau i uiietter which actually began with, "Dpar Sir". Thenit polite' said at the end that I'd have to pay some fantasticamount-or go to jail. And it actually ended, yours sincerely- it probably was, too.

Kishore Gargu'y: So you take o 1 all the pictures you danget. Do i t you realise the penalty you're p ying?

Kishore Kumar 71 Kishore Kumar: (Moodily) Yes, I'm in a terrible condition.

Day and night, from studio to studio with recording roomsessions thrown in between. "Speak your dialogue", theysay. And my head whirls with bits of dialogue from othersets, other pictures. They're there in my head, they buzzround, leaving no room for more dialogue to go in.(Frantically) Sometimes I feel I'm going crazy. All the timethat never-ending whirl of shooting and more shooting. Mywife and son have become strangers to me. I don't seethem f r days on end. I'm asleep in the morning when myson leaves for school and he's asleep when i come in atabout 4 a.m. It's all gone, our beautiful home life, that peaceand happiness for which I'd worked. For which everyoneworks. My wife is angry with me. l"ve been promising hera holiday in Kashmir. As a matterof fact, we were supposedto be in Kashmir this month. So I told my secetary, "Don'tgive anyone dates in September". Then they all startedcoming to me, "Kishore-da, dates do warna hum marjayenge. Invariably they all say that if you don't give themdates. Not one ofthem actually dies. Someone's shootingis extended - "Kishore saab, please, please". And mywife is waiting, all dressed up and ready to keep a dinnerengagement at 8 p.m. I roll home at 10 and she looks atme. What can I do? They couldn't finish the work. And itgoes on and on like that. Just the other day my wife toldme, "Buy a trailer f.nd attach it to your car like theAmericans do. You can sleep in it. After all, why wastepetrol to come all the way home from one studio just to rushoff to another? (Frowns) You realise what's happening,don't you? I can't get out. I can't get out.

Kishore Ganguly: You're making a lot of money. Perhapsyou don't want to get out.

Kishore Kumar: It was forthe money. But too much of it canbe a curse too. I don't know how it will end. I know what I'llhave to do. Pack up and run. Run with my family far awayand leave everybody awake one fine morning and find megone. When my wife learnt that we weren't going to

Kishore Kumar 72 Kashmir in September, she said, "Very well, I'm going to

my people in Calcutta. Join me when you're free."

Kishore Ganguly: You'll just goon and on as usual. Don'tyou know that stars come and go but the industry goes onlike the brook in the poem? You're not exactly indespen-sable, you know.

Kishore Kumar: (Eagerly trying to convince the other)That's why! That's why I keep on working. By the time I'mthrough I hope to have enough money to retire in comfortfor life.

You know, I'm going to make a 16 mm film reel which I'llshow all the producers who come to sign me up. Themoment they start saying, "It's a terrific role" and all thathokum, I'll say, just keep quiet about your role and seethis. Then I'll show them the reel. Now this, I'll say, is myten thousand rupeeacting. This is my fifteen. This is twenty.This is fifty, and so on, until I reach a lakh (during this timehe begins by initating himself and, as the price goes up,imitates other highly paid stars including his brother). Takeyour pick, pay the money and go. There will be no talk ofroles here.

Kishore Ganguly: You must try and change the pattern ofyour thoughts. You must stop working in these pictures...

Kishor Kumar: (Grimacing, interrupts quickly) No, no, no,no, no. You're wrong. No sensible pictures for me. Themore fantastic a picture is, the more incoherent its plot, thebetter it runs. People like such pictures! They don't evenbother to ask why one does this or that - so long as it makesthem laugh. It's better to work in stupid pictures whichclick than in intelligent pictures which flop. Everything isin reverse, so why not us?

Kishore Ganguly: (regretfully) I know you don't like myadvising you. But I think you'd better cry halt before things

Kishore Kumar 73 get out of hand. Go away somewhere, refashion your

values, get back into contact with basic realities...

(A voice is heard offstage, crying, "Kishore saab! Shotready! Kishore Kumar jumps up)

Kishore Kumar: (Pats him patronisingly)Now be off, oldchap. There's a good fellow. Call again some time. Maybewe could spend a little more time togetner. But don'isermonise. It's boring. Heigh ho! Time's money. I'm off.

!n1971

Kishore Kumar 74

LEAVESFROM MY DIARY

Flimfare Oct -10,1956 I don't believe in diaries. My wife does. I've never kept oneever in my life. My wife always did. So I cannot do betterthan take the pages relating to my married life from mywife's diary and for the early years I draw from memory...

My earliest memory of Ashok, my eidest brother, was ofa stranger. He was several years older than Alo (Anoop)and I. I thought that only Alo was my brother.

When Ashok, as a handsome lad of twenty one or twentytwo came home from college for the holidays, I felt left outof my parents' affection. Who's this, I thought indignantly,who comes like this and has everyone dancing attendanceon him?

Then I learnt he was my brother.

The earliest picture I have of myself shows me as a brighteyed, shy, skinny boy. I was mischievous, always up totricks.

Some friends, Alo and I, rigged up a platform behind ourhouse and played at staging dramas. One of us would bethe hero, another the villain, athirdthe heroine, and soon.On those occasions one of the older boys performed animportant function. He used to sit on a compound wall andkeep a look out for father.

Father wanted us to study all the time.

I am in the fifth form, and very proud. Haven't I a brother,Ashok Kumar Ganguly of Khandwa, a big film star?

Kishore Kuma" 75

We learn that Ashok's first .jicttrre, Jeevan Naiya, is soonto be shown at Khandwa. My friends and I look forwardkeeniy to seeing it. We are avid fans of Master Vithal andother two-fisted heroes of stunt films and we eagerly waitto see Big Brother laying a dozen villairufiow. The greatday dawns. My friends and I, quite a crowd, go to the firstshow of Jeevan Naiya.

Three hours later, my friends come out of the theatrelooking thoroughly bored and weary. Everyone isgrumbling, casting accusing glances at me. I avoid theirlooks, and feel miserable myself.

Ashok in the picture is far, indeed, from the fighting h ,rov/eexpected him to be. He is soft and sensitive, and evpn putsup with a slap from another character!

That very night write Ashok a letter, telling h"m that he'dbetter swing his f i : s around a bit in his next picture, or elsehe will lose a number of fans in Khandwa.

Mother is a devout woman and performs all her eligioi sduties. No sadhu who comes to our door is eve efuscdhospitality, though father does look askance at thesavisitors.

Once I remember a sadhu staying for a long time. Every,morning, after puja, mother would touch the sadhu's feetand insist that father should do the same.

Father did, but invariably grumbled under his breath that,if anything, the sadhu should be touching his feet. I wasvery suspicious of this sadhu. What sort of a holy man wasthis, who corsumed large quantities of fish and meat anddrank liquor at our expense?

Father, Alo and I heaved a big sigh of relief when this 'holyman' \e'd at last.

Kishore Kumar 76

i am not very interested in my studies, though I do manageto do pret y well in my school. However, my bugbearis mathematics. I am weak in this subject and it is mystumbling block in the examination.

