While Kishore Kumar was not your everyday music composer, the versatile and immensely talented singer and the actor tried his hand at composing more than once for his home productions and successfully at that.
Compositions of home production movies like Jhumroo, Door Gagan Ke Chhaon Mein and Door Ka Rahi, which featured the notable hits Main hoon Jhum-jhum-jhumroo , Thandi Hawa Yeh Chandni Suhanee, Koi Ham Dam Na Raha, Aa Chal Ke Tujhe, Beqarar Dil Tu Gaye Ja and many more were wizardry from Kishore’s music wands.
As a friend, Kishore also co-composed songs with the Burmans (S D Burman and R D Burman) and was credited for the same in a few movies like Padosan.
There are many anecdotal mentions about Kishore’s elder brother and veteran actor Ashok Kumar, who was a trained singer himself, not considering Kishore as a worthy singer but Kishore took inspirations from Dadamoni (elder brother in Bengali, as was Ashok Kumar fondly called in the industry) on more than one occasions.
A song from the Kishore Kumar-starrer Jhumroo, which released in 1961, that is extremely popular among Kishore fans Koi Humdum Na Raha is actually not an original. Kishore picked it from his brother’s 1934 flick Jeevan Naiya. The song was composed by one of the first female music composers of India, Saraswati Devi and sung by Ashok Kumar. The Jhumroo version of the song, in reality, is a cover version of the original with better orchestration and of course better vocals – thus the popularity.
Youtube link to the original:
Similarly Ek Chatur Naar from the Padosan too is heavily inspired from the song by the same name sung by Ashok Kumar from the 1941 flick Jhoola. In Jhoola, Ashok Kumar delivers a much slower and shorter rendition of the song. This too was composed by Saraswati Devi. While most songs of Padosan were composed by R D Burman, this rehashed version of the ‘40s song was Kishore’s idea.
Youtube link to the original:
(The writer is a doctor and public health specialist by profession but a passionate music enthusiast with special liking for Bollywood music from 80s and 90s)
