Golden Era of Bollywood: Kishore Da was the natural voice of Dev Saab.

Saturday, 13 October 2018

Kishore Da was the natural voice of Dev Saab.

In his autobiography, ‘Romancing With Life’, Dev Anand says “Ziddi was a milestone in my career, since it was the first film It brought me very close to Ashok Kumar and his youngest brother, Kishore Kumar, who had just arrived from his hometown Khandwa, clad in his kurta-pajamas, with a phenomenal singing voice that years later was going to hypnotize the world with its resonance. The very first song of his career was sung by me on screen in Ziddi 1948
The song became a hit, and people started associating Kishore’s voice with mine, and his playback singing with my acting on screen. We complemented each other. He further says "Before recording, he used to ask me if I want him to sing in any particular way to match my mannerisms. So I used to tell him to keep me in mind while singing and I used to perform on his style, great synchronisation. I truly miss him,”
In the Fifties and the Sixties Kishore Kumar gave playback for Dev Anand in the following prominent movies: Baazi (1951); Jaal (1952); Munimji (1955); Funtoosh (1956); Nau Do Gyarah (1957); Paying Guest (1957); Guide, Teen Deviyaan (1965); Jewel Thief (1967);Mahal (1969) and Johnny Mera Naam(1971)
During this period he sang only for himself and Dev Saab there are few exceptions when he sang for other actors. It is said when he was asked to sing few songs for Rajesh Khanna in Aradhana (1969), he approached Dev Anand for his permission to sing for Rajesh Khanna. After this, his voice became the voice of Rajesh Khanna too.
In this Blog I am selecting the 15 Solo songs of Kishore Kumar sung for Dev Anand.