A few days ago, 4th August, was the birth anniversary of the man who some people called crazy and several others called genius: Kishore Kumar. (Well sometimes it's a fine line between the two isn't it?).

Born Abhas Kumar Ganguly as the brother of Ashok Kumar (18 years younger), he grew up idolizing the famous singer KL Saigal and came to Bombay to become a singer. As luck would have it, he got roped in to act in films, took the screen name Kishore Kumar and became one of the leading heroes of the fifties. Singing however always remained his passion and he was not really keen on acting. Though never trained in music, his raw talent enabled him to render all types of songs, including semi-classical ones. And his versatility was such that he composed music as well as wrote, produced and directed films.

In the sixties his acting career took a dip, and since he used to sing only for himself as a hero (and occasionally for Dev Anand), it was a lean period for him. Until SD Burman, who was extremely fond of him, roped him in for Aradhana in 1969 as the voice of Rajesh Khanna. This phenomenal combination of Kishore Kumar - Rajesh Khanna continued for several years with each feeding on the success of the other. The seventies and eighties saw Kishore Kumar being the prominent male playback singer for Hindi cinema (right till he passed away in 1987), much like Rafi was in the fifties and sixties.

The 1970 movie Safar was one of several high points for the careers of both these artistes. Also starring Sharmila Tagore and Feroze Khan, the movie (based on a Bengali novel) was about the themes of love, jealousy, and the transient journey of life. The music by Kalyanji Anandji was just amazing with each of the songs being a masterpiece in it's own right: who can forget Zindagi ka safar, Hum the jinke sahaare, Nadiyaa chale chale re dhaaraa and Jo tumko ho pasand vohi baat kahenge?

However, my favourite song from the movie is Jeevan se bhari teri aankhe.n. This song captures the poignant mood of the protagonist describing the beauty of the woman he loves, but cannot commit to, due to his terminal illness. The music directors Kalyanji Anandji set this song to the beautiful notes of the raag Malgunji, with the poet Indeevar coming up with memorable lines such as "ek dhaDkan hai tu dil ke liye, ek jaan hai tu jeene ke liye" and "madhuban ki sugandh hai saa.nso.n mei.n, baaho.n mei.n kamal ki komaltaa".

Kishore da's vocals effortlessly captured the right notes as well as the mood of the song and once again reminded us of his genius. The result was, (in my opinion) one of the most melodious and romantic songs of all time in Hindi cinema. My version is a tribute to the mad genius on his 92nd birth anniversary. Hope you like it!