August 4, 2003
Greetings to members of BBM and fellow-fanatics all over the world.
I join you in a celebration of - Happy Birthday, Kishore Kumar!
If Kishore did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him - as an
antidote against all in this world that is too grim, too pretentious,
too pompous and too fake.
In the past few years I have met so many people (thankfully only
virtually) for whom Kishore Kumar seems to be an aberration in Hindi
film music, someone who did not know how to sing, someone who did not
get the 'technical nuances' down right, whatever that means, someone
who did not belong to the 'Golden Era', whenever that mirage existed,
and someone who could not do this like this singer, and who could not
do that, like that singer.
Knock, knock ! ... Hello there !!... koi jhaankh raha hai khidki se
???... khol de khol de khidki, ulfat ke naam pe....
In case you have forgotten, Kishore Kumar, besides his other protean
abilities, was the second-most prolific singer, with a career that
spanned about four decades. I'd say that itself is a response to the
pundits.
It seems to me that, regardless of your age, via the medium of
Kishore's voice:
if you cannot get turned on by an RDB bongo or a Laxmi-Pyare electric
guitar,
you disdain a somber note from his own composition, or an insane train
ride with Salilda,
if you cannot contemplate O.P. Nayyar putting Asha on him or find 'New
Delhi ' to be not up to the SJ mark,
if through his vocals you cannot find a Kalyanji-Anandji song made in
the key of life or the smoothest of notes from Bappi Lahiri or Rajesh
Roshan (without pontificating on whether they should change their last
names)
if you have not heard of a 'Katha' or a 'Khushi', a 'baharon ka ye
mausam' or a 'na zindagi mili',
if you confuse 'Laila' with 'Laila Majnu' or find the words 'kate
nahin kat te ye din raat' to sound like the start of a ghazal,
if you find his songs to be non-compliant with 'rules' which nobody
really understands or cares for, but pretends to....for image is
everything on the Net or until the next 'Meet',
if you cannot listen to his songs without analyzing them until your
own rigmarole confuses you,
if you cannot get a laugh out of his movies, even when watching them
by yourself,
if you can't fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of a
Kishore yodel or a 'zoom-zazoom-zoom-zoom',
then, this is not a parody of Kipling but of You!
----------------
Here's friendly advice -
ENJOY Kishore without any apologies and without wondering if that will
look good on your resume and self-created image of hfm savant. Life is
short. Give your adrenalin a chance.
-------
So, for Kishore the singer, the actor, the music director, the
lyricist, the producer, the director, the man with the sexiest male
voice in the biz - Happy Birthday, and we love you!
'O tu kya jaane din raat hum jeete hai
Tera naam leke, o tera naam leke'
No known classical antecedents to that one - maybe Raag Miya Ki Todi,
(more popularly known as Raag Haath Hai Ke Hathodi), if you play the
song backwards on the turntable :D
Friends, have yourself a wonderful and zany day on August 4!
Best regards..Robin
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