Remembering Kishoreda, the genius

Kishore Kumar, the multi-faceted legend, along with Mukesh and Mohammed Rafi dominated the Indian film scene for almost three decades.

Kishore Kumar, the multi-faceted legend, along with Mukesh and Mohammed Rafi dominated the Indian film scene for almost three decades (From 50s to 70s).

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Apart from singing, Kishore achieved success as an actor lyricist, composer, producer, director, screenwriter and scriptwriter.

Kishore Kumar sang in many Indian languages including Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Assamese, Gujarati, Kannada, Bhojpuri, Malayalam and Oriya.

Kishore Kumar though acted in many hindi movies, was primarily interested in playback singing. He played hero in the Bombay Talkies film Andolan (1951), directed by Phani Majumdar.

He starred in Bimal Roy's Naukri (1954) and Hrishikesh Mukherjee's directorial debut Musafir (1957).

Kishore Kumar's comic timing was amazing. Films like New Delhi (1957), Aasha (1957), Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958), Jhumroo (1961), Half Ticket (1962), and Padosan (1968) were huge hits.

In October 1987, he died following a massive heart attack. He had been married four times and is survived by his two sons Amit Kumar, who made his career in playback singing in Bollywood and Bengali films, and Sumit Kumar.

(From our Archives)