His voice proved to be quite a Pied Piper of Hamelin that drove away all budding singers to Mumbai and try their luck in Bollywood music industry. Armed with a rich baritone and a crystal-clear diction, Abhas Kumar Ganguly aka apna Kishoreda was synonymous with flawless singing. On Wednesday August 4, the rest of India along with the culture capital Kolkata celebrated his 81st birth anniversary amidst much fanfare.
The city-based Kishore Kumar Fan Club members raised a toast to the immortal singer’s photographs and posters with sweets, garlands, candles, cakes and fond memories in his honour. While the FM centres went on a daylong broadcast programme, playing his timeless hits from an illustrious repertoire. The TV channels aired out special shows revolving around the late iconic singer’s soul-stirring renditions, bites from his close family, friends, relatives and legions of ever-increasing fans.
Despite his untimely demise way back in 1987 on October 13, the void could not be filled in even after 23 years. “It is just next to impossible. He would spin his own signature magic to transform a very simple track into an extraordinary number. The kind of drama and modulation he would inject into a song was simply engrossing,” raved famous singer and a staunch Kishore Kumar admirer, Goutam Ghosh. “He is my God — my ultimate inspiration and I blindly followed his inimitable style only to set sail to Mumbai. A decade ago in 2000, I had endeavoured to build up a statue of my idol at the Tollygunge Tram Depot boulevard. Today, a bedecked garden surrounding Kishoreda’s image was inaugurated by Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee at a star-studded presence of Tollywood bigwigs,” informs Ghosh. The A-list actors like Prosenjit, Chiranjit, Dev, Ranjit Mullick, Rachana Banerjee and other luminaries reminisced about the singer whose evergreen numbers they had lip-syncd.