Writing
a biography of any eminent personality is an enormous task. To do so without
turning it into hagiography is a task that defeats most who attempt the task.
When faced with a 554-page volume that purports to be ‘The Ultimate Biography’,
one is left to wonder at the audacity of any biographer to claim that theirs
is, in fact, the ‘ultimate’ anything. However, authors Anirudha Bhattacharjee
and Parthiv Dhar, explain why they chose that title, and the explanation is
disarming.
Disclaimer: This book was sent to me by Anirudha Bhattacharjee, a long-time online friend, two years ago. For various reasons, I didn’t read the book until very recently. That too, after Anirudha messaged me to find out if I’d even read it!
The foreword is by the late Pritish Nandy, my ex-boss. That, in itself, piqued my interest, not only because I knew Mr Nandy as an employer, but also because his lengthy interview of Kishore Kumar is, even today, resurrected every time Kishore Kumar’s birth or death anniversary rolls around. It was perhaps one of the few times that the elusive actor/singer gave an interview and talked in such detail. (Of course, it is quite possible that the singer took him for a ride, too.]
In his foreword, Mr Nandy refers to the late singer as a ‘Madcap’. It is only one of the many epithets that followed the multifaceted genius throughout his life. It encapsulates all that Kishore was, certainly, but leaves out so much that made the singer the man he was. And it is these lacunae that the authors seek to fill in this extensive, well-researched book.
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HarperCollins
India (2022) 554 Pages Rs599 ISBN-10 : 9356291713 ISBN-13 : 978-9356291713 |
The book is divided into three main sections: Bhairav: The Morning; Poorvi: The Afternoon, and Kalyan: The Evening. Each section is divided into chapters, also named after Hindustani ragas. Kishore Kumar – The Ultimate Biography chronicles Kishore Kumar’s life as a young boy growing up in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh; his tryst with the Indore Christian College where he blossomed into a public performer (albeit, from behind a curtain, initially); his foray into films to become a singer, and his almost-accidental detour into acting.
In excruciating detail, the authors take us beyond the man – and the mask. They journey to Khandwa where Kishore was born, introduce us to his gang of friends, the vendors who sold him gajak and chai (at college); they breathe life into the relationship between Kishore and his siblings – his sister, who introduced him to music; his eldest brother, Ashok, who was much older, but became both mentor and guide to his youngest brother, but also controlled his career with an iron grip; his middle brother, Anoop, with whom he squabbled continuously, but who was his partner-in-crime... They do not shy away from writing about his relationship with his four wives – Ruma Guhakarta, Madhubala, Yogeeta Bali and Leena Chandarvarkar, or about his bond with his children. These are all welcome additions to the story of Kishore Kumar – the legend and the man.
The book is choc-a-bloc with nuggets of information, some possibly apocryphal as the one about Kishore having accidentally sliced off his toe and bawling day and night and – as a result – his hoarse voice magically turning melodious.
For authors Bhattacharjee and Dhar, this book is clearly a labour of love. They spent over a decade marinating the idea while they travelled all over, seeking out anyone who knew the singer – his family, classmates, professors, friends, colleagues, associates, even the chaiwala at Indore Christian College where Kishore studied. They read every scrap of news about the singer that had ever been published (and was still available). They seem to have watched every single film that Kishore ever acted in, and listened to every song he has sung that is publicly or privately available.
And the effort shows.
We learn about his first singing assignment for films – as part of a female chorus. We learn how he learnt to yodel (thanks to Anoop Kumar, who introduced him to Jimmy Rodgers and Tex Morton) and how he hated to film romantic scenes. We are told of his love for gajak and Khandwa, his birthplace (not necessarily in that order). We are privy to his marriages – the first, to Ruma, whom he married without letting his family know. And how Ashok Kumar, inadvertently finding out, was so furious that he didn’t speak to his younger brother until the birth of Amit Kumar. We learn about his subsequent marriages – to Madhubala (she proposed to him). Yogeeta Bali and Leena Chandravarkar.
