August 4 is the legendary Kishore Kumar’s birth anniversary. When I reached out to his son Amit Kumar, he was in a reflective mood. “Main family ke saath hoon. We all are sitting together and remembering him. It’s just us… I, my wife, our kids, Leenaji and Sumit (Kishore Da’s child from Leenaji). Hum log baithh kar yaad kar rahe hain. Talking about my father now seems redundant. I’ve spoken so much about him already.”
In an earlier interview, Amit had spoken about his father’s influence. “I was just a kid hovering in the studios when my father sang. My father made the film Door Gagan Ki Chaon Mein where he played my father. I played a mute boy. In the film, my father takes me to the city for medical treatment.”
Amit recalled the time he moved from Kolkata to Mumbai with his father. “I came to Mumbai from Kolkata in 1971. Aradhana had released and my father’s second innings as a playback pasha had begun.”
This is when Amit got his first opportunity to sing professionally. “One day my father was going for a recording with Manna Dey for Pancham. It was a song in a film called Khalifa. My father asked me to accompany him. I sat listening to my father and Manna Da rehearse. Suddenly Pancham turned to me and said, ‘I heard that you sing very well. Sing for me.’ I was nervous. But I sang my father’s song in Jhumroo as the stalwarts in the orchestra accompanied me. While returning home after the recording my father said, ‘You lost a golden chance. Your singing was bakwaas’. I was hurt. I told my father, ‘I was nervous. To hell with singing.I’m going back to Kolkata.’ But in the evening Pancham called and told my father to send me for a recording the next morning.My father said, ‘What will he do in a recording?’ Pancham said I had to sing a song for a film to be directed by Shakti Samanta and he needed a raw voice. My father said, ‘Main kis khet ka mooli hoon? Why do you need my son when you have me?’ Pancham explained he needed a young voice to sound like a 17-year old. All this was banter. My father was actually very happy for me.”
Kishore Da left us too soon. Recalling his death, Amit had said, “The title song in the film Rama O Rama was my first recording after my father expired. My father died on October 13, 1987 and on January 1, 1988, I recorded the song in Rama O Rama.”
Image Source: Instagram/sonytvofficial/amit.kumar.ganguly
Image Source: Instagram/sonytvofficial/amit.kumar.ganguly