{"id":6547,"date":"2022-08-04T20:03:34","date_gmt":"2022-08-04T14:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/?p=6547"},"modified":"2022-08-09T00:18:08","modified_gmt":"2022-08-08T18:48:08","slug":"abhas-or-kishore-kumar-an-existential-reality-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/abhas-or-kishore-kumar-an-existential-reality-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Abhas versus Kishore \u2014 An Existential Reality (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kishore

Kishore Kumar<\/p><\/div>\n

Abhas and Kishore.\u00a0 The essence and the form. The inner being and the persona.<\/p>\n

Abhas turned Kishore midway. Abhas is a felt intangibility, a suggestion from within \u2013 something not material.\u00a0 Kishore is one who is young, energetic, exuberant, visible, impactful.\u00a0 Abhas chose to become Kishore and the result was Main hoon jhum-jhum-jhum-jhum jhumroo, Eena meena deeka, Nakhrewali, Zaroorat hai zaroorat hai<\/em>. But Kishore often travelled within \u2014 or perhaps that travel within was by default, to discover Abhas \u2014 his inner being, his natural point of poise. The result was Koi lauta de mere beete huye din, Panthi hoon main us path ka, Jin raaton ki bhor nahi, Zindagi ka safar<\/em>\u2026 all alluding to an irresistible urge to revert to the non-material, to the spiritual, to be one with nature \u2014 to something missed out in the journey of life \u2014 the Abhas!<\/p>\n

But was there an existential dichotomy in what he was?\u00a0 The whole world knew that Kishore was obsessed with money, would often count his cash as a pastime, and would have no compunction in leaving the shooting if his payment was delayed. But the same Kishore swung to the other extreme, like a pendulum, as he became or perhaps feigned to be an ascetic, perched at a hillock near Badrinath, incognito.<\/p>\n

If one looks earnestly at his life as it unfolded, it will be difficult to miss out that the split within him was unignorable. Putting a signboard \u2018Beware of Kishore\u2019 outside his bungalow in Bombay; or naming his home at Khandwa, a Mental Hospital; or placing skulls and bones in his living room to drive away the unwanted visitors\u00a0\u2014 were Abhas and Kishore the names of the two alter egos of the same character, that became shorthand for the exhibition of wildly contradictory behaviour, especially between private and public selves? The spiritualist in him was as real as the materialist!\u00a0 And so were the recluse and the showman in him.<\/p>\n

Main hoon jhum-jhum-jhum-jhum jhumroo<\/em><\/strong>
\nand
\nKoi humdum na raha, koi sahara na raha\u2026.<\/em><\/strong>
\n(Jhumroo<\/em>, 1961) Kishore Kumar \/ Majrooh Sultanpuri<\/p>\n

Kishore\u2019s behavioural conundrum gets an echo in the Churchillian idiom:\u00a0 a mystery, wrapped in a riddle, inside an enigma. But these existential contradictions notwithstanding, he was a prodigal child, a phenomenon, incomparable and most importantly loved by the legions of his followers as he sang, irrespective of whether he was Kishore or Abhas. It is thus no coincidence that the free-of-any-care, rooted in his aloneness, Kishore in\u00a0Jhum-jhum-jhum-jhum<\/em>\u00a0jhumroo <\/em>is\u00a0as acceptable as in that exceptional ode to loneliness in Koi humdum na raha, koi sahara na raha. <\/em>The former enthralls and the latter emotes…Kishore squarely existed in these two extremes.<\/p>\n

\"koi

Koi humdum na raha<\/em> (Kishore Kumar in Jhumroo<\/em>)<\/p><\/div>\n

Interestingly, the two songs remain as contemporary now as at the time they were composed.\u00a0 The raciness of jhum-jhum<\/em>\u2026so perfectly finds a poise in the deep meandering of koi humdum<\/em>.\u00a0 Kishore benchmarked the yodel in jhum-jhum<\/em>. I wonder if this song will qualify as RAP. Even if it does, it will still not be the first. Kishore\u2019s Eena, meena, deeka<\/em> (from\u00a0Asha<\/em>) preceded it by four years.\u00a0 Kishore\u2019s yodel was not linear or single-track.\u00a0 He could nuance it to be in sync with the song’s sentiment.\u00a0 The muse of an expectant heart, Thandi hawa ye chandani suhani<\/em>\u2026.tapers off with a yodel that is different and also enriching.<\/p>\n

Koi humdum na raha\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>what is remarkable about this number is that despite its intense craving for complementarity, and its gripping melancholia, it still rejuvenates, it does not put one down.\u00a0 It is the magic of Kishore-Majrooh fusion.<\/p>\n