SURREY – On October 13th 2012 the Bell Performing Art Centre, Surrey will be holding a special tribute celebration to the legendary singer Kishore Kumar – the man that was known to be Bollywood’s greatest showman! The date will mark exactly 25 years since the world renowned Bollywood singer suddenly passed way. Local and International singers and musicians will perform a three hour musical show to commemorate the memory and celebrate the life of the legendary singer.
Kishore Kumar (4 August 1929 – 13 October 1987), born as Abhas Kumar Kanjilal Ganguly, was an Indian film playback singer and an actor who also worked as lyricist, composer, producer, director, screenwriter and scriptwriter. Kishore Kumar sang in many Indian languages including Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Assamese, Gujarati, Kannada, Bhojpuri, Malayalam and Oriya. He won 8 Film fare Award for Best Male Playback Singer and holds the record for most number of Film fare Awards won for that category. He has been awarded “Lata Mangeshkar Award” of Madhya Pradesh government and from that year onwards Madhya Pradesh Government has initated a new award called “Kishore Kumar Award” for contribution to Indian (Bollywood cinema).
After Ashok Kumar became a Bollywood star, the Ganguly family used to visit Bombay regularly. Abhas Kumar changed his name to Kishore Kumar and started his cinema career as a chorus singer at Bombay Talkies, where his brother worked. Kishore Kumar’s first film as an actor was Shikari (1946), in which Ashok Kumar played the lead role. Music director Khemchand Prakash gave Kishore Kumar a chance to sing “Marne ki duayen kyon mangu” for the film Ziddi (1948). After this, Kishore Kumar got many other assignments, but he was not very serious about a film career. In 1949, he decided to settle in Mumbai.
Kishore Kumar played hero in the Bombay Talkies film Andolan (1951), directed by Phani Majumdar. Although Kishore Kumar got some assignments as an actor with help of his brother, he was more interested in becoming a singer. He was not interested in acting, and his elder brother Ashok Kumar wanted him to be an actor like himself.
He starred in Bimal Roy’s Naukri (1954) and Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s directorial debut Musafir (1957). Salil Chowdhury, the music director for Naukri was initially dismissive of him as a singer, when he came to know that Kishore Kumar didn’t have any formal training in music. However, after hearing his voice, he gave him the song Chhota sa ghar hoga, which was supposed to be sung by Hemant Kumar.
Kishore Kumar starred in films New Delhi (1957), Aasha (1957), Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958), Half Ticket (1962), and Padosan (1968). Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, his home production, starred the three Ganguly brothers and Madhubala. The film is about romance between a city girl (Madhubala) and a car mechanic (Kishore Kumar), with a subplot involving the brothers.
Music director S. D. Burman is credited with spotting Kishore Kumar’s talent as a singer, and advancing his singing career. During the making of Mashaal (1950), Burman visited Ashok Kumar’s house, where he heard Kishore imitating K. L. Saigal. He complimented Kishore and told him that he should develop a style of his own, instead of copying Saigal. Kishore Kumar did not have a formal training in music. He kept Burman’s advice in mind and eventually developed his own style of singing, which featured the yodeling that he had heard on some records of Jimmie Rodgers bought by his brother Anoop Kumar.
For more information contact Jazz Mattu @ 604 808 9393
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