I am in the fifth form. The final examination comes round.As usual, I cannot solve a single question in the mathspaper. I draw little faces in the margin, scribble a fewrhyming couplets, make a pretence of working out a fewsums, and hand in my paper.

After everyone comes out of the hall, I go up to one of myclassmates who is very good at mathematics and tell him,"Please solve all these sums for me."

My friend does this or me on a spare examination paper,which I take home v ' h me.

•

"Well son, how did you fare in mathematics?"

"Very well, Father", I reply, putting on my obedient sonexpression, "just see this".

I hand him the paper.

Father goes through it rapidly, his face breaking into apleased smile. "Very good", he says, "very good indeed.You should get full marks".

Alo overhears that. He knows how bad I am in mathematics.He comes forward and tells father, "Don't believe him.Make him work them out before you again".

But father is too proud of me to do that. The holidays arewonderful. Then one morning, before results are due to beannounced, I see the maths master coming towards ourhouse.

Kishore Kumar 77 "Finished", Isaytomyselfandsitatthewindowtoseewhat

happens.

Father welcomes him. He has brought some of the answerpapers and places them before father.

"I would like you to correct them", he says.

Father is flattered, and begins to correct them.

"Very good", he murmurs, "This boy has done very wellindeed." And takes up the next.

Then he stops. He comes to an unusual paper. He frownsat the sketches and scribbling.

In 1973

Kishore Kumar 78

"Whose paper is this?"

"Go ahead and correct it", says the naster.

Father makes short work of it, then says, "This child isuseless. I can't understand how such chlJ'en car: go toschool and never learn a thing. You ought to complain to hisparents."

The moment of reckoning has arrived.

I stay away from the house the rest of the day and comehome only late at night, when father's wrath has subs' Jed.

indore: Alo and I have joined the s^rne college here. Weshare a room in the college"hostel. I am shy and ill at easeat college - so many boys and girls.

Throughout my stay in college, I wear a Wack overcoatwith pyjamas, muffler and sandals. I am never without thatovercoat.

On my fix$i<iay at college, an older student accosts me. Heis well-d ,csed, in coat, trousers and tie. I UI e him to oe &professo', ?nd he speaks with authority, too.

"I isten.^otfng fellow", he says. "Tell me, hnve ttiebaibersgone on strike?"

! am puzzled and wonder why he asks ni3.

Mo", I stammer. "Not that I kn^w of. I am not sute".

ot for a moment do I realise that he is pulling my leg. Ialways, wear my hair long, a big mop of it on my neck.

Kishore Kumb. 79 "All right", he says, "You're wanted in that room. Go in by

'hat door".

I go to the door he points out, thinking perhaps that one ofthe professors wants me. When it opens a sea of girls' facesbursts upon my sight. They all laugh and giggle at how I amlooking.

I am never without my overcoat - regardless of the wja'.heror the occasion. At first they ask me about the overcoat. Itell them, "I am superstitious. It's my lucky overcoat. If I takeit off, I will have bad luck". I'm so conscious of my skinnyfigure, that I am shy before the other boys and sneak htothe bathroom late at night, two mights a week, to be he.

I want to play a football match, but nobodv takes meseriously. "Take off you- overcoat first", they tell me.Luckily a player falls ill and droos out of t h . team. Thecaptain dpesn't think I will be •.'••-? good. Rut within a fewminutes the spectators witness the strange sight A a playerin overcoat and pyjamas scoring a goal.

It's the same with athletics. I participate in the track eventswearing my overcoat.

I am foi d of singing and everyone knows t^at I am AshokKumar's brother, so I am asked to sing at a college function.I tell mv friends I will sing behind the curtain. They agree.Out of sheer nervousness, I begin my song on a higher notethan I want. That gets me into trouble, because the othernotes go higher and higher. When I am still in the middle ofthe song the curtain goes up. I perspire and cannot seeanything because the drops run into my eyes. I somehowmanage to get to the end of the song.

Then everyone crowds round me. "Very good", t!iey say,"very good!".

Then the big day arrives. The curtain goes up. I I ave aKishore Kumar 80 clove in my mouth. It gets stuck in my throat in the r • iddle

of a note. I sign frantically for the chorus to take over.

But they maintain a stony silence.

We have fun in the hostel. Alo and I have two harmoniumsin our room. Every night some of the other x>ys join insinging quawalis and other noisy songs.

One night a hostel superintendent comes down to our roomto put a stop to our noisy sessions. He reprimands us at first,but soon becomes interested in our songs. After that, he ba regular member of our parties.

A student in the MA class complains to the Superintendentabout the music sessions in our room. Finding that theSuperintendent does nothing about it, he takes recourse toother methods.

One morning we read a report in a newspaper, saving thata group of noisy lads have turned the hostel into a rnusicroom, disturbing students serious about their studies.

We hold a leeting to decide what to do.

Among us is a lanky, dreamy lad who writes Urdu po°ms.We ask him to compose a meaty piece lampooning the MAstudent.

The next night we hold one of our rowdiest sessions. Ourpoet has composed a stinging quawali which some thirtyof us sing at the top of our voices, so that the student on thefloor above can hear every word of it.

Kishore Kumar 81

Bombay: Thoroughly tired of college in the second year, Igive up my studies and come to Bombay. I have made upmy mind about my career - it's to be playback singing. Andit is here that I meet Ruma.

Ruma and I decide to get married. But my family is againstthe match. We fix a date for the marriage.

I am in Madras and I fly to Bombay on the day of mywe-dd:iv I arrive at Santa Cruz airport and look aroundapprehensively to see if anyone has come to take mehome.

Then a stranger approaches me. "Come to Bandra", hewhispers, "all the arrangements have been made".

I am in two minds. I am driving through Dadar and my mindis still undecided. Then I decide - I turn back and go toBandra.

We are married by a civil ceremony. For a whil • ve try tokeep it a secret, but not from my family. My p^ ?n s <*o..n

In - Badhti Ka Naam Daac

Kishore Kumar 82

to see us and insist we get married a second time. Theymean a religious ceremony. Ruma and I go through it, andhold the reception a month later.

And then we have an incident which occurs at the BombayTalkie studio, Malad.

I was a callow youth. I was also a struggling playbacksinger. I moved to Bombay Talkie in order to spend more ofmy time there. My brother Ashok was working on the filmMahal.

It was a night shooting session. At night it was very lonelyout there and the surroundings are eerie. I had taken to thesti.'dio that night a grotesque mask which had a pair ofdrooping moustaches. Putting it on, I wait for Madhubala tocome upstairs to her make-up room. I am :n the darkestcorner of the corridor.

As soon as Madhubala comoc to the door, I leap at her,growlir g like a wild animal.

Madhubala lets out a terrific scream. Deople uome pound-ing up the stairs to see whether anyone has been murdered.At the head of them is my brother Ashok.

Seeing him, I take off my mask unwillingly and grin. ButAshok is in no mood to laugh. He gives me the worstberating of my life, and says, "Aren't you ashamed ofyourself, phying the fo ">; like this? Don't come to this studioever again".

The following night, 'laving nothing else to do, I go again tothe studio, a sadder and wiser man, and I sit at the foot ofthe stairs leading to the make-up room. It is late. SuddenlyI hear wild screams from upstairs. "Good gracious, what'shappened now?" I race up the stairs.

Kishore Kumar 83 It is Madhubala. Someone has frightened her again with

that mask of mine.

He sheepishly takes off the mask. It is my brother Ashok.

Darjeeling, 1954: My wife and I are at an outdoor shootingof a film. Even' day we see Tenzing, the conqueror ofEverest, passing our hotel.

One morning we are making purchases at a shop whenTenzing walks in. We were anxious to meet him. Fortu-nately he himself takes the initiative and asks the shopattendant to introduce him to us. Soon, we become friend'y-

He poses for a photograph with us and we invite him to tea.

So many things clamour to be recorded in this diary -incidents of my childhood, the fragrance of vanished love,friends who have taken different paths in life. Then thepicture of Arun Kumar, who died not iong ago, comes tomind. He was the only one who encouraged me in myambitions to b3 a singe \ to have confidence in myself andmy talent.

And today is another day, and the story of one's life is alsoone of many tomorrows:The best way to finish this diary isto leave it unfinished.

Kishore Kumar 84

FromGenius!

• Kishore KumarMusic's

Eccentric Superstar,speaks to

Pritish Nandy

The Illustrated Weeklyof India,

/ unde, stand you are quitting Bombay and going away toKhandwa...

Who can live in this stupid, friendless city where everyoneseeks to exploit you every moment of the day? Can youtrust anyone out here? Is anyone a friend you can count on?I'm determined to get out of this futile rat race and live as I'dalways wanted to in my native Khandwa, iand of myforefathers. Who wants to die in this ugly city?

Why did you come here in the first place?

I v o Id come to visit my bro'her, Ashok Kurrfar. He wassuch a big star in those days.

I thought he cound introduce me to K. L. Saigal, who wasmy greatest idol. People says he used to sing throughhis nose. But so what? He was a great singer. Greaterthan anyone else.

/ believe you are planning to record an album of famousSaigal songs... .

They asked me to. I refused.

Why should I try to outsing him? Let him remainenshrined in our memory. Let his songs remain just hissongs. Let not even one person say that Kishore Kumarsang them better.

// you didn't like Bombay, why did you stay here? Forfame? For money?

I was conned into it. I only wanted to sing. Never to act.But somehow, thanks to the peculiar circumstances, Iwas persuaded to act in the movies.

Kishpre Kumar 85

I hated every moment of it, and tried virtually every trickpossible to get out of it. I muffed my lines, pretended tobe crazy, shaved my head off, played difficult, beganyodelling

in the midst of tragic scenes, told Meena Kumaii what I wassupposed to tell Beena Rai in some other film. I screamed,ranted, went cuckoo. But who cared? Th?y were justdetermined to make me a star.

Why?

Because I was Dadamoni's brother. And he was a greathero.

But you succeeded. After your fashion...

Of course I did. I was the biggest draw after Dilip Kumar.There were so many films I was doing in those days that Ihad to run from one set to another, changing on the way.Imagine me. My shirt flying off, my trousers falling off, mywig coming off while I am running from one set to the other.Very often I'd mix my lines, look angry in the middle of aromantic scene or romantic in the middle of a fierce battle.

It was terrible and I hated it.

In 1984

Kishore Kumar 86

It evoked r'ghtmares of school. Directors were like school-teachers. Do this. Do that. Don't do this. Don't do that. Idreaded it. That's why I would often escape.

Well, you are notorious for the trouble you give yourdirectors and producers. Why is that?

Nonsense. They give me trouble. You think they care adamn for me? I matter to them only because I sell. Whocared for me during my bad days?

Is that why you prefer to be a loner?

Look, I don't smoke, drink or socialise. I never go to parties.If that makes me a loner, fine. I am happy this way. I go towork and come back straight home. To watch my horrormovies, play with my spooks, talk to my trees, oing.

In this avaricious world, every creative person is bound tobe lonely. How can you deny me this right?

You don't have many friends?

None.

That's rather sweeping.

People bore me. Film people particularly bore me. I prefertalking to my trees.

So you like nature?

That's why I wanted to get away *o Khandwa. I have iost alltouch with natuie out here.

I tried to dig a canal all around my bungalow, so that wecould sail gondolas there. The municipality chap would sitand watch and nod his head disapprovingly, while my men

Kishore Kumar 87 would dig and dig. But it didn't work. One day, someone

found a hand - a skeletal hand, and some toes. After that,nobody wanted to dig any more.

Anoop, my second brother, came charging with Gangawater and started chanting mantras. He thought this housewas buiit on a graveyard. Perhaps it is. But I lost the chanceof making rny home like Venice.

People would have thought you crazy. In fact, they alreadydo.

Who says I am crazy? The world is crazy, not me.

Why do you have this repu.ation for doing strange things?

It all began with this girl who came to interview me. In thosedays I used to live alone. So she said, You must be verylonely. I said, No, let me introduce you to some of myfriends. So I took her to the garden and introduced her to

In 1985

Kishore Kumar 88

some of my friendlier trees. Janardan, Raghunandan,Gangadhar, Jagannath, Buddharam, Jhatpatajhatpalapat.I said they were my closest friends in this cruei world. Shewent off and wrote this bizarre piece, saying that I spentlong evenings with my arms entwined around them. What'swrong with that, you tell me. What's wrong with makingfriends with trees?

Nothing.

Then there was this interior decorator chappie. A suited,bcoted Gujarati fellow who came to see me in a thicl threepiece woollen Saville Row suit in the middle of summer. Andhe began to lecture me about aesthetics, design, visualsense and all that. After listening to him for about half anhour and trying to figure out what he was sayirr hrough hispeculiar American accent, I told him I wanted somethingvery simple for my living room. Just water, several feet deep- and little boats floating around, instead of large sofas. I toldhim the centrepiece should be anchored down so that thetea-service could be placed on it and all of us could row upto it on our boats and take sips from our cups. But the boatsshould be properly balanced, I said, otherwise.WP mightwhizz past each other and then conversation could t comequite difficult.

He looked a bit alarmed, but that alarm gave way to sheerhorror when I began to describe the wall decor. I told him Iwanted live crows hanging from the walls instead of paint-ings - since I liked nature so much. And, instead of fans, wecould have monkeys farting from the ceiling.

That's when he started slowly backing out of the room, witha strange look in his eyes. The last I saw of him was himrunning out of the front gate, at a pace that would have putan electric train to shame. What's crazy about having aliving room like that, you tell me? If he can wear a woollenthree piece suit in the height of summer, why can't I hc.ve

Kishore Kumar 89 live crows on my walls?

5.PROJECTINGAWAY

DeepaGahlot Q f I l l U S I O n S

Illuminations'Eccentric'; 'Madcap'; 'Genius', -Gifted' - they couldn'tusually think of other words to describe him. They hatedand feared him because he refused to conform. He held theindustry in contempt, said he had no friends, and neverwanted any. He knew they grovelled because he hadsomething they wanted - that elusive 'gift'. For him, thisexchange did °not conform to the relationships and theacquaintances the film industry usually fosters; they were'motivated', he used to say.

Performing with Sunil Dutt

He cultivated an image so they wouldn't take him forgranted, some theorise. We set out to unravel bits of theKishore Kumar mystey for this book. What was he reallylike, in his elusiveness? One had seen his outward manner-isms, from afar at a recording, on the stage, at awardsfunctions. Caught off guard, usually with a contemplativelook, but when the spotlights fell on him, a showman.Dancing, cavorting, giving 'those people' what they hadcome for. He was afraid of performing live, they also say. Hehad to be dragged into performing. Persuaded and cajoledand bribed, like a child. He evidently put on an act, he didn'tadd up to his performance. No wonder that he mocked hisfans and friends and their worship and adulation.

His ideas about the hypocrisy and selfishness of the filmfolk must certainly have been true, if what we saw in ourquest for the undercover Kishore Kumar is any evidence.Almost everyone we met said they were very close to him;others, who swore that he meant so much to them in hislifetime, were not terribly inclined to really speak about theman. There were those who couldn't dare displease himwhen he was alive, but now there were more importantareas to appropriate than merely speak of a dead man.

Everyone we met said Kishore Kumar was quite a saneperson, not in the least as eccer*ric as his reputationsuggested. He would have hated this. After all, his imagewas at least as complex as tt e man himself, nurtured withcare over the years. Some of the responses we receivedhaven't been included, so manifestly false 'ere they.Haven't we all heard stories of how he drove his producersand directors and co-stars round the bend? And of timeswhen he came to the set with only half his face made up, andyet again with half his head shaved off, because he had^een paid only half of what he was due? And there was the• ime he shaved off his hair because the director made himwait for a couple of days. Except the director, hardly to beoutdone, made him complete his role with a cap on. Pro-

Kishore Kumar 93 ducers he met returned with wierd tales of how he made

them dance on tables, or wait in the living room while hecrawled out from the rear on all fours. And the time he gotan acquaintance arrested by shouting 'thief, because hefailed to acknowledge him on the street. And again, whenhe drove off from a shot all the way to Khandala becausethe director forgot to say 'cut'. One producer, who took himto court for failing to obey orders, rued the day, becauseKishore Kumar refused to do anything that day withoutbeing expressly ordered to do so by the producer - includinggetting c ut of his car. He said he only harrassed people whoowed ' im money. Actually he harrassed people prettyrandomly, often for undefined reasons: he enjoyed watch-ing the rich and powerful beg and plead. He had an elementof sadism, bu* seldom of guilt. He would have been appalledat the many endearing explanations we received on justwhy he behaved the way he did.

He w-as a hypocrite too, or so it seemed, at any rate. Hehated acting, and was forced into it; yet he became one ofour biggest stars. He hated the money-mindedness of the

Kishore Kumar 94

industry, but he wasn't any less obsessed with money. Hesaid he didn't fancy his position, he threatened repeatedlyto retire, but never did.

He couldn't admit to his own pleasure; he tended to playroles even in reality: the romantic, the poor little rich guy.But definitely he was not the childlike saint that people insiston casting him as, now that he's dead. He would be muchamused watching all this from afar, perhaps saying an ITold You So as he sees his self-appointed friends shyingaway from discussing him as they encountered him.

On screen he was a riot, this undoubtedly. It's only now,years after the films were made, that you see his humourahead of his times. The pranks in Baap Re Baap, as hesought to avoid a 'rich' marriage, the myriad and outlandishdisguises in Shararat, leave you exhausted. He wasn't aclassical hero, but he had the presence and grace to carryhimself onscreen; you see how a later actor like Shammi

' Kapoorowedso much to him. But then he himself fanciedthe serious role, saw himself as a dramatic actor, this e torall his reluctance to act in the first place.

He deservedly got all Ix, fa o and wealth as a'singer, e> enough he wasn't a trained one. But he would have nnVsably

been an even greater actor, had he chosen to be; or evenas a filmmaker, witness Badhti Ka Naam Daadhi whichhad all the makings of a masterpiece of comedy. He didn';give himself that chance, transferring much of his energyinstead : to that illusory image - of a larger-than-life figureeccentric in his hermit ex!s.en~e.

One couldn't distinguish the :mg. e ! om the man, alter awhile. He was what he ,wantpd neople to believe he was.And the quest to discover Ihe man, either inspite of orthrough the image, proved atik of a failure, x>f most of wha;one got were tired cliches and shifty evasions. He remainedelusive, even in his death. It's up to us now to discover him

Kishore Kumar 95 afresh, in his songs, in his films.

ASHOK KUMAR:

A M KumarBinaRaiKishoreKumarAnoop Kumar •

dotI

JHIHJBHEMKffT KUMAR - f l f t j f ROKft KRISKKN • REMU M l T

Kishore Kumar 96

When he was about one, I had gone away to Bombay.When he was four-or five, I used to go home to visit, hewouldn 1 believe that I was his brother. Because I visitedrarely, my parents welcomed me heartily. He didn't likethat. He used to say, "Who is this man ? Why do you makekheerforhim, why don't you give me any?

At that time his throat was very bad. Nobody could belivethat he would become a singer, tie was coughing all thetime. He was always hanging around mother asking forchar paise to buy something or the other. One he camerunning when she was cutting vegetables and cut his toeoff on the sickle. That toe is still preserved in our homeat Khandwa. In those days there was nothing much toalleviate the pain. He wept continuously for a month inpain. By the time his wound healed his voice had cleared.And he started singing. Maybe God willed it this way. It

happens sometimes that when something untoward hap-pens, something good also comes of it.

I was a trained singer and was always correcting him. Hedidn 't like that one bit. He complainrd to mother that I didn 'tcare for him, I alwsys discouraged him by saying he sangbadly. The feelings were right but the sur was not right forhim. He later realised what I was saying. Then he neverwent out of tune.

Sur mein aise baithta tha ki basi That was his very strongpoint. Even though he wasn't trained, he never went out oftune.

When he came here, he wanted to become a singer.During college vacations, he and Anoop used to come andstay with me.But he was very fond of singing. His favouritewas Saigal, so whenever he was asked to sing, he wouldsay.Kiska gana gaoon? Saigal ka - char anna, Damamonika ek anna. Later Saigal's rate went up, to one rupee, mineremained at one anna.

Then there was this movie I was making, Ziddi. I gave hima small part of a mail. When DevAnand walked past withthe heroine,he had to just look at him. What he did wasthat he silently mouthed an expletive. When I scoldedhim, he was offended. Then slowly, I forced him into actingseriously.

