AMIT KUMAR ON KISHORE KUMAR!!
Sanjay Joshi
Hi, all you Amit Kumar and Kishore Kumar fans!!
There is a wonderful article in Redif on the Net. Look at:
http://207.20.132.15/entertai/oct/10kk.htm
Have fun!
Sanjay
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Sanjay Joshi http://ee.tamu.edu/~joshi
News Page: http://ee.tamu.edu/~joshi/news.html
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Nitin Sharma
Sanjay Joshi (jo...@ee.tamu.edu) wrote:
: Hi, all you Amit Kumar and Kishore Kumar fans!!
: There is a wonderful article in Redif on the Net. Look at:
: http://207.20.132.15/entertai/oct/10kk.htm
Here is the article for the web challenged.
-n
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My father Kishore Kumar
For years, his voice wrapped its magic
around India, kept Indians in
foot-tapping humour, empathised with
their sorrow.
On Monday, it will be ten years since
Kishore Kumar passed into the ages. Amit Kumar, his
eldest son, remembers Kishore Kumar, the man, the father,
the legend.
What can I say except that he was a wonderful guy -- a
great father?
I think it's the fortunate who get these kind of fathers.
He was known to play practical jokes on people very
often. He used to love telling jokes too. But with the
family he used to be serious. He loved us and the rest of
the family. Most of the times, he was like a child.
He never planned things. He was impulsive. He would just
get up and say, 'let's go out' and we would pile up in
the car and go without thinking twice. He loved the
mountains, nature. People think that Kishore Kumar only
means jokes, comedy. But he had a very serious side to
him too.
The eccentricity, which people say was
part of him, was apparent only when
somebody irritated him. Like once, he
had asked an interior decorator to come
and see this house because he wanted some changes in it.
This decorator came and started spouting his skills
without letting my father get in a word.
This irritated Baba and he told the decorator that he
wanted a swimming pool right in the middle of the living
room along with some monkeys and flowers. The decorator
was stunned and ran out of the house without a second
glance.
There are so many such instances that volumes can be
written on them. But somehow this eccentricity suited
him.
We are planning to make a documentary on him. It's called
Zindagi ka Safar. We have already shot two or three
episodes. It might be aired next month. It's like a
travelogue -- The Life and Times of Kishore Kumar. You
know, there was a time he was second only to Dilip Kumar
in terms of ratings.
I didn't live with him when I was a
child. But I used to come to Bombay very
often during my holidays. I loved
spending my holidays with him. I started
living with him only when I was 19. I used to stay in
Calcutta and I used to miss him a lot then. I was
generally here ( in Bombay) during my Diwali and summer
vacations and I used to enjoy it here thoroughly. I
bunked school to be here as soon as possible and would
extend my vacations to well after the school started.
He used to feel that he wasn't giving me enough time.
That's the reason he took me to the studios.
My choice of a career was definitely influenced by him.
Every father thinks his son should become something. He
was happy that I wanted to be a singer. I learnt by
watching him on stage. It paved a way for me. I used to
play a few instruments on the stage during a stage show.
That's how I learnt singing.
He was an institution for me and so many others too.
There are so many who imitate him, but nobody like him.
His style is imitated, but never reproduced. His style
was unique.
He told me I shouldn't copy him as it would stunt my
growth as an singer and an individual. He wanted me to be
on the top as he was.
It was an emotional moment for him when my Love Story
songs were hits. He was very happy for me and used to cry
when he watched me record a song.
Even after his heart attack, he came back and sang for
eight more years, retaining that quality of voice. He
never smoked, never drank, but loved eating, especially
ice-creams and sweets.
He was not only a father, he was a friend. Often we used
to sit and talk -- something like a father-son talk.
Baba respected his colleagues, but his confidence was
natural. He was a natural all the way -- a natural actor,
a natural singer, a natural comedian, a natural music
director.
He had never learnt classical music. Singing came to him
just like that. He had the knack to learn just about
anything.
Over the years, I have heard my uncles
say that Baba used to adore K L Saigal
and would want to sing like him. In
fact, the year he died, he was supposed
to sing Saigal's songs for HMV. But he
realised he won't be able to do justice
to the original singer and he refused at
the last moment. Baba remembered each
and every song of Saigal's by heart.
He worked with many music directors, but he was most at
ease with S D Burman. Baba adored Burmanda. Their
relationship was more than one between a singer and a
music director though Khemchand Prakash gave Baba his
first break.
He didn't have problems with the industry, he was such a
beautiful person at heart. The atmosphere used to change
when he walked into a recording studio. But yes, he would
tell me about the songs he has recorded that day. He
would sometimes imitate a singer and make all of us laugh
though he never mocked anybody.
Where actors were concerned, he preferred his own
brother, Ashok Kumar. Dada Moni was responsible for
bringing Baba to Bombay, to this film industry. Another
actor Baba liked was Dilip Kumar. Baba used to always say
that Dilipsaab acted with his heart. He also liked to
watch Motilal, Raj Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan though Baba
didn't watch too many films.
Both of us liked Western films and
watched them regularly. He loved
John Wayne films and used to go to
town and see John Wayne films. He
regretted we couldn't make such films here though he
tried his hand at film-making too.
There was this film called Shaneand was inspired to make
Door ka Rahi. He didn't remake the film, just used the
idea. I acted in a film with him called Door Gagan ke
Chaon Mein which was again inspired by a Western film.
His favourite Hollywood actor was Marlon Brando. In fact,
the year Baba died, he had planned to go and meet him in
Hollywood. He was a fanatic Brando fan and was
disappointed if Brando's talent was wasted in any film.
Baba saw Apocalypse Now at least three times and
Godfather17 to 18 times. He used to bring out points
about Brando's acting every time he saw the film.
Unfortunately, his dream of meeting Brando remained
unfulfilled. He also liked horror films.
The first time Baba faced a camera was for a Dev Anand
film where he acted as a mali (gardener). He was asked to
abuse Devsaab. He did, in the filthiest of language,
since he didn't know acting then. Finally he was told to
tone it down a bit and shown how to emote. So that's how
he learnt.
The films Baba made were serious despite his image of
being a comedian. No pranks, no songs. With Madhuji's
(Kishore Kumar's second wife, Madhubala) illness, Baba
couldn't act for nine years. It was a bad time for him.
But that was the time he showed his real talent in making
films. He always wanted to make off-beat films.
The only commercial film he made was Badhti ka Naam
Dadhi, a slapstick comedy far ahead of its time. Many
people told him so. In fact, he told the distributors
they shouldn't take the risk of releasing his films
because the audience wouldn't understand them. But the
distributors did, because they were Kishore Kumar films.
The only films that were hits were Chalti ka Naam Gaadi
and Door Gagan ke Chaon Mein. The rest didn't do well.
He also dreamed of going back to Khandwa
in Madhya Pradesh, where he was born and
brought up. He had this small-town
innocence in him and always told us he
wanted to go back to Khandwa and become a school master.
He always wanted to become one. But at Dada Moni's
insistence he came to Bombay and became an actor. Bombay
was no bed of roses. He had to struggle a lot. Ek din
mein Kishore Kumar nahin banaa. It took him 30 long years
to become what he did.
I remember once he was listening to a song Aa Ab Laut
Chalen and he started crying. Because it reminded him of
his village. This was five months before his death. After
his death, his body was taken to Khandwa for a last
visit.
Baba really enjoyed life. He was sent by God to make
people happy and to be happy himself.
As told to Sharmila Taliculam
Sanjay Joshi
Thanks Nitin,
Aapne meri muh ki baat cheen li!! :-))
Sanjay
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