Kishore and Amitabh.

Kishore and Amitabh.

Kishore Kumar had been one of the leading entertainers of bollywood for more than 40 years. In the mid-70s, he left acting and only concentrated on playback singing. That was also the period when Big B ruled bollywood industry.

Although Amitabh’s films are better known for their action-pact scenes as he was identified as angry young man, yet major songs sung for him by Kishore had become everlasting hits. Kishore’s song in the film Abhimaan, picturised on Big B, including “tere mere Milan ki yeh raina” became big hit. Both Abhimaan and Milli were directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee and the music composed by SD Burman, contributed a lot for the success of the these films. In Milli, Kishore’s song, “bari suni suni”, touched the hearts of musiclovers.

In Don, Kalyanji Anandji’s composition for Kishore like “khaike paan banaraswala”, “yeh hai bombai nagariya”, “are diwano”, etc., were all successful. Big B gave excellent lips in the songs and all had contributed for the success of the film Don.

There were romantic films having songs sung by Kishore, where Amitabh was seen in a romantic mood, like Kasme Wade. Rd Burman had composed music for the film. The song “kasme wade”, picturised on Amitabh bachan, became a big hit. Similarly in Silsila, which was based on a romantic story with Rekha and Jaya Bacchan, Kishore’s songs for Amitabh like “dekha ek khwab” reached the hearts of millions of filmlovers.


Kishore could imitate any actor, and his style of singing matched Amitabh the most. The other successful songs of Kishore picturised on Amitabh include “Jaha teri yeh nazar hai”, from Kalia, “my name is Anthony gonzalves” from Amar Akbar Anthony, “chukar mere manko”, from Yaarana. The list can go on.

The program K for Kishore, shown in TV channels had dedicated one program only on Kishore’s songs for Amitabh. The combination is still alive in the minds of numerous filmlovers.

By: CR Chatterji.