Our father was a great comedian. When he went to court-he was a laywer like everyone else in the family-he used

to make everyone, including the accused laugh. He tookKishore for outings carrying him on his shoulders. Myfather was bald and Kishore used to play the tatya on hishead. He was loved and pampered by everyone in thefamily because he was the youngest. The money he gotfor his lunch, he used to spend on film songbooklets.( Thehuge collection is still in his house.) That was when he got

Kishore Kumar 97 a thrashing at home.

/ had sung a song Koi Hamdam na raha for one of myearlier films (Jeevan Naiya). He sang it later for Jhumroo.When I heard him sing it, I told him he had got the raag allwrong. Hereplied, who cares? His version turned out to bebetter than mine. He sang it with so much feeling.

When he got the Lata Mangeshkar Award a couple of yearsago, he sang a song Ye jeevan hai and held an audienceof thirty thousand spellbound. I had to go on stage and askhim for an encore. He sang it again for me at home andhe sang it so beautifully. I asked him why it didn't soundas good in the film? He replied, "Film mein to aise hi gaa

Kishore Kumar 98

diya tha." What he had done was sing it very softly and.manipulate the accoustics in such a way that it soundedbeautiful when he sang it on stage.

When he was in College, he set the complete Malthusiantheory to music and sang it. That way he learnt it by heartalso.

He set anything to music. He believed it was easy tomemorise things if you sang them.

He was a very good comedian, I think. There may bepeople who think that he wasn'y all that gpod, but aperformance depends a lot on a role really. Actually all of ustook after our father. We are all comedians, it just hap-pened that he got into comedy and I became a seriousactor.

Kishore wasn't in the least eccentric. It's just that he didn'tlike people cheating him of his dues. I'll tell you an incident.He dropped in it Shri Sound Studij where I was workingon a Him. One of his shootings was on at the other set, buthe refused to shoot. The director, Raman ceme to me andrequested me to persuade Kishore to shoot. It seems theyowed him five thousand rupees, and promised to paywhen he reported for shooting. The money wasn't therewhen he came to the studio, so he refused to shoot. WhenI told him to finish his work, he said, I know these peoplebetter, they will never give the money after the work isdone. Because I had requested him he agreed, but whenhe reached the set he wa asked to walk from one end ofthe room to the other. He did so turning cartwheels andthen disappeared. I asked Raman why they hadn't givenhim th^ money, he replied that they didn'y have any. Whyhad they lied to him. He knew that, that's why he refusedto shoot. He didn't harass anyone who paid his dues. Oncehe made S. D. Narang chase him in his car and then turnedaround and said he didn't recognise him. He did these

Kishore Kurrar 99 things. But most of the stories are exaggerated.

He was quite fed-up with being called a miser. So on animpulse, he got together as many Bengali families as hecould and took them all on a picnic to Aurangabad. Heblew up thousands of rupees and then asked, "Am I akanjoos?"

The films he made himself pere not so good. I think hemade them to prove that he was a serious actor, a and alsoto give a slip to the income tax people. To show somelosses. He made a Bengali film Looko Churl for thispurpose, but it turned out to be such a hit that he endedup paying double income tax. He pesuaded me to stickon a long beard and make an apearance in Badhti KaNaam Daadhi. It was a crazy film. After it was complete heinvited Satya'it Ray to see it. He saw me and said,"Youtoo!" Ra • is re'ated to Kishore. did you know? Kishore hadlent him some money to complete the lab work of PatherPanchali.

KALYANJI:

Kishore Kumar 100

It was very rare to find a playback singer who was also, anactor, director, composer, writer. So when we gave him asong, we never had to tell him how to get the right"expression" in his voice. He knew. The only thing helacked was a classical training. Otherwise he was aperfect singer.

I remember having approached him first for a song forUpkaar-Kasme vaade pyar wafa sab, which was latersung by Manna Dey. At that time Kishore wasn 1 interestedin singing. We tried hard to persuade him, but he didn'tagree. Later he had some tax problems, and he was againapproached by a common acquaintance, who was anorganiser of stage shows, to perform on stage. He wasterrified of the idea. He had a phobia about performing livewhich stayed till the end after he had done hundreds ofstage shows.

He hated strangers. He was always suspicious of newfaces. When he was to report for recording he wanted toknow how many people would be there. If we said twelve,he would say w'lyso many reduce them to five. So you canimagine how scared he was of appearing in stage. Beforeevery stage show, he would say. Convince me about whyI should go ahead with it. And we used to say, "Why shouldyou be nervous in front of common people. You should bescared only if a greater singer than you is sitting in the frontrow. None of the people in the hall can ever hope tobecome Kishore Kumar in this life so what are you afraidof?" And he vojid be convinced for a while then startquestioning again. He had to be cajoled, into doing it.

He had his moods, but that is an artist's privilege. He hadto be ' eated like a child if you had to get him to do anything.He never gave us any trouble. Because we treated him likea child like a Kishore and gently persuaded him into doingour work. To get him to do what you wanted you had totell him exactly the opposite. If you wanted to record on a

Kishore Kumar 101 day when he wasn't in a mood, we used to purposely say,

lets hurry up and he would say, no why do you want to spoilthe song. And he would stay as long as you wanted him.to.

The best thing about Kishore was that even though hewasn 't a trained singer, he was always in sur. And if he wasinterupted in between a song, he could pick up exactlywhere he had left off. Because he was an actor, he couldsing to suit the voice of the actor he was singing for. Hesang with smooth ease, as though he were speaking somedialogue.

ANANDJI:

/ remember the last two stage shows he did with us. Wewere scheduled to perform in the Gulf. Before going he sawthe number eight somewhere and he said that the numbereight wasn't lucky fo him. He was 58 at the time and feltthe year was inauspicious for him. When we reached there,he insisted on coming shopping with us and going out fordinner to an ordinary restaurant. He thoroughly enjoyedhimself; lettimg his hair down for once.

After our return to India, we performed stage shows inKutch. I went shopping at some little villager. He insistedon coming along. He said if I could come with you abroad,why not here? He roamed around with us in the heat andbought a few things. He was scheduled to do another showin Ahmedabad but he couldn 't make it.

Tzhinking about all this later, it almost seems that he had•apremonition about impending death. On the flight to theGulf, he said to me that he had made his will and criticisedhis brother-Ashok Kumar for not doing so. In his will he hadalso stated-explicitly that he wanted to be taken to hishometown Khandwa to be cremated.

Kishore Kumar 102

TANUJA:

Kishore was a very nice person ...But that eccentricity wasmore of a facade. Or maybe it wasn't. All artistes sometime or the other need to hide their true emotions and hebehaved the worst when he was sad. Then he behavedatrociously. I remember when I was shooting with him once,it was a seven o'clock shift. We were shooting in his housefor Door Ka Raahi. I reached at about seven-thirty withmake-up. He was sitting there on the sofa with hisharmonium and he was singing and he said, "Aa Tanubaith, aaj gana sunata hoon tereko.Aaj mood hai meragana gane ka." And do you know what songs he sang. Allthe sad songs he had ever sung, and the way he sang themit was clear that he felt every word of what he was singing.It was terrible, he had us all in tears. We couldn 1 shoot thatevening.

