I shall never forget the afternoon of October 13, 1987. AIR carried the news flash: Kishore Kumar had passed away.
Popular music is intrinsically generational. Each prevailing mode is eventually swept aside as fashion turns. It is exceedingly rare for a practitioner, or even a style, to survive this cyclic churn.
Kishore’s adbhuta artistry and voice, however, were “not of an age, but for all time.” Among his Indian contemporaries, he stands alone in his likelihood to speak to generations yet unborn.
A Treasured Memory – Panjim, March 1986
Photo by: Gourish Nadkarni
From the unfinished/unreleased NEELA AASMAN (1959), composed and sung by Kishore Kumar: