Kishore and RD Burman.
Kishore Kumar had entertained the viewers with his multi-talented singing style for more than 30 years. Within that span he was specially indebted to RD Burman who had given him immortal tunes.
Kishore’s song “aao jhume gaere” in Paraya Dhan, composed by RD Burman created a special platform for the rest of the film. In Aandhi, Kishore’s songs for Sanjeev Kumar, titled “tere bina zindagi me shikwa”, “is mor se jate hai”, ‘tum aa gaye ho” had immortal appeal for the thoughtful audience as Gulzar’s lyrics were very meaningful. RD’s composition for Kishore in Jeetender’s Parichay, in 1972, with the song “musafir hun yaaro”, and in Khusbu, in 1975, with the song “o majhi re” had philosophical thoughts embedded in them.
Kishore was sublime in Rajesh Khanna’s Amar Prem and Aapki Kasam, where RD’s composition like “kuch to log kahenge”, “chingari koi bharke”, “zindagi ke safar me”, “karwate badalte rahe”,” jai jai shiv shankar” were all super duper hits. Even in Namak Haram, the song “yeh kya hua” amazed the audience.
RD had given very melodious songs for Dharmender where Kishore had given adequate expression which include “hum bewafa hargis na the” in Shalimar, “yeh dosti hum nahi torenge”, in Sholay, “koi haseena jab” in Sholay, etc.
Perhaps RD and Kishore had reserved their best tunes for Amitabh and had given superhit songs one after the other in the 70s and 80s. The list includes “janu meri jaan” from Shaan, ‘jaha teri yeh nazar hai”, from Kalia, all the songs from the film Satte Pe Satta and Kasme Wade, from , “jane kaise kab kahan” from Shakti. The list can go on. As Big B dominated bollywood for more than 20 years, he had propably gave lips in the maximum number of songs of Kishore, and some of the best songs were composed by RD Burman for Big B.
The songs have not lost their popularity even today and are sung by the competitors in the program for Kishore, in a TV Channel, where the judges, Amit Kumar, Sudesh Bhosle and Bappi Lahiri provide their comments. The songs should be restored and preserved.
By: Supriya Chatterji.