I told him what is this, why are you making me cry, I don'twant to cry. And he said, " Hota hai kabhi kabhi. You mustshare. I am feeling sad so I want you to share my sorrow."He wasn't as frivolous as he made people believe. Hewas a very deep person. Very much a family man... In hisbackyard he had a swing, a slide, a see-saw, a sand pit andat that time he had only one son. Amit was growing up sorast, he always said he wanted many more children.I never probed his moods, unless he chose to tell mehimself. But he shared in his own way.

He was such a caring person. You know, my mother-in-lawwas his sister. She used to be very ill, and he used to comeover to see her, sing to her, remind her of the old days inKhandwa and for a little while take her out of her misery.

I don't know why he put on this madcap act. Maybe asI said, like every other human being, he needed to hidesome things. When he was in a good mood, he was greatfun. He told us the most atrocious jokes. One day

Kishore Kumar 103 Dadamoni and I were also shooting and both the brothers

got together to put up a show for me. They had this routinethat they used to perform. Like they had this game - onesaid Pandurang, the other said Tukaram and they went onand on faster and faster, it was a competition to see whowould fall out first. Then there was another routine he usedto do, face each other and imitate the expression on theother's face like a I'lirror image. With split second timing.The understanding was fantastic. Then at the end of itwhen we were all in hysterics, he would ask, "Ab batao,hum donon bhaiyon mein sekaunzyada pagalhai?"Thatwas the way he was and you had to take him as he was.As a co-star I would say, he was an excellent actor andvery co-operative. His first love was acting, but he became-famous as a singer. He was a brilliant singer. I don't thinkthere has been another voice like his in this century. He wasa very good director too, he knew what he wanted. Buthe is remembered only as a comedian. Maybe that was thepurpose in his lif - to make people laugh. It is alwaysbetter to spread happiness,isn't it?

Amit Khanna

He was a crazy guy. Once I met him at Mehboob Studioand he said, "Mere picture ki recording hai, zara ek ganalikh do. I am already late. I have to sing his song and I amalso the music director and lyricist and I still haven't writtenthe song. Aur wahan mera bill chadh raha hai. At first Ithought he was joking, .then I realised he was serious. Iwrote something and he worked out something from it. ItwasasongfromShabash Daddy. There was no questionof credit, of course.

As a filmmaker, he knew the medium but he never appliedhimself seriously. I thought Door Gagan Ki Chhaon Meinwas a pretty competent film, because he applied his mindseriously. Again I thought Badhti Ka Naam Daadhi couldhave been a very brilliant Him if he had gone aboutit with a little seriousness, because it had that peculiar

Kishore Kumar 104 zany quality, that streak of madness that is absent from

any other film maker in India. A very Woody Allen kind ofmadness, peculiar, bizarre, going completely off tangent.It was something no one else could have thought of.But as I said, he could never apply himself properly.Whenever I talked to film, he could relate things well, hewas aware of the medium, very alive.

I always found him a very warm person. I had a very goodrapport with him. I remember, he must have sung over fiftysongs written by me. At every recording, I told him veryplainly, do this, do that, although I was never the musicdirector. He would say sometimes, if I told him how torender a song, ye nahin hota, or this composition is notgood, I don't like the tune; I can't do it, but he always didin the end. I always found this talk of his being money

His debut as Music Director - Neela Aasmaan

minded a bit exaggerated. He was a thorough profes-sional. Somethimes he would behave very funnily with aproducer for reasons best known to him but I never had anysuch experience in my own films. He never cribbed, whyare you making me rehearse this song twenty times. Hewas one of the few singers whose voice improvd withmore takes, it didn't get tired very easily. He wouldalways ask the details of the song, and one of the biggestadvantages was that being an actor, he could alwaysenact out his songs, which gave them a certain amountof appeal.

As a composer, he was very underrated, because again henever worked seriously. Just a few days before he died, wewere thinking of doing an album together. A private albumwhich I was going to write and he was going to compose.Because I was always telling him, you are a very talentedcomposer, why not be a little more serious. So he said thereis nothing to inspire me. As a composer he never reallygave his best except in snatches, like for instance thatsongKoi hamdam na raha, which is absolutely an all timegreat. Or the title song from Door Gagan Ki Chhaon Mein- Aa miike chalen.

He gave himself credit for lyrics once in a while but that wasjust tomfoolery. He undestood words, he had no preten-sions of being a writer. In all my thirteen-fourteen years ofassociation with him I never found him saying how hewanted a song written but he would never hesitate to saythat he couldn 't say a word properly and ask for it to besubstituted with an easier word.

After Saigal, he was the only top class singer who wasn'ttrained .And he had a tremendous range. Whether it wasJhum jhumjhumroo, or Eena meena dika or Mere sapnonki rani or a serious bong like Dukhi man mere or songs fromAmar Prem, he sang them all wit 'i equal elan. Of coursenow the choice is vary limited, but some years ago when

Kishore Kumar 106 the song was written and composed, we would decide

who would sing it, Rafi or Kishore or Mukesh. So the typicalKishore song was one with a freewheeling style or onewhich required an element of pathos. Not sad, but thattypical pathos that he had in his voice. It was a quality inhis voice, Rafi was a better trained singer, who could havehis voice tailored to a particular mood by a good composer.Kishore did it on his own. Because he was not profession-ally trained singer, he never took the whole thing seriously.Whatever natural gift he had, he used it. He was alwaysscared if the song went too high, so he would say hecouldn't do it and ask for the sur to be lowered.

He was a little eccentric like all artistes are, but that crazyimage was one he liked to project. I came to know him muchlater in life when he was past all his peccadilloes. WhatI gathered was that he was a very lonely man. I remembervisiting him one day, many years ago when he hadn't yetmarried YogeetaBali. It was a Sunday and he was sittingin a room full of toys. He was playing with this hugecollection of battery-operated toys. He switched them allon together and it was a very surrealistic scene. I neverfound him crazy. One day I was to record for one of myfilms and I was told that the recording is cancelled. I wentto his house and the watchmen wouldn t let me in. WhenI finally got through to him, he was very apologetic. He saidhe didn t know it was m, . ecording and he came and sang.

The trouble with him was that never applied himself tomuch. Even as an actor he kept holding back. So he didn'tput in any serious work, till his second revival as a singerin the late sixties when he started blossoming out,otherwise he lived a very cloistered existence. He onlycontinued to sing for Dev Anand.

He started singing for Dev Anand when he was a youngman looking for a job. His brother Ashok Kumar was theproducer of the film Zldd'. Lev had done just one or twofilms till then, so he was also starting out and then there was

Kishore Kumar 107 young Kishore looking for a break. The first song he sang

was a serious one Marne ki duaen kyon maangen, jeeneki tamanna kaun kare. Then he continued to sing for Devbecause S.D. Burman came into Navketan and he alsohad a liking for Kishore. When he became an actor himselfhe refused to sing for anyone else, till much later whenhe started singing regularly for Rajesh Khanna.

