25 years after Kishore Kumar’s death, the legend lives on

New Delhi, Oct 12 (IANS) “Chalte chalte mere ye geet yaad rakhna, kabhi alvida na kehna”. True to the spirit of the song, fans of Kishore Kumar still remember him and the inimitable singer lives on in their hearts even 25 years after his death. The legend died Oct 13, 1987.

One can understand the frenzy about Kishore Kumar by the fact that he is the most sought after singer on radio channels, his songs get millions of hits on YouTube and music lovers keep downloading his popular numbers from the Internet.

Popular RJ Sayema, who hosts “Purani Jeans” on Radio Mirchi, says that most requests that the radio station receives are for Kishore Kumar songs.

“ ‘Purani Jeans’ is a very Kishore-heavy show and is most popular among the age group of 12-19-year-olds,” Sayeme told IANS.

“There is no dearth of Kishore Kumar fans. Most of the requests are for Kishore Kumar songs – be it on mails, Facebook or Twitter or on the telephone. They come each single day without a miss,” she added.

Kishore Kumar, fondly known as Kishore-da, gave the Indian film industry hit songs like “O Hansini”, “Aa chal ke tujhe”, “Pyar manga tumhi se”, “Pal pal dil ke paas”, “Hawa ke saath saath”, “Chukar mere mann ka” and “Jahaan teri ye nazar hai”

“His songs contain a timeless charm, which continue to enthrall millions… This resonates with 92.7 BIG FM Delhi’s philosophy of playing ‘Hit The Hit Rahenge’ songs,” said Manav Dhanda, Network Programming Head, 92.7 BIG FM.

He added that it is impossible to put a number to it, “but popularity of Kishore Kumar’s music has ensured that most of his songs are played on the station. Innumerable requests come in, especially for his evergreen romantic songs.”

The singer, who won many Filmfare awards for songs like “Roop tera mastana”, “Pag ghoongru bandh” and “Hume aur jeene ki”, is very much with us through his talent and art, says Pakistani singer Adnan Sami.

“As an artist if I have to say, then I will say that artists never die and everything that they leave behind in the form of their beautiful art is amazing,” Adnan told IANS.

“The thing is that he has sung so many songs and still there are so many things to discover. He is alive through his work. We have all the reasons to celebrate his existence in our lives,” he added.

Thanks to the Internet, the youth can easily access Kishore’s songs and popular numbers like “Zindagi ek safar”, “Gaadi bula rahi” and “O majhi re” have crossed over a billion hits on YouTube.

However, fans between the age group of 30-50 years still buy CDs and DVDs of his old melodies.

“The younger generation prefers to download the songs from the Internet and the sales of CD is 10 percent. People in the age group of 30-40 come to buy the CDs and DVDs,” Kishore, a shopkeeper, said.

Recently, Kingdom Of Dreams successfully bid for the full rights of an unreleased Kishore song and plans to use it in its “Jhumroo” show.

IANS 2012-10-12 21:13:00