Kishore Kumar

Kishore Kumar could sing, act, direct, compose, and clown around — sometimes all in the same afternoon. His singing voice could be gentle and heart-breaking, or so full of joy that whole families jumped up to dance.

He gave us songs that Indian families still sing on long car journeys, and comedy films that still make grandparents and grandchildren laugh together.

Abhas Kumar Ganguly, known as Kishore Kumar, was born in 1929 in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh, into a musical family. His elder brother Ashok Kumar was already a famous Hindi film star when Kishore entered films as an actor and playback singer.

He was mostly self-taught in music and had a remarkable natural range, including a signature yodel.

He recorded thousands of songs in Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati and several other Indian languages, and became the leading male playback voice of Hindi cinema through the 1970s and 1980s. His songs with S.

D. Burman, R.

D. Burman and Rajesh Khanna are still played every day on Indian radio.

He starred in comedies like 'Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi' (1958) and 'Padosan' (1968) and directed several films of his own. He won eight Filmfare Awards for Best Male Playback Singer, a record that stood for decades.