The new Superstar and his new voice- Rajesh Khanna and Kishore Kumar

FILMOGRAPHY

Kishore Kumar 110

1948ZiddiProduction: Bombay Talkie; Director: Shaheed Latif;Music: Khemchand Prakash; Cast: Dev Anand, KaminiKaushal.

1951AndolanProduction: Motwane Ltd; Director: Phani Muzumdar;Music: Pannalal Ghosh; Cast: Kishore Kumar, Shivraj,Sushama.

1952Cham Chama ChamProduction; Mohan Pictures; Director: Santoshi; Music:OP. Nayyar; Cast: Rehana, Kishore Kumar, Pran.

1953LadkiProduction: A.V.M.; Director: M.V. Raman; Music: R.Sudarshanam, Dhaniram; Cast: Vyjayanthimala, BharatBhooshan.

LehrenProduction: New Sai Productions; Director: H.S. Rawail;Music: C. Ramachandra; Cast: Shyama, Kishore Kumar,Shakuntala.

1954Dhobi DoctorProduction: Ranjit Movietone; Director: Phani Muzumdar;Music: Khayyam; Cast: Usha Kiron, Kishore Kumar, Kan-haiyalal.

llzaamProduction: Talwar Films; Director: R.C. Talwar; Music:Madan Mohan; Cast: Meena Kumari, Kishore Kumar,Shammi.

Kishore Kumar 111

Miss MalaProduction: Jayant Desai Productions; Director: JayantDesai; Music: Chitragupta; Cast: Vyjayantimala, KishoreKumar, Jeevan.

NaukriProduction: Bimal Roy Productions; Director: Bimal Roy;Music: Salil Choudhury; Cast: Kishore Kumar, SheilaRamani, Kanhaiyalal.

Naukri

Paheli JhalakProduction: Jagat Pictures; Director: M.V. Raman; Music:C. Ramachandra; Cast: Vyjayantimala, Kishore Kumar,Pran.

1955Baap Re BaapProduction: Kardar Productions; Director: A.R. Kardar;Music: O.P. Nayyar; Cast: Kishore Kumar, Chand Usmani,Smriti Biswas.

Kishore Kumar 112

Char PaiseProduction: National Movies; Director: N.K. Ziri; Music:V.D. Varman; Cast: Nimmi. Kishore Kumar, Roopmala.

Madh Bhare NainProduction: Fortune Films: Director: Hem Chandar; Music:S.D. Burman; Cast: Beena Rai, Kishore Kumar, David,Durga Khote.

Kishore Kumar 113

RukhsanaProduction: Talwar Films; Director- R C. Talwar; Music:Sajjad Hussein: Cast: Meena Kumar;, Kishore Kumar,Shammi.

1956AabrooProduction: Uma Chitra; Director: Chaturbhuj Doshi; Mu-sic: Bulo C. Rani; Cast: Kamini Kaushal, Kishore Kumar,Smriti Biswas.

BhagambhagProduction: Bhagwan Brothers: Director: Bhagwan; Music:O.P. Nayyar; Cast: Kishore Kumar, Shashikala, MasterBhagwan.

Bhai BhaiProduction: A.V.M.; Director: M.V Raman: Music: MadanMohan; Cast: Ashok Kumar, Kishore Kumar, Nimmi.

Dhake Ki MalmaiProduction: Nanda Films; Director: J.K. Nanda; Music:O.P. Nayyar; Cast: Madhubala, Kishore Kumar, Ulhas, OmPrakash.

MemsahibProduction: Talwar Films; Director R.C. Talwar: Music:Madan Mohan; Cast: Meena Kumari, Kishore Kumar,Shammi Kapoor.

Naya AndazProduction: K. Amarnath Productions; Director: K. Amar-nath; Music: O.P. Nayyar; Cast: Meena Kumari, KishoreKumar, Pran, Johnny Walker.

New DelhiProduction: Deluxe Films; Directot Mohan Segal; Music:Shankar Jaikishen; Cast: Vyjayantimala, Kishore Kumar,

Kishore Kumar 114 Jabeen.

New Delhi

ParivaarProduction: Bimal Roy Productions; Director: Asit Sen;Music: Saiil Choudhury; Cast: Usha Kiron, Durga Khote,Jairaj.

1957AshaProduction: Raman Productions: Director: M.V. Raman,Music: C. Ramachandra; Cast: Vyjayantimala, KtshoreKumar, Om Prakash.

Asha Bandi

Kishore Kumar 115

BandiProduction: Shree Pictures; Director: Satyen Bose; Music:Hemant Kumar; Cast: Ashok Kumar, Bina Rai; KishoreKumar.

BegunahProduction: Roopkamal Chitra; Director: Narendra Suri;Music: Shankar Jaikishen; Cast: Shakila, Kishore Kumar,Raja Nene, Mubarak.

MusafirProduction: Film Group; Director: Hrishikesh Mukherjee;Music: Salil Choudhury; Cast: Suchitra Sen, Dilip Kumar,Kishore Kumar.

1958Chalti Ka Naam GaadiProduction: K.S. Pictures; Director: Satyen Bose; Music:S.D. Burman; Cast: Ashok Kumar, Kishore Kumar, AnoopKumar, Madhubala.

ChandanProduction: Dossi Films; Director: M.V. Raman; Music:Madan Mohan; Cast: Nutan, Shyama, Kishore Kumar.

Dilli Ka ThugProduction: New Oriental Pictures; Director: S.D. Narang;Music: Ravi; Cast: Nutan, Kishore Kumar, Amar, SmritiBiswas.

Kabhi Andhera, Kabhi UjalaProduction: Mehtab Films; Director: C.P. Dixit; Music: O.P.Nayyar; Cast: Nutan, Kishore Kumar, Chitra, Shekhar.

RaaginiProduction: Ashok Pictures; Director: Rakhan; Music: O.P.Nayyar; Cast: Ashok Kumar, Kishore Kumar,'Padmini,Jabeen.

Kishore Kumar 116

1959Chacha ^indabadProduction: Light & Shade; Director: Om Prakash; Music:Madan Mohan; Cast: Kishore Kumar, Anita Guha, Jagirdar.

JaalsaazProductin: Lalit Kala Mandir; Director: Arvind Sen; Music:N. Dutta; Cast: Kishore Kumar, Mala Sinha, Pran, Nazir.

ShararatProduction: Roshni Films; Director: H.S. Rawail; Music:Shankar Jaikishen; Cast: Meena Kumari, Kishore Kumar,Raj Kumar, Kumkrm.

Kishore Kumar

Music By SHANKER • jAIKISHAN

\

1960Apna Haath JagannathProduction: De Lux Films; Director: Mohan Segal; Music:S.D. Burman; Cast: Kishore Kumar, Sayeeda Khan, LeelaChitnis.

BewaqoofProduction: Johar Films; Director: I.S. Johar; Music: S.D.Burman; Cast: Kishore Kumar, Mala Sinha, I.S. Johar.

GirlfriendProduction: Basu Chitra Mandir; Director: Satyen Bose;Mrsic: Hemant Kumar; Cast: Kishore Kumar, WaheedaRel.man, Nazir Hussein.

Mehlon Ke KhwabProduction: Madhubala Pvt Ltd; Director: Hyder; Music: S.Mohinder; Cast: Madhubala, Kishore Kumar, PradeepKumar.

1961JhumrooProduction: K.S. Films; Director: Shankar Mukherjee;Music: Kishore Kumar; Cast: Madhubala, Kishore Kumar,Cnanchala, Jayant.

Kishore Kumar 118

KarodpatiProduction: Saigal Bros; Director: Mohan Segal; Music:Shankar Jaikishen; Cast: Kishore Kumar, Shashikaia,Kumkum.

1962Bombay Ka ChorProduction: New Oriental Pictures; Director: S.D. Narang;Music: Ravi; Cast: Mala Sinha, Kishore Kumar, HoneyIrani.

Half TicketProduction: Cine Technicians; Director: Kalidas; Music:Salil Choudhury; Cast: Madhubala, Kishore Kumar, OmPrakash.

ManmaujiProduction: A.V.M.; Director: Krishnan Panju; Music.Madan Mohan; Cast: Kishore Kumar, Sadhana, Naaz,Achala Sachdev.

Naughty BoyProduction: Shakti Films; Director: Shakti Samanta; Music:S.D. Burman; Cast: Kishore Kumar, Kalpana, Om Prakash.

RangoliProduction: R.S.B. Films; Director: Amar Kumar; Music:Shankar Jaikishen; Cast: Kishore Kumar, Vyjayantimala,Nazir Hussein.

1963Ek RaazProduction: A.G. Films; Director: Shakti Samanta; Music:Chitragupta; Cast: Kishore Kumar, Jamuna, Lalita Pawar.

1964Baghi ShahzadaProduction: Gee Pee Films; Director: Maruti; Music: Bipin;

Kishore Kumar 119 Cast: Xlshore Kumar, Kumkum, Anwar.

Door Gagan Ki Chaon MeinProduction: Kishore Films; Director and Music: KishoreKumar; Cast: Kishore Kumar, Supriya Ohoudhury, AmitGanguly.

Mr X In BombayPro^ucti' n: Thakkar Films; Director: Shantilal Soni; Music:Laxmikant Pyarelal; Cast: Kishore Kumar, Kumkum,Mohan Chotti.

Kishore Kumar 120 MrX in Bombay

1965Hum Sub Ustad HainProduction: Sangam Film*,; Director: Maruti; Music: Laxmi-kant Pyarelal; Cast: Kishore Kuma , Dara Singh, SheikhMukhtar.

Shreeman FuntooshProduction: S.B. Productions; Director: Shantilal Soni;Music: Laxmikant Pyarelal; Cast: Kishore Kumar, Ku-mkum, Anoop Kumar.

1966AkalmandProduction: Mukul Pictures; Director: Roop K. Shorey;Music: O.P. Nayyar; Cast: Kishore Kumar, I.S. Johar,Sonia Sahani.

Ladka LadkiProduction: Bright Films; Director: Soni Hoksar; Music:Madan Mohan; Cast: Kishore Kumar, Mumtaz, !.S. Johar.

Pyar Kiya JaaProduction: Chitralaya; Director: Sridhar; Music: Laxmi-kant Pyarelal; Cast: Kishore Kumar, Shashi Kapoor, Kal-pana, Mehmood.

1967Albela MastanaProduction: Pragna Pictures; Director:8.J. Patel; Music: N.Dutta; Cast: Kishore Kumar, Asha Nadkarni, Bhagwan.

Duniya NachegiProduction: Gay Films; Director: K. Pervez; Music: Laxmi-kant Pyarelal; Cast: Kishoro Kumar, Kumkum, Mukri.

Hum Do DakuProduction: Kishore Films; Director and Music: KishoreKumar; Cast: Kishore Kumar, Anoop Kumar, Ganga,

Kishore Kumar 121 Leena.

1968Do Dune ChaarProduction: Bimal Roy Productions; Director: Debu Sen;Music: Hemant Kumar; Cast: Kishore KUmar.-Tanuja,Sudha Rani.

Hai Mera DilProduction: Manohar Films; Director: Ved-Madan; Music:Usha KHanna; Cast: Kishore Kumar, Kumkum, I.S. Johar,Prem Chopra.

PadosanProduction: Mehmood Productions; Director: JyotiSwaroop; Music: R.D. Burman; Cast: Sunil Dutt, SairaBanu, Mehmood, Kishore Kumar.

Sadhu Aur ShaitanProduction: Bhim Fingh-Mehmood; Director: Bhim Singh;Music: Laxmikant-Pyarelal; Cast: Mehmood, Bharati, Kis-hore KUmar, Om Prakash, Pran.

ShrimanjiProduction: Mukul Enterprises; Director: Ram Dayal;Music: O.P. Nayyar; Cast: Kishce KUmar, I.S. Johar,Shahida.

1971Door Ka RaniProduction : Kishore Films; Director and Music : KishoreKumar; Cast: Amit Kumar, Tanuja, Ashok Kumar, KishoreKumar.

1974Badhti Ka Naam DaadhiProduction : Kisho.e Films; Director and Music : KishoreKumar, Oast: Kishore Kumar, I. S. Johar, Amit Kumar,Sheetal

Kishore Kumar 122

Badhti Ka Naam Daadhi

1979Shabash DaddyProduction : Kishore Films; Director and Music : KishoreKumar; Cast: Kishore Kumar, Yogeeta Bali, Amit Kumar,Mehmood.

1980Door Waadiyon Mein KahinProduction : Kishore Films, Director and Music : KishoreKumar; Cast: Kishore Kumar, Bindu

1982Chalti Ka Naam ZindagiProduction ; Kishore Films; Direc'or and Music : KishoreKumar; Cast : Ashok Kumar, <ishore Kumar, AnoopKumar, Reeta Bhaduri.

Kishore Kumar 123

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In this, the first foray of the Research Centre For CinemaStudies into the commercial film industry, we found our-selves on untrodden territory.

We would certainly not have managed to organise solarge a retrospective, but for the support and assistanceof several within the industry, who gave us unstintedsupport and suggestions when we needed them most.

Thanks to Amit Kumar, Mr Makhan, Ashok Kumar foreverything.

To the distributors of the films who gave us permission.

To the Nehru Centre authorities forgiving us consecutivedates and concessional charges for possibly the bestprojection in the city.

To Amit Tyagi and Deepa Gahlot fc- unstinted effort.

As usual to Screen Unit colleagues.

And, not for the last time, to Mr P.K. Nair, of the NationalFilm Archive, for ever*'thing.

To the Times i India, to Praddep-Guha, Neerja Shah,Sharan Hpmrnady and Ritu Yadav for sustaining the efforthrough.

As'iish Rajadhya1 shaBombay Oct '88.