Kishore Kumar (August 4, 1929 - October 13, 1987) was an Indian film playback singer and comic actor. He also achieved notable successes as a lyricist, composer, producer, director, screenwriter and scriptwriter. Kishore Kumar has sung in many Indian languages including Hindi, Bengali (his mother tongue). Marathi, Assamese, Gujarati, Kannada, Bhojpuri, Malayalam and Oriya.
Kishore Kumar was born as Abhas Kumar Ganguli, in to a Bengali family in the Khandwa town of Central Provinces and Berar, British India (now in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh). His father Kunjalal Ganguli was a pleader (advocate), and his mother Gauri Devi came from a wealthy family. Abhas Kumar was the youngest of four siblings, the other three being Ashok Kumar (the eldest), Sati Devi, and Anoop Kumar.
Along with Mukesh and Mohammed Rafi, he was one of the three leading male Bollywood playback singers from the 1950s to the mid-1980sKishore Kumar holds the record for most number of Film fare Awards won for Best Male Playback Singer. While Abhas Ganguli was still a child, Ashok Kumar became a popular Bollywood actor. Later, Anoop Kumar also ventured into cinema with the help of Ashok Kumar. Spending time with his brothers, Abhas Kumar too started to take a keen interest in the movies and music.
He became a fan of singer-actor Kundan Lai Saigal (whom he considered his guru), and started mimicking him. Kishore Kumar produced and directed some movies in the late 1970s and early 1980s, such as Badhti Ka Naam Daadhi (1978), Zindagi (1981) and Door Wadiyon Mein Kahin (1982). But none of these films did well at the box-office. His last appearance as an actor was in Door Wadiyon Mein Kahin. With patronage from R. D. Burman and Rajesh Roshan Kishore Kumar's son Amit Kumar also became a leading Bollywood singer in the 1980s.
Kishore Kumar continued singing for several actors. He also did some stage shows, apparently to earn money to pay his income tax arrears. Kishore Kumar stopped singing for Amitabh Bachchan in the mid- 1980s, after Amitabh didn't do a guest appearance in a film produced by him. On October 13 1987, he died of a heart attack in Mumbai. His body was taken to Khandwa for cremation. He recorded his last song a day before he died. The song was Guru O Guru, a duet with Asha Bhosle, for the film Waqt ki Aawaz (1988) composed by Bappi Lahiri.
Kishore Kumar's voice inspired many upcoming Bollywood singers, including Kumar Sanu, Abhijeet, Vinod Rathod and Babul Supriyo. After his death, many of his songs have been remixed and re-sung by several artists. Kishore Kumar's song Pal Bhar Ke Liye from the film Johny Mera Naam (1970) was used in an episode of The Simpsons titled Kiss Kiss Bang Bangalore. During his life, he won a number of awards and was loved by all.
And even today 2 decades after his death he is an inspiration to a million budding singers and composers. Even today, people both young and old cherish his music. He will be always loved and respected by all-The great Kishore Kumar.
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