Why would Madhubala, the all-time prettiest woman on Indian screen, want to marry someone like Kishore Kumar? It’s one of life’s mysteries that I will take with me to my grave. The man was eccentric and a buffoon. A miser who’d stay up late at night counting his cash. By all accounts in the film industry, not a nice man to know.
You wouldn’t know that reading this book. Kishore Kumar: Method in Madness is written by a devotee totally smitten by his screen hero. A more dispassionate account of the man, warts and all, would have made more interesting reading.
Kishore Kumar went through four tumultuous marriages. Besides Madhubala, there were Ruma Devi, Yogita Bali and Leena Chandravarkar, all actresses. He called them his bandris (monkeys) since all of them had lived in Bandra.
As an actor, he was quite good. He had a flair for comedy, especially slapstick, and directors like M.V. Raman and Satyen Bose brought out the best in him. Early on he gelled well with the young Vyjanthimala and together they had a series of hits. Curiously, there is not a word in this book about those films which included Ladki, Pehli Jhalak and Aasha, their last film together.
The man could sing. He could yodel like a Swiss. His melodies under the baton of S.D. Burman and son Rahul Dev are still hummed today. Kishore Kumar’s voice and singing style suited Dev Anand and, later, Rajesh Khanna. At one time, beginning late ’60s, his popularity eclipsed Mohammed Rafi’s.
Books with sentences like these always irritate me: "‘Singing with Kishoreda on stage was a wonderful learning experience for me,’ narrated Arun Paudwal’s wife, Anuradha." Who the dickens is Arun? Anuradha Paudwal is a gifted and well-known singer. Her success and talent has nothing to do with her being someone’s wife. It’s a coffee-tabler with some nice stills and family photos.