We get information – and at 554 pages, it’s a lot of information – about the films in which he acted, the stories behind some of the memorable songs he sung, and the friendships he formed. The authors also detail the relationship between the singer and his alleged rival – Mohammed Rafi, as well as with Lata Mangeshkar, and with Khemchand Prakash, whom he considered his mentor, and with the Burmans, both father and son, among others.
The authors also touch upon the Emergency when Kishore Kumar songs were banned on public broadcasting. As Mr Nandy mentions in his foreword, only Kishore Kumar and Dev Anand (separately) had the courage to not bow down to political diktats. Bhattacharjee and Dhar expand upon this issue in some detail, adding context and detail.
The
advantage of the way the book is written is that one can dip into it at any
chapter and come away having learnt something new. The disadvantage, for people
like me who like to read a book at a stretch, is that one gets whiplash. Because
the book begins with Kishore Kumar’s death and then goes backwards in time.
From his parents’ genealogy to exhaustive first-person accounts by friends and
family members, it is all there. The problem? The book weaves back and forth
between timelines. So, we get one instance where the young Kishore is taken to
Bombay (now Mumbai) to meet his elder brother, who’s already a star. This is
then repeated (or referred to, again) in later chapters when the book chronologically
approaches that milestone. The weaving back and forth has also led to some
repetition of anecdotes or facts. We also digress into Ashok Kumar's film career, the history of the studio system, and even Madhubala's career graph.
Both authors are self-confessed Kishore Kumar fans. (Why would anyone write a biography of someone they do not admire?) But, while they short stop of hagiography, they are given to hyperbole, something that a good editor should have curbed. For example, Kishore’s friend Ramnik Bhai Mehta: “Forget human beings, even wild animals would be spellbound when he sang.” There are others as well. These statements, added as they are without any semblance of disbelief, should be taken with a large pinch of salt.
While they do chronicle his ‘flaws’ – his moodiness, miserliness, eccentricities, call it what you will, one comes away with the feeling that Kishore Kumar, the man, was largely without blemish. Some passages, therefore, tend to be a bit pretentious.
There is also a tendency to ascribe to Kishore Kumar the genesis of certain songs, lyrics, even scenes in the films he acted in. No one is denying Kishore's genuine talent in multiple facets of music and film-making. But to add these statements without any evidence to back them up (“Kishore must have…”; “It seems like Kishore…”, etc.,) is not fair to either the singer or the composers, lyricists, directors, etc., who were credited for their work. Opinions are not facts.
A good proofreader would also have come in handy. There are silly typos – ‘beetle leaves’ for ‘betel leaves’; ‘dosing’ instead of ‘dozing’, ‘Sahida’ for ‘Shahida’, and perhaps the most glaring, “…almost made Amit Kumar a comedienne.’ (Pg402). A ‘comedienne’ is a female comedian. The transliteration of Hindi lyrics also takes a beating – Word almost always turns ‘woh’ into ‘who’, and that should have been caught at some stage. Syntax also suffers in some places.
But despite these minor peeves, this expansive tome, beginning with the foreword, an introduction by Prince Rama Varma, a preface by the authors, and a prologue, and ending with an afterword, notes, a general index and a Songs index is especially welcome in the realm of ‘biographies’ that are anything but. The photographs – there are quite a few of them as well – are an especial joy but I do wish they didn't have the artist impressions - they weren't very good.
For any Kishore Kumar, nay, any Hindi film music fan, this is a book to treasure. Bhattacharjee, who already has a National Award for his book on RD Burman, and his co-writer, Parthiv Dhar well deserve their National Award for ‘Best Book on Cinema’. And, as the authors themselves say, someone more capable might come along and write a better biography of the legend that is Kishore Kumar, but I am sure that any future author will find himself dipping into this book for insights. As such, this is the ‘Ultimate Biography’ of Kishore Kumar.
