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The Simple & Difficult

, India's Charles Chaplin ?

 
 
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> The Simple & Difficult, India's Charles Chaplin ?
kcp
post Aug 3 2011, 05:28 PM
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THE SIMPLE AND DIFFICULT

http://kishore-kumar.com/?p=251

Birthday time...celebration time !!

This is one of the most fascinating readings ( articles ) that I ever read, about Kishore. It triggers so many thoughts and that's a real triumph ! I do not know much about Mr Saroj Kumar Sengupta, but would be worth to find more about his writings, if any. Most of the matters that are not in quotes, anyways seem to be things told by Kishore, to Mr Saroj.

So, here it goes...

INDIA'S CHARLES CHAPLIN ? ALL IN ONE !

KISHORE KUMAR - WHO REMAINS UNSOLVED PUZZLE WITH THE CRITICS YET.

by - a special correspondent : Shri Saroj Kumar Sengupta
6/6/1975

SHAKESPEARE'S dictum on the significance of a name becomes meaningless when one thinks of Kishore Kumar - the name, and Kishore Kumar - the man. A Bengali name when the patronymic 'Ganguli' is added, and if it sounds very simple to the hearing, the man, even after long acquaintance, is very complex, and has always presented problems to all around him. Even his most intimate friends don't understand him.
Ask Aloke Dasgupta, the reputed cameraman, who is one of Kishore's most intimate friends since his early youth : 'Whats Kishore Kumar thinking now?' He will shrug and say : 'Goodness knows!' He wont say : 'Kishore Kumar only knows!' Because even Kishore Kumar does not know what he will think and do next. PAGLAA BAABU was his monumental idea but, after signing the distribution contract etc, he did not like it !

AN ENIGMA
Ask Kamal Majumdar, who is so close to him that, of all the relatives and friends, he alone knew of Kishore Kumar's romantic involvement with Ruma & was a witness to their surreptitious marriage, and he will say : 'How can you read the mind of a man who himself cannot read it?' Kishore Kumar is an enigma to himself and he himself admits that quite frankly.
The man who regales millions with his voice, does not trust anyone - least of all himself - at the wheels. If Abdul, the factotum (driver, secretary all rolled into one ) is absent, Kishore won't stir out ! To some of the music directors, Abdul is more important than Kishore Kumar and Kishore Kumar is very happy about that. He would have been happier if he could send Abdul as Kishore Kumar those places which he wants to avoid but cannot. And as one of his eccentricities is never to avoid but cannot. And as one of his eccentricities is never to carry anything - even money - Abdul is to carry it, or Kishore Kumar would have landed into serious trouble sometimes

FROWNS AT SUCCESS
To those critics for whom the highest virtue of an artiste is self-effacement, Kishore Kumar appears to be one of the most remarkable. Always the author of his own materials, he forcefully and embarrassingly transposes on the screen his own ideas without caring to bother what others think of them.
When LOOKO CHOORI became a tremendous box-office hit, he dismissed it with one sentence : 'I won't make any more films !' and he did not ! When BADHTI KA NAAM DAADHI was a miserable flop, he hailed it with two sentences : 'They haven't understood my satire and I'm going to make another and bigger one !' and went to make SHABASH DADDY in a studio, built in the premises of his Juhu residence - Gauri Kunj. He frowns at success because then he feels he has been appreciated. 'Understating and appreciation don't make a film run !' he will say and drop the curtain over the argument.

LIKE CHAPLIN
But whether a film succeeds or fails, whether they are of high quality or not, they are fully attributed to him because, unlike others, he is always visible behind them. In this respect, this man is rather like Charles Chaplin, whose influence is always felt in the films he makes, whether it is GOLD RUSH, CITY LIGHTS, MODERN TIMES, LIMELIGHT or A KING IN NEW YORK. He hates it but you cannot separate Kishore Kumar from his films - whether they are good, bad or indifferent.
Kishore Kumar is a big name but one does not know how to take him - seriously or lightly. If you take him lightly, you will make a big mistake, because Kishore Kumar is a serious man who does not drink, does not smoke, does not indulge in any of those vices that are so common among the popular film people. If you take his seriously, you cannot account for the crazy he does. This confusion, the more you know him and see his works, lingers on.
Foreign critics, who attended his musical functions, found him equally hard to handle. When they were serious, Kishore Kumar was jovial, and mimicked them so perfectly that, astounded, they felt that they were listening to themselves. When they were in a light mood, Kishore Kumar became so serious that they did not know how to begin and where. And he sounded so like a serious philosopher-scholar that a Pressman wanted to know very enthusiastically if he had ever been to Oxford or Cambridge. With a sang froid, which nearly took the breath of listeners away , Kishore Kumar replied he had never been to any college in India and he hated the very idea of going to any school. The amazed Pressman reported in his column : 'He does not know what he says but when a singer has provided entertainment of a high order constantly over a period of more than 20 years, it is quite clear that the said singer is much more than a mere entertainer.' When it as shown to Kishore Kumar, he said happily : 'Thank Goodness, he knows what he writes!"

ISOLATED AND REMOTE
Kishore Kumar, the one man of genius, who writes, produces, directs, composes music, sings the songs and acts, is the most isolated and remote figure in the world of the Hindi cinema where isolation and remoteness are impossible because of its many lunches, dinners and cocktails which are unavoidable when one is as popular as Kishore Kumar. The thrower of the party will insist on his coming, the fans will start throwing stones at the glass windows of the hotels or the houses where the [party is thrown, if he does not come, and the admirers, gathered in front of the hotels or the houses in their hundreds and thousands, will go on chatting in unison : 'We want Kishore Kumar, we want Kishore Kumar"
When he does not want people to know his whereabouts, he will take up the receiver when the telephone rings, mimic his servants and inform the callers : 'Kishore saab Bombai ka Bahar gaye'. Then finding Kishore Kumar becomes the most difficult job. Only two people will know his whereabouts - Son Amit Ganguli and the Jeeves (Abdul) but neither of them will open his mouth.
Because of this isolation and remoteness, people misunderstand Kishore. Even his wife, Ruma, failed to reach the depth of his mind and, disappointed, she had to separate herself and from Ruma Ganguli she became Ruma Guha Thakurta.

QUEEREST AND THE MOST TREMENDOUS
Like Charles Chaplin, Kishore Kumar is the queerest and at the same time, the most tremendous product of the industry. He is a writer of stories, composer of music and lyrics, and singer of songs, but he himself admits that he belongs to no school. His achievements are the result of pure genius. His natural power as mimic and clown developed at school - in the classrooms, where he mimicked the people he did not like the teachers mainly, a practice which landed him into trouble more often than not but when he started mimicking the masters, a miracle happened : a rare singing voice was discovered.
Kishore Kumar is perhaps the only man of genius who has acquired originality through mimicry ! Amazed at his own genius but quite ignorant of its commercial possibilities, Kishore Kumar came to Bombay but, curiously enough he did not bother to become acquainted with the influential music circles of the cinema world. He worked at his compositions, and sang his songs, utterly indifferent to money, honours and the applause of the crowd. The music circles of the cinema world, in their turn, refused to recognize him as a singer. His small cottage at Juhu and lack of interest in musical circles of the cinema world might have resulted in his completely ignored and had it not been for the fact that it was discovered. Almost immediately, Kishore Kumar was an actor, equally capable of playing comedy as well as serious roles. Cast in such serious films as NAUKRI, NEW DELHI and others, he gave a brilliant account of himself.

IS KISHORE A CHAPLIN?
It has been said of Charles Chaplin that he presents critical problems of particular complexity because his mind operates simultaneously on several levels, he writes, produces, directs, composes music and acts and the question arises : 'Who excels whom in a film?' The same can be said of Kishore Kumar who also writes, produces, directs, composes music, sings songs and acts and here too the question arises : 'Who excels whom?' In LIMELIGHT, the music director Charles Chaplin excelled the director Charles Chaplin in the music and song sequence which, as a banter on the ways of high society, will go down in history as one of the biggest milestone. In LUKOO CHOORI, Kishore Kumar, the producer, allowed the music director to excel him in that song sequence : 'Sing nei taboo naam taar shingha. ." the banter of which on the ways of our music directors will also go down in history !
Like Chaplin he will come late for the appointment, he won't apologize because he thinks being late is his privilege. Then throwing up his arms, shrugging his shoulders, and making eyes dance with merriment or stare with all seriousness of the world, he will talk and talk so animatedly that you will feel he wants the absolute attention of all present. They must know that Kishore Kumar was there, that Kishore Kumar was talking.

DISSIMILARITIES
He does not make GOLD RUSH, CITY LIGHTS, MODERN TIMES, and LIMELIGHT. Yet he obeys the laws of his craft as faithfully as Charles Chaplin does and he could be as remarkable a Master of subtle emotional and mental process had he operated them at leisure. Charles Chaplin had the patience; Kishore Kumar hasn't. Charles Chaplin's tramp is sad. To make people all over the world laugh when the stories which contained the laughter were often very sad, made Charles Chaplin one of the few great artistes of the world screen. The characters of Kishore Kumar are not sad. They are absurd, awkward, fussy, and simple as the two retired military men in SHABASH DADDY, played by Kishore Kumar himself and Mehmood. The very absurdities of their manners, the foolishly innocent ways of their talking, and the most awkward ways of expressing their ideas make one feel sad to think how some people are so different from others ! When, in the foolish exuberance of reviving their childhood memories and the then atmosphere which was so different, they dance foolish dances and sing foolish songs - all so peculiarly childish and therefore meaningless, one will get the buffo but, at the same time a tear will come into the eyes. How foolish, how awkward, how absurd, and how so tragic and how sad ! One does not know what they were before but if war brought the changes into them, Kishore Kumar's slapstick comedy, SHABASH DADDY, will be the strongest celluloid condemnation of war ! Through the absurdity of THE GREAT DICTATOR, Chaplin condemned Hitler; through the absurdity of SHABASH DADDY, Kishore Kumar has condemned war ! ( kcp's comment : the author had just gone on the sets to see the shoot of Shabash Daddy and not seen the film, as such )

'A JOURNEY INTO AN UNKNOWN REALM'
After talking with the serious Kishore Kumar for about an hour, I felt convinced that this Kishore Kumar people should know. He is great as a singer, but he is greater as a film-maker. What he said is worth reckoning.

"Making comedy is not easy because Indians have little sense of humour they don't the line between comedy and tragedy and how thin that line can be. The tragedy of a funeral procession can immediately become a comedy if a drunkard appears on the scene and insists that he too is dead and must be burned as solemnly. Making a comedy is like a journey into an unknown realm ! Successful or failure, I make comedies because if you want to make anything at all, make a thing which is not easy, which puts your power, your capability, your control over things to a test. Both too much and too little have been said on what a comedy should be and yet the question is : 'What is a comedy?' Something deep and thoughtful or something broad and farcical which produces immediate laughter without bringing the heart and head into a common understanding? My idea of comedy is not an immediate laugh but an increasing delight.
"Comedy took a bad turn when they took Dhiren Ganguli (D.G.) as a comedian. He wasn't. He was a villain - a man with thousand faces but not a comedian.
"There are four kinds of laughter - the titter, the yowl, the belly-laugh and the buffo. A Chaplin comedy gives you none. It makes you think the more you think, the more sad you become and forget to laugh. Do you laugh when you see the tramp, the symbol of human tragedy? No you don't ! On the contrary, you immediately participate with him because we are all involved in mankind !
"The tragedy starts when you cannot separate the film from its maker. If Charles Chaplin did not make A KING IN NEW YORK, it would not have been so much criticized. I have not seen this film but I don't think it is bad..If Satyajit Ray did not make ASHANI SANKET, it would have been one of the greatest films ever made. When you see a film without remembering who made it, you get the real appreciation. Or the giant stands in between you and the creation !"

Regards

KCP
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