I shall never forget the afternoon of October 13, 1987: AIR delivered the news flash that Kishore Kumar had passed away.
Popular music is intrinsically generational: every prevailing mode of the day is consigned to obscurity when a new fashion takes over. It is extremely rare for practitioners of popular music or their style to survive this cyclic churn.
Kishore‘s adbhuta artistry and voice, however, were “not of an age, but for all time.” Of his Indian contemporaries, he is the only one most likely to appeal 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: