Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; October 12, 2019)
October 13 is a bittersweet day for me. It’s one of my long-time favourites Ashok Kumar’s 108th birth anniversary, but it was on this day, too, that he lost his beloved youngest brother, Kishore Kumar. In fact, his wife Leena Chandavarkar had recounted how Kishore da had coaxed his elder brother, who was still mourning his wife Shobha’s demise and was in no mood to celebrate the day, to drop by on his way back from a shoot. He spent the day planning a surprise party for his Dadamoni. Kishore da’s son, Amit Kumar, away on a foreign tour, was expected to be back that day and his other brother, Anoop Kumar, had also promised to come over, as had Danny Denzongpa, with whom he wanted to discuss a film. A little after 4 pm, while laughing and joking with Leena ji, he suffered a heart attack and by the time his guests started arriving, Kishore da was gone.
“I got a call from Bappi da (Lahiri, singer-composer) telling me, ‘Dada chale gaye’. I rushed to his Juhu bungalow, only Leena ji and their son Sumit were there at the time, and then drove with his body to his native place Khandwa, where his last rites were performed,” recounts Vijay Desai, the manager of Melody Makers, the orchestra which had accompanied the legendary singer even on tours abroad, playing with him for almost a decade.
The media-shy gentleman still remembers the crowds lining the road through the night, paying their respects to their favourite singer as the ambulance carrying him whizzed past. “In Khandwa, his body was placed on the stage for the final darshan, and while patting it down, I discovered a bundle of Rs 10,000 notes tucked in the pocket of his kurta, which I promptly handed over to Leena ji,” says Desai.
Their journey began on February 12, 1982, when Siddharth Kak, along with the Music Directors’ Association, organised the musical extravaganza Mortal Man, Immortal Melodies at Mumbai’s Shanmukhananda Hall to celebrate the 50th anniversary of sound in Indian cinema. It featured singers across five decades and was a glorious reunion for two legends – Noor Jehan, on a rare trip from Pakistan, and Lata Mangeshkar. Also present were veterans like GM Durrani, Surendra Nath, Rajkumari, Ashok Kumar, Hemant Kumar, Talat Mahmood and Mahendra Kapoor, along with the younger brigade. The day after the show, the manager of Melody Makers was surprised to receive a call from a person who introduced himself as Kishore Kumar Ganguly. He initially dismissed it as a prank call but when Desai realised it was Kishore da for real, he rushed across to his bungalow as asked.
The orchestra had been founded in 1961 by Ashokkumar Saraf, Pramodkumar Saraf, Subashchandra Kulkarni and Surendra Akolkar to collect funds for the flood-affected in Pune. It boasted of some fine musicians and singers like Sudesh Bhosle. “Impressed with our performance at the event, Kishore da politely asked if the orchestra would like to be associated with him and without asking anyone, I gave the nod,” Desai narrates, saying after that they played at most of his stage performances, including concerts abroad in the US, Canada, UK, West Indies and the UAE. “One day, he called to ask why the orchestra was leaving him. I pointed out to him that I’d asked him if he had any shows scheduled for the month and when he had said there were none, I had sought permission to play with another party. But if he didn’t like it, we would turn down the latter to which he replied, ‘No, no, keep your commitment par mujhe kabhi chhodna nahin.’ And till his untimely demise, Melody Makers were with him.”
There have been stories in plenty about the eccentric singer and while Desai admits that like any artiste he was moody, he refutes rumours that Kishore da was kanjoos. “He would casually ask how much he owed someone, then, tell the person he’d pay up in a day or two and quietly write down the amount. The next few days, he would feign memory loss and keep asking how much was due. If the person, thinking he had forgotten, upped the rate, Kishore da would pay the original dues, telling the person not to return to him in future. It was his way of judging someone’s integrity and once he was sure of the person, he never faulted. He was a real gentleman whose mind was focussed on his music 24×7 and whose only aim was to make people happy. At concerts he always sang what the public demanded,” asserts Desai, adding, “There never was, and never will be a genius like Kishore Kumar whose name and chartbusters even today, 32 years after he passed away, bring a smile to faces.”
