Date: Thu, 12 Jan 95 15:57:36 mst
From: "Rajan P. Parrikar" <parrikar@mimicad.Colorado.EDU>
Message-Id: <9501122257.AA10115@mimicad.colorado.edu>
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Article: 8982 of rec.music.indian.misc
Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.misc
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>From: parrikar@mimicad.Colorado.EDU (Rajan P. Parrikar)
Subject: Kishore Kumar - A Tribute
Message-ID: <CEy5LH.567@Colorado.EDU>
Originator: parrikar@mimicad
Keywords: Kishore Kumar
Sender: news@Colorado.EDU (USENET News System)
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1993 16:24:52 GMT
Lines: 125

<I had posted this on 13th October but my newsserver seems to be
playing coy. So it's possible that you'll see this again sometime
in the near future>

Late afternoon, October 13, 1987. Kishore Kumar suffers a massive
heart attack, slumps down into wife Leena's arms, and is forever
lost to the world. He was 58. Only a day earlier, he was his usual
clowning self at the recording of a duet (Guru O Guru) with Asha
Bhonsle. It was getting to be such a laugh-riot that Asha had to
plead with him, "Kishore-da, aur hasaayaa mujhe to main gaa nahin
sakungi." When Bappi Lahiri asked him to "put more expression into
the song, Kishore jested, 'Ask the producer to give me Rs 200 extra
and I'll give more expression.'" Six years have elapsed, but Kishore
still lives. Will always live.

A coincidence that the Big Three - Rafi, Mukesh, Kishore - of the Hindi
film music world went out in the same manner, suddenly and via massive
heart attacks. Or is it? Perhaps only those whom He loves dearly are 
offered such quick exit.

Reproduced below is a tribute to Kishore Kumar, taken from Filmfare
(November 1-15, 1987).

For the benefit of newcomers to this group, I shall be recycling some
of the earlier postings I have made on KK (are they archived someplace?)

Dhanyavaad.

Rajan 
=====

ps: May I take this opportunity and extend invitations to honorary
memberships of the KKFC (KISHORE KUMAR FANatics CLUB) to Messrs
Sami Mohammad and Abhay Avachat? We have voted to simplify the
requirements as well as initiation rites for you two - Simply repeat
after me "Kishore Kumar was the greatest singer ever. Even greater 
than Mohammad Rafi":-) I'm afraid we cannot waive the TOEFL:-)


-----------------------------------Begin---------------------------------

                                    By
                             K.N. Subramaniam

"Zindagi ko bahut pyar humne diya, Maut se bhi mohabbat nibhayenge hum" he 
sang. You bet he is doing just that, keeping everyone up there spellbound 
with his songs of life - and death, or in stitches with his comic antics.

A couple of years ago, he declared he was planning to return to Khandwa, 
his hometown. No one expected him to keep his word. The way he did - his 
last journey.

Did he really hate the world or the film industry? Not likely. For hating
is sustained, moronic hard work - of a kind Kishore Kumar never relished.
Not that he was the easy going kind - he put an immense amount of work
in his films. They had titles like "Door Ka Rahi", "Door Gagan Ki Chhaon
Mein", "Door Waadiyon Mein Kahin". They were about the pain of living,
not belonging, going away. He was producer, director, actor, singer,
composer, lyricist, and, very nearly, cinematographer as well.

More likely, he was running away from himself. No one can really say
why. A sensitive man, he probably couldn't take the ruthlessness, the
nitty-gritty of the work-a-day world. A sentence from one of his early
interviews to Filmfare is still fresh in our minds: "Money, money, that's
all that matters." He was of course to make plenty of it! He was full
of contradictions.

After a performance tour of the US with Lata Mangeshkar, he told us, 
"I'll never sing with Lata again." Some little peeve. Of course he went
on singing with Lata. He sent her a placatory letter declaring how full
of brotherly love he was for her.

He took pride in not smoking or drinking but he indulged otherwise.

He didn't seem the marrying kind, but he married four times. If you
wondered how the women stood him, he would surely have said he wondered
himself. Often, he gave the impression of a man who couldn't stand
himself.

He disliked crowds but loved his audience. When they warmed up to him,
he would go all out to entertain them. He went all out at our own award
shows. Once he occupied the stage for a good hour and a half. Later, we
learnt he had a video recording made for his own purpose. But never
mind, that was Kishore.

A seeming recluse and misanthrope, he put show into stage shows. He
started them apparently to earn money to pay his income tax arrears.
He made Kishore Kumar live by prancing around the stage, fooling
around. But as Filmfare once said of him, it takes brains to be a 
fool.

He could have had a marvellous career as an actor. When other actors
were busy trying to be serious, he succeeded in being seriously funny.
But he virtually threw away his acting career, building up a notoriety
for late coming or bunking shootings. Then Aradhana brought him back
as a singer.

They say he was always difficult. It was tough to get him to come
to recordings, but no playback singer took more pains over his songs.
He was the first singer to sing not only for his audience but for the
star on screen - he could be a Dev Anand, a Rajesh Khanna, a Sanjeev
Kumar, an Amitabh Bachchan.

He wanted people to keep a distance from him, but his songs brought
people close to him. When you are very happy or very sad, you want to
listen to Kishore Kumar. 

On the very evening he died, with mourners still paying their last 
respects to him at home, Doordarshan telecast a Kishore Kumar- Kalyanji-
Anandji show. In the midst of it, Kishore said, "Kalyanjibhai, gaate
gaate mar gaye."

Goodbye friend and stranger, always so near and so far away, 
exasperatingly difficult yet lovable, full of guile yet transparent.
And so abundantly talented.
-------------------------------End----------------------------------


Rajan Parrikar
==============
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Colorado at Boulder
email: parrikar@mimicad.colorado.edu
       parrikar@spot.colorado.edu