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The traditional concept of a comedian has always been one of lowly stature, that of a sidekick. It was Kishore Kumar who successfully became Bollywood’s comic hero whose popularity relied primarily on his comic talents. Add to that his exceptional acting talent and miraculous singing voice and you have a performer who bordered on the genius. And like most geniuses he was notoriously eccentric! He lived life defying all norms.
Kishore Kumar was born as Abhas Kumar Ganguly on August 4, 1929, in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh. He nurtured dreams of becoming a singer and following the footsteps of his idol K.L. Saigal. He used to diligently save his pocket money to buy Saigal’s records. Kishore started visiting his celebrated brother Ashok Kumar in Mumbai frequently in the optimism that he would introduce him to K.L. Saigal. But all his efforts to meet his idol were in vain.
It was not until 1948, that he got his first opportunity to sing ‘Marne ki duayen kyon mangu’ for Dev Anand in Ziddi (old) under the baton of Khemchand Prakash. It was Prakash who shaped the singing career of Kishore. Being an ardent admirer of K.L. Saigal, the song was sung in the style of the legend.
But in spite of Ziddi's success, Kishore found few offers forthcoming and did the odd singing assignment with bit roles making a rather tepid acting debut as hero in the forgettable Andolen (1951).
After his marriage to Ruma Devi resulted in a split in the family, Kishore approached S.D. Burman who had given him an opportunity in Pyar (1950) where interestingly he had sung for Raj Kapoor. Burmanda gave him the song Qusoor Aapka in Bahar (1951) which became a hit. As he got more singing assignments, he also began being offered leading roles in films.
Kishore was initially taken quite lightly as a singer and was given mainly lighter songs by Burmanda and other music directors. But with the soulful Dukhi Man Mere from Funtoosh (1956), Kishore was now taken seriously as a singer. Though he was formally untrained, he assimilated jazz-scat fragmented musical notes into a rhythmic sequence and once its beat was established, departed from the pattern and combined notes and words/ syllables into new kinds of musical harmony. And none could yodel better than he could!
The turning point in his life .....