He would have been unbeatable !!! by Lata Mangeshkar

He would have been unbeatable !!! by Lata Mangeshkar

Feb 19

One of the best short-articles describing the FULL Kishore Kumar !

Source : Filmfare (  October2, 1964 )

My favourite artist, both as singer and man, is Kishore Kumar. He combines in himself all the finer qualities and weakness’s that may be found in a true artiste.  He is very temperamental, moody, mischievous, crazy, mixed-up, generous, serious and he works like a fiend.

He has a marvellous voice that can adapt itself with equal ease to any sort of song – sad, classical, funny, a bhajan, a ghazal, a quawwali…I sincerely feel that if Kishore had stuck to playback and classical singing instead of turning to acting, he would have been unbeatable.

Kishore comes from the famous Ganguli family and is the younger brother of Ashok Kumar, but even at the beginning he never used his family connections to get a foothold in the film industry. I met him first towards the end of 1947 during a recording for Khemchand Prakash’s ‘Ziddi’. He was a beginner and I was not very far ahead. We used to travel together in a third class compartment and Kishore would clown and mimic incessantly; then he would get off at Mahalakshmi and I would go on to Grant Road.

Kishore is not only a singer, he can also compose. He has learnt a lot from western music. He introduced ‘yodelling; to Indian film music and he yodels superbly. He once achieved a unique feat of singing a duet alone – he would sing in a man’s voice and immediately change over to a woman’s ! It was beautifully done but the song unfortunately did not become very popular.

Music directors are often amazed at the quickness with which Kishore learns the songs. On the other hand, when he doesn’t like a song, he can be quite difficult. He yawns, asks silly questions and leaves as soon as he can without hurting anyone’s feelings. He has recently recorded a beautiful song from “Door Gagan Ki Chhaonmen”. Kishore is a wonderful person to know and work with.