Kishore Kumar

He was born Abhas Kumar Ganguly in Khandwa in 1929, the youngest of four children of a lawyer. His eldest brother Ashok Kumar was already a film star at Bombay Talkies by the time Kishore was a teenager, and the family's connection to the studio brought him to Bombay after college in Indore. His first recorded song was for Khemchand Prakash in Ziddi (1948), for Dev Anand — and Dev Anand remained one of the actors he sang for most often. He idolised K.L. Saigal and in his early recordings he sang in Saigal's manner.

Through the 1950s and early 1960s he was mainly an actor: Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958) with his brothers, Half Ticket, Padosan (1968), and a run of comedies in which he sang his own songs. S.D. Burman heard him singing on a set and encouraged him to find his own style instead of imitating Saigal; the result was the loose, playful singing of Munimji, Paying Guest, Nau Do Gyarah and Jewel Thief, nearly all for Dev Anand. He also composed for his own films, including the wistful Door Gagan Ki Chhaon Mein (1964).

Aradhana (1969) changed everything. S.D. Burman's score — Roop Tera Mastana and Mere Sapnon Ki Rani — was recorded during the composer's illness, with R.D. Burman assisting, and the songs made Rajesh Khanna the first 'superstar' and Kishore his voice. For the next five years he sang nearly every Rajesh Khanna hit: Kati Patang, Amar Prem, Anand, Safar, Aap Ki Kasam, Namak Haraam. R.D. Burman, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Kalyanji-Anandji and Rajesh Roshan all built their 1970s sound on him.

When Amitabh Bachchan rose, Kishore became his voice too — Abhimaan, Mili, Don, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Sharaabi — and in the 1980s he sang for Rishi Kapoor, Jeetendra, Mithun Chakraborty and the younger stars. He won eight Filmfare Awards for Best Male Playback Singer, more than any other singer. In 1975–77, during the Emergency, All India Radio and Doordarshan stopped playing his songs after he refused to perform at a government rally; the ban was lifted when the Emergency ended.

He was famous for eccentricity — he put a 'Beware of Kishore' sign on his gate, demanded his fee before recording, and spoke to the trees in his garden — and he married four times, to Ruma Guha Thakurta, Madhubala, Yogeeta Bali and Leena Chandavarkar. His son Amit Kumar became a playback singer in his own right. He planned to retire to Khandwa and never did: he died of a heart attack in Bombay on 13 October 1987, the day after his brother Ashok Kumar's birthday, at fifty-eight, and was cremated in Khandwa as he had wished.

Kishore's voice was a natural baritone with an easy top, used without any of the classical ornament that trained singers brought to film music. His strengths were timing and mood: he could sing behind the beat in a way that sounded like conversation, and he moved between a joke and a heartbreak in the same song without breaking character. The yodel, learnt from Jimmie Rodgers records, became his signature; so did the way he could throw a phrase away as if it did not matter. Composers found he gave them something they had not written, and R.D. Burman in particular wrote with his voice in mind.