Young at art

Will you be singing in the biopic?
I hope so! I have not been told anything as yet.

You have just released this collection of 30 of Kishore Kumar’s songs. But you have never done an album of Kishore Kumar songs as a tribute.
Can I be frank? I do not want to do it. Forget the comparison,I do get to sing Baba’s songs on my shows as I said,and by popular demand. Why should I do something that does not really make sense? When I sing his songs on stage,I feel nice. But recording an album of his songs will not give me any satisfaction. He is not only my father but my guru,my teacher.

I believe that Kishoreda too refused to cut an album of his guru K.L.Saigal’s songs.
Yes,but there’s a twist in that tale. Baba wanted to do such an album somewhere in the ’70s or ’80s. Saregama,then HMV,had mooted the idea and a two-volume compilation was finalised with the track selection also confirmed. Basuda and Manoharida were to be the arrangers and the recording was fixed. But just two days before the first recording,he called the music company up and said,“I don’t want to do it!” That’s it! He said that the guru should remain a guru and that he should always be under his chhattrachhaya (shelter). He would not like to do it and would feel terrible if someone said that he had sung it either better than Saigalsaab or had spoilt the song.

How much do you miss your father at a personal level today?
How can we not miss him? But as they say,time is the healer. And people and their love for him are keeping him alive even now. The home video of his own films Door Gagan Ki Chhaon Mein and Door Ka Rahi is being released too on August 4. In the last few days we watched Baba’s great films with his fabulous performances in Apna Haath Jagannath and New Delhi with the great director Mohan Segal.

Were you involved in the track selection of the album?
No,I wasn’t,but these are the tried-and-tested hits of my father’s long innings. Unfortunately,a lot of his beautiful,not-so-known songs or those that were hits then and not known today are still in the shadows. The big hits here are what I call the Vicks Formula 44 – the surefire hits! They are fine,but we need to also give to the listeners these gems that are in the shadows except with keen music lovers – songs like Sapan-Jagmohan’s Yeh mehfil yoon hi from Call Girl,songs like Tere baghair jaan-e-jaana that he often sang on concerts with the original wordings that he loved more – Aaja bahaar aa rahi hai from Anari,C.Ramachandra’s songs as late as Rootha na karo,so many songs of Panchamda and other composers.

You recorded so many duets as well as multi-singer songs with your father,from Deewangee to Parvarish,Kasme Vaade,Neeyat,Aap Ke Deewane,Des Pardes,Ghazab,Desh Premee and many more. How was the experience of recording these songs with your father?
Baba was terrific fun. He would crack jokes all the time even if he had to record a sad song. He was never generous in his praise for me,but quite lavish in criticism! When he liked what I sang,he would just listen pensively and offer an approving nod. Otherwise he would criticise so much that I confess I would be irritated! Sometimes,even the music director would intervene and tell him to leave me alone! But that was Baba – he would always tell me,“Others will praise and flatter you. It is only I who will criticise you because that will make you a better singer!” He would be more concerned about my singing than the composer!
We would mostly collaborate on light songs,but we did have soulful songs like Aati rahengi bahaaren from Kasme Vaade and Khuli nazar kya khel from Parvarish. He was particularly happy,I recall,when we sang Nazar lage na saathiyon from Des Pardes which we recorded at Mehboob Studios with Manhar and Vijay Benedict under Rajesh Roshan. That day,I remember accompanying him to his evening recording of R.D.Burman’s Aise na mujhe tum dekho from Darling Darling,and he was very happy with that too! That same evening,we left for a concert tour of South Africa. I would attend a lot of his recordings,especially with R.D.Burman and Laxmikant-Pyarelal and a few with Kalyanji-Anandji.

Did he attend your recordings?
He attended one of my earliest ones – a song I sang for Sapan-Jagmohan,for which he came dressed in a colourful shirt!

When you sang songs composed by Kishore Kumar,how was the experience?
Baba was responsible for my first recording for Door Ka Rahi – Main panchhi matwala – I was 13 then. As an adult,he first saw me sing Bengali Durga Puja songs at an auditorium in Kolkata in 1970 and was pretty moved. He was very concerned about my singing and thus very strict when he recorded his composition with me in films like Shabash Daddy and Badhti Ka Naam Dadhi. He was worried that I was raw and that like any other new singers who came in,I too thought that singing was very easy. He would keep telling me about sur and was happy that I had started seriously learning light classical and riyaaz a few months before he passed away. Though he introduced me on stage in Mumbai and told the audience that I sing,he would do the reverse with composers – he would tell them that I could sing but that I am not serious about music!

How do you see him as a singer under all his regular composers?
He was closest to S.D.Burman,who had been introduced in films by my uncle Dada Moni (Ashok Kumar). He was a chorus singer in Dada Burman’s first two films Eight Days and Shikari. Dada Burman loved my father singing Saigal’s songs and Dada’s songs too – but without mimicking them. Dada stressed that simplicity touched hearts and my father always followed that.
Later,my father learnt yodelling from the records of Jim Rogers and Tex Norton,twopioneers of this style that originated in Austria,Australia and Switzerland. He stole those records from my uncle Anoop Kumar and practiced in his bathroom! Dada told him to use this to stand out – and he did!

Panchamda was so dependent on my father for his male songs that when my father died,he put a hand on my shoulder and said,“My innings are over now!” And that actually happened! Pancham gave him so many experimental,Western as well as slow romantic songs and beauties like Chingari koi bahdke.

Kalyanji-Anandji used him for extremes from Zindagi ka safar to Jai Govindam Jai Gopalam. Laxmikant-Pyarelal brought out a completely fresh Kishore in Mere mehboob qayamat hogi from Mr X In Bombay and later gave him every kind of song,even those not normally associated with him like ghazal,qawwali and the Dushmun mujra,Sacchai chhup nahin sakti. Bappi Lahiri had his Formula 44 songs but there were also beauties like Manzilein apni jagah. Rajesh Roshan’s songs were fantastic in sheer melody,and Shankar-Jaikishan used him less but with so much freshness in New Delhi,Karodpati,Lal Patthar,Andaz,Umang and others.