Kishore Kumar fans await Javed Akhtar’s money

By Sanjay Sharma Khandwa (Madhya Pradesh), Aug 8 (IANS) Lyricist Javed Akhtar is under attack for not giving the ‘promised money’ to renovate a memorial to singing legend Kishore Kumar at his birthplace here. The fans say that Javed Akhtar last year publicly pledged to donate the Rs.100,000 in prize money he got for winning […]

By Sanjay Sharma

Khandwa (Madhya Pradesh), Aug 8 (IANS) Lyricist Javed Akhtar is under attack for not giving the ‘promised money’ to renovate a memorial to singing legend Kishore Kumar at his birthplace here.

The fans say that Javed Akhtar last year publicly pledged to donate the Rs.100,000 in prize money he got for winning the Kishore Kumar National Award to renovate the Kishore memorial. But he has not kept the promise.

‘Javed’s gesture was a gimmick,’ said a fan in Khandwa, 192 km from Bhopal.

The Kishore Kumar award, instituted by the Madhya Pradesh government in 1997, is given away for direction, acting, script writing and lyrics every year. It carries Rs.100,000 and a citation. Akhtar won it last year.

Khandwa residents say even after a year Javed Akhtar’s promised money is yet to reach the town.

Kishore Kumar was born in Khandwa Aug 4, 1929. The singer’s family house stands opposite the Khandwa railway station in a dilapidated condition. The singer left for Mumbai (then Bombay) when he was 18. He died on Oct 13, 1987, in Mumbai from a heart attack. He was cremated in Khandwa.

As a tribute to the singer, the Khandwa municipal corporation erected a two-foot-high, 15-foot-long and 10-foot-wide rectangular structure at the cremation ground as a memorial.

However, the so-called memorial has neither a plaque nor an epitaph. The structure has, in the 19 years since the singer-actor died, literally fallen apart.

Wild grass and shrubs grow through the cracks in the structure. Many tiles have chipped off. A portrait faintly resembling the singer can still be seen.

The people of Khandwa collected Rs.100,000 by contributing a rupee each for a memorial in an effort coordinated by Bollywood poet-lyricist Vitthal Bhai Patel. But Khandwa Mayor Tarachand Agarwal did not permit the restoration.

Even Kishore’s son Amit Kumar has not bothered to get the memorial repaired, says Sita Ram, who has been the watchman at Kishore’s house for over 35 years.

‘Amit visited Khandwa only twice – once when Kishoreda was cremated and the second time on his way to Indore for a show. He promised to perform stage shows in Khandwa to raise money to get the memorial repaired,’ Sita Ram told IANS.

But he never did.

(© 2006 Indo-Asian News Service)
source: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/india/article_1188114.php/Kishore_Kumar_fans_await_Javed_Akhtars_money

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66 Blog Comments to “Kishore Kumar fans await Javed Akhtar’s money”

  1. DVS says:

    Sorry Mr.Abhijeet! I don’t have any idea about the cost. The building itself is completely dilapidated. The cost of land not being very high in Khandwa, it should cost few lakhs (a wild guess – Rs. 5 to 7 lakhs).

  2. Abhijeet Ganguly says:

    Dear DVS, Since you visited Kishoreda’s house in person and saw the condition, would you have any idea how much it costs now?

  3. Abhijeet Ganguly says:

    Since One year I am contemplating buying off Kishoreda’s childhood home and renovate it for posterity. I am out of India as present and will visit Khandwa to see that house in real and talk to the watchman and see if I can manage to contact the owner(Anoop Kumar’s son) and convince him to sell it off.

  4. Shyam says:

    To say it’s a shame nobody wants to collaborate to make an effor to built a memorial for this great singer- Kishore Kumar.He has his own style of singing with great perfomance which others could not do it.Mohd Rafi also has his own style which nobody can compare.Todays singers have so bad voice to hear with there dirty songs and music. To listen at good music & songs nowadays the time is off, our great regret to theese artistes..Lata; Rafi; Mukesh;Kishore Kumar&MannaDey.At this time I can say the only good voice can stand are Udit Narayan;Alka Yagnik&Kumar Sanu but unfortunately no producers wants to give chance to have good& great music as before.

  5. Deepak Nag says:

    I have visited Khandwa on 27/Nov/2009 and went to see the Kishore kumar smarak. Really we all Kishore Kumar admirer should collect some money and used that money for that memorial.

