Amit Kumar will only be remembered as the legendary Kishore Kumar’s son always, rather than “Play back singer Amit Kumar”. Not that it would have been easy to emerge out of the shadow of his illustrious father, but despite of having oodles of talent, he could never establish himself as a play back singer in a manner he would have liked to.
We still best remember him as the singer of songs like Bade aachhe lagte hain, Yeh zamin gaa rahi hai, Yaad aa rahi hai etc. You could count his popular songs on your finger tips. But when you sit down and listen to these in a relaxed mood, you start feeling for the man. Despite of having an awesome voice, if he has not tasted the success he truly deserved, it is entirely the loss of the film industry.
Bollywood music and the audience has missed this gold mine, which otherwise could have been heard in innumerable hits over the last four decades.
Why this happened to such a talent is not really very difficult to figure out. The initial phase of his career was over shadowed by the presence of his legendary father Kishore Kumar himself. Till the date of his death, it was he who ruled the male playback singing. All that genre of songs went to Kishore Kumar. Amit, who sounded pretty much like his father had to be satisfied with the left overs. Any other songs, which were in the Rafisqe mould, went to singers like Mohd. Aziz, Shabbir Kumar .
After Kishoreda’s death, indeed a vacuum was created, and Amit Kumar should have been the ideal voice to carry the legacy forward, but to his mis-fortune, it was the leanest period of Bollywood music. All the Govinda & Mithun songs were the flavor of the season, where quality was at its nadir. This helped Amit Kumar’s cause no way.
The revival in melody came in the form of Nadeem- Shravan’s Aashiqui, but then that marked the arrival of another singer Kumar Sanu, who became the music director duo’s favorite after the roaring success of Aashiqui. This combo ruled the industry for more than half a decade, and by that time, having pocketed five consecutive filmfare awards, Kumar Sanu was touted as the next Kishore Kumar in the making. The public was mesmerized by his vocal similarity to Kishoreda, and was even ready to forgive his nasal indulgence. The ultimate sufferer again was Amit Kumar. He was almost non-existent during this period of time.
But just to showcase his talent, you need to hear his version of the song kajal kajal composed by Anu Malik for the movie Sapoot. This song was also sung by the then super-successful Kumar Sanu. It doesn’t take too much of brain storming to figure out that Kumar Sanu’s version was simply out classed by the Amit Kumar version in the album. But only very few of these kind of songs came Amit's way,so he kept himself busy doing concerts all over the world.
Any body who has heard him singing his father’s numbers on stage must admit that he is by far the best person to do a cover version for Kishore da's songs, if at all, rather than the Kumar Sanus, Abhijeets, Babul Supriyos, or all other Kishore Kumar clones, who have prospered in their respective careers at different points of time by doing so.
One gets a feeling that Amit Kumar might just have missed a trick or two at least in marketing himself, which saw him out in the cold, when singers with far lesser talent kept on raking the moolah thanks to their effective PRO.
Well, at 58, Amit Kumar’s career is certainly at its twilight zone, even as we still keep hearing his voice in a few hit numbers here and there.But we sincerely hope that his younger brother Sumit Kumar, who has since burst into the Bollywood playback scene, and has rendered a few very fine numbers like, Bandne lagi from Naach and the title track of Aie , enjoys better luck in bollywood. We see tremendus talent even here, and wish all the best to the younger son of our favorite Kishore da
We still best remember him as the singer of songs like Bade aachhe lagte hain, Yeh zamin gaa rahi hai, Yaad aa rahi hai etc. You could count his popular songs on your finger tips. But when you sit down and listen to these in a relaxed mood, you start feeling for the man. Despite of having an awesome voice, if he has not tasted the success he truly deserved, it is entirely the loss of the film industry.
Bollywood music and the audience has missed this gold mine, which otherwise could have been heard in innumerable hits over the last four decades.
Why this happened to such a talent is not really very difficult to figure out. The initial phase of his career was over shadowed by the presence of his legendary father Kishore Kