KISHORE KUMAR : Our beloved musical mystic (with his rare pictures).

Kishore Kumar was one of those rare creative personalities of Indian Cinema, who had a gifted persona and an aura of a mystic. Words alone are not capable of describing his incredible versatile talent as he was a pure soul, blessed with the insight of an enlightened master. Much has already been written about his long career as an actor, singer and director. So here, I would like to write more about him as a person, who loved to think from his heart. A person, who lived his life with fun and excitement, enjoying every single moment of it to the maximum. And a person, who knew that we all are here on this earth, for a performance, which has to end one day, with everyone going off stage at his own turn.

Blessed with a talent beyond comparison, Kishore Da, liked to showcase his capabilities in a unique and peculiar style of his own. And in his final years, he had more people talking about his uncanny behavior and unusual living style, than the ones interested in his precious singing talent.

A normal practice of human species, where they always tend to shower their respect on an artist, only after he is gone.

As I see it, Kishore Da was living at a different level of consciousness altogether. He simply had a much stronger and gifted pattern of thinking style, many folds deeper than a normal living being. And that’s what made people think that he was not a complete natural.

In fact, he was the only natural person at that time, who could see through all those people like a transparent glass. He was the only one who could sense the phony characters around him, just ready to take an advantage of his name, fame and talent. And that is the reason why he liked to live a solitary life with his family, away from the cunning and selfish people of the glamour world. So, it is more likely that whatever was being talked about his eccentric and out of this world behavior in those years, was all deliberately created and spread by the master himself.

Kishore Da, liked to have fun with people around him, by creating a funny and strange atmosphere in the work area. And amazingly, he could also change his mood in one second and deliver a highly emotional song with just the right emotions in it, at one go. This could be done only by a man, who had immense control over his feelings and could change his entire persona in just a few minutes. A sheer sign of a Genius, who knew everything about his highly creative talents and capabilities.

There are numerous anecdotes famous about Kishore Da’s distinctive and one of its kind acts while performing in the recording sessions. And in most of them, he recorded many of those precious gems, still cherished by his fans living all over the globe.

Talking to an invisible person constantly, demanding some “Real Paans” before rendering “Khaike Paan Banaras Wala”, and speaking to everyone in a childish tone, are some of his famous amusing acts still fondly remembered by all who had a chance to work with the master. And many of his intelligent one liners, left even the most clever persons around him with no instant answers. Like once when a famous music director asked Kishore Da, to put more feelings into the songs, then to this he replied, “Ask the producer to add two hundred rupees more to my payment and then I will add some more emotions in the song”. Now who could have answered to that without smiling......

His produced & directed movies also give you an idea of his out of the box thinking pattern which sadly didn’t get appreciation from many.

In spite of coming up with some new, fresh and innovative ideas in his movies, Kishore Da did not get a recognition as a writer and director in the industry. May be he couldn’t find the right team to express his ideas in a better manner on the screen. And that is also the reason why most of his directed movies are hard to find today in the home video market.

So, this write up is not just to praise the precious contribution of Kishore Kumar to the Indian Cinema as a singer. But I am writing this to talk about Kishore Da as a philosopher and thinker, who also had the quality of a creative film-maker hidden inside the body of an extremely famous music man. In few words, Kishore Kumar, as a person, had much more concealed in his unique personality, many times greater than his world famous image of an outstanding singer. But sadly, most of the younger generation, just remembers him as one of the finest singers Indian Cinema had.

Hence, this is my own small effort to remind that the name Kishore Kumar was not just a melodious and soothing voice. He was more like a rare human phenomenon, with diverse creative abilities and a great thinking mind. A personality, who would be a great subject for a deep musical and spiritual thesis by the young students of music and cinema.

Unarguably, one of the most blessed child of “Goddess Saraswati”, who had a pure heart of gold, an intelligent sense of humor, the innovative insight of a film-maker and a divine voice of an angel.