    Even a little contribute of 100Rs can make a big difference.

  6. DVS says:

    I recently visited Khandwa & took latest photographs of Gauri-Kunj and Ganguli House.
    Details may be read on http://kishore-kumar-khandwa.blogspot.com

  7. Milan Kumar says:

    Kishore Kumar is the greatest singer of the film industry and he will be the best of all time.. East or west, Kishore Da is the best. Long live Kishore Da..

  8. Girish says:

    Actually, to talk about Great kishore.

    I would like to tell u about the song which both have sung..but we remember only of kishore da.

    1) Tum bin Jaoo kaha

    when i came to know that rafi saab also has sung this song in the same film i was shoked because wheneve at restaurants, at canteens at anywhere i heard this song is of kishore da.

    the reason for this is,

    i agree kishore da was not classical background. Rafi saab is great in singing ability than kishore da.

    according to me there are three things in song. 1) taal 2) sur 3) emotion.
    according to me the singer is great if he can put the right emotion in the song because to bring emotions u have to be perfect in sur and taal.

    and kishore da is master of all singers in putting right emotions in song. thats why is greatest male singer of the indian film industry.

    the words are very small to explain the kind of emotions which kishore da has expressed in every song

  9. Rishi Dhamala says:

    Don’t Kishore Kumar as kishoreda…what does da means…? could anyone say? stupid… don’t say da….just say only Kishore Kumar.

  10. dipak says:

    We should not mine so much about the reward money for Kishore site.We should just concertrate on songs he recorded .

  11. dipak says:

    We should not argue with Manne de and Mahendra Kapoor ,Lata yes ever KK himself used to call Rafisaab the Boss.Kishore was a great entertainer and remains so with even his singing ability but Rafi remain the great singer of all time.

  12. dipak says:

    Rafi and kishore seem to dominate Indian Music Industry even today in a era of remix .We have side lined Mukesh ,Menna De and Mahendra Kapoor.It just show true talent and hard work never dieds.I am glade that younger singer want to copy Rafi and KK with Public demand.

  13. can you please rell us whether song recorded by us after 12 pm wilol be accepted by you? We were not able to get the tataindicom number 129002 and luckilly when we got we were late by few minutes. The song recorded on the phone no.9226363671 has been sung by kishorda”s fan from his childhood.

  14. CHANDRASHEKHAR kULKARNI says:

    Hi guys.

    There is NO NEED ot debate about who is good/better Rafi or KK…..actually do ANY of us REALIZE….arey apni auqaat hi kya ki in stalwarts ko accha ya bura keh sake ?

    Both were SUPPPERB!! any one disagree ?

    Their voice quality, their singing, the emotions they put into their songs…..is plain unsurpassable.

    It is our bad luck that these are no more during our lifetime!!!
    May God bless their soul!

    Chhodo yaar bahas…bas enjoy their voice and songs….

  15. kk says:

    Mr Taimy…

    u r quite rite abt mr.rafi …. infact kishoreda also accepted this fact
    dat rafi sahab is better….. post aaradhna, several persons came to kishore
    da and said him dat “Aapne to rafi sahab ki chutti kar di” but kishoreda
    replied “tum sab ko music k bare mein kuch nahi pata, rafi sahab best hain aur main b unka fan hun”……

    so as u see such a great artist who sung so many great songs(specially
    with senior burman & junior burman)… who composed many great songs(aa chalke tujhe, koi lauta de mere bite hue din…etc etc)…. who made so many good films…. & who acted so brilliantly… such a great artist was
    die hearted rafi fan.. may b more than you buddy…. so i juss wanna say d to all rafians dat dnt show so much resistence to kishoreda…. as he also loved mighty rafi a lot… both rafi sahab & kishoreda were great admirers of each other….. & both were equally great….
    Rafi sahab>great singer…. kishoreda>great artist….

  16. taimy says:

    kk,

    The songs I listed are not very classic. There composition is semi-classic, which can also be said about some of KK’s songs. I mean yes, KK has sung some very souful songs, but these Rafi’s numbers that I listed have a greater musical quality and are more effective at conveying the message they are designed to convey. Remember KK was also present at that time and MDs could have used him, but they chose Rafi instead. In fact, in the movie Guide, Kishore sang “gata rehey mera dil” but the more challenging numbers went to Rafi.

    KK might be great artist, in fact he was, but if one takes singing ability only, Rafi was and is simply the best.

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