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| Edited By: Dyuti Basu |Source: DNA |Updated: Aug 13, 2018, 01:10 PM IST
In 1984, a young 20-something man hailing from Kolkata alighted from Mumbai Mail with one objective in mind – to meet maestro Kishore Kumar. He slept at the station, switching platforms when the police rousted him. And in the morning, he checked out leaflets that sold outside of the then Victoria Terminus, which had details of where and with whom an artiste was recording for the day. After several failed attempts, he met his "guru" and spent a great deal of the next couple of years in his company, learning the art of singing.
Today, as Gautam Ghosh, known worldwide for his rendition of Kishore's songs, looks back over those years, he has no regrets. "Kishoreda is my guru, my god; when he passed away, I got a pair of his shoes from his son Amit Kumar and still touch them to my head each time I have a show."
The term kanthi is one that was coined towards the end of the Golden Era of greats like Kishore Kumar, Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh, Hemant Kumar and their likes. Catering to masses who are still ardent followers of these maestros, singers emulate them, as a tribute to their voices. Though kanthis of many singers have made their mark on the music scene, Kishore, whose birth anniversary was just last week, has a large number of followers and kanthis even now, despite the changing times.
"When Kishoreda passed away, I asked myself, 'What am I still doing in Mumbai? I came to be around him and now he is gone,'" reminisces Ghosh, who still performs Kishore's songs in Kolkata. "So I boarded the Mumbai Mail once again and returned to Kolkata. I haven't been back since."
'Fan' is perhaps too trivial a term to use for Kishore Kanthis, since they have made the singer their 'gurudev', whether they had the opportunity to meet him or not. Mumbai-based singer, performer and Kishore kanthi Gautam Dey, for instance, never missed a show when Kishore was in town. "I was about 15 when I sang one of his numbers and won a contest singing his songs and I have been singing them ever since," he smiles. Though formats have changed, the demand for programmes consisting only of Kishore Kumar songs have not diminished. "I have a show coming up in just a few weeks. While elaborate orchestras have been replaced by single singers singing to song tracks, shows still come my way as much as they used to. I have travelled the world (I went along for Shah Rukh Khan's first world tour) singing Kishore songs."
Why, then, is this one singer loved so much that his fans span the world and would still sit through an hour of only his songs? "Kishore Kumar is one of the most talented individuals to have come into the film industry," explains Mumbai-based music teacher and performer Amitabh Chakraborty, who specialises in ghazal and light Hindi songs. "It is said that he had no formal training when he first came into the industry, yet the robust quality of his voice remains unmatched. The raw talent he brought made him unique, and remains the reason that his songs still appeal to the masses. Even at ghazal mehfils [where Jagjit Singh or Mehedi Hasan may be par for the course] there is always a farmaish (request) for a few of Kishore's songs."
Indeed, another Kolkata-based Kishore kanthi, Tamajan Shaw, who used to perform professionally before his entrepreneurial ventures took up most of his attention, is a member of a StarMaker group dedicated solely to Kishore. This mobile application allows singers from across the world to connect and sing along with online tracks and listen to other singers in 'rooms' or groups. One such group has over a hundred members worldwide, who emulate the singer. "A young army boy posted in Siachen lends his voice to Kishore's songs when he gets mobile signal and tunes in to listen to his fellow group members as a respite from the cold and hardships. A railway officer in Bhopal is such a big fan that when we lightly teased him about how he should do something for Kishoreda on his birthday, he wrangled a few days off and went to Khandwa (Kishore Kumar's birthplace in Madhya Pradesh) to pay his respects, catching the whole thing on radio," Shaw recounts.
Though he no longer performs professionally, the love for the stage and Kishore have remained and Shaw often takes part in local competitions.
The power of Kishore – and perhaps that of his followers – is evident in the fact that director Kaushik Ganguly is making a film on the subject titled Kishore Kumar Junior. Though names are not mentioned, it follows the trajectory of Ghosh's path as an ardent follower and tribute artiste.
Kishore once sang "Chalte chalte, mere yeh geet yaad rakhna" and the world still echoes, "Kabhi alvida naa kehna, kahbi alvida naa kehna."
Kishore Kumar, like his contemporaries, Asha Bhonsle, Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammad Rafi, did most songs in a single take and then simply left the studio without even listening to his song.
On October 12, 1987, he recorded Guru Guru Aajao for Waqt Ki Awaaz, starring Mithun Chakraborty and Sridevi, with Asha Bhonsle. Each time that Bhonsle sang "Aajao guru", Kishore jumped off his stool and stood in front of her, joking that she had been calling him after all. After much monkeying around, he sang, as usual, in a single take. The next day, he passed away.
He convinced music director Salil Chowdhary to let him sing both the male and female parts of the song Aake Seedhi Lagi in Half Ticket.
He was a fan of KL Saigal. When he first came to Mumbai, he would ask his brother Ashok Kumar for 5 annas to sing Saigal's songs and 1 anna for singing Ashok's songs. A cheeky reference to this can be found in Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi in the song Panch Rupaiya Bara Anna.
Rajesh Khanna's face has long been associated with Kishore Kumar's voice in films. Since the Khanna-starrer Aradhana shot Kishore to the number one slot in popularity, he lent his voice to Khanna's first production Alag Alag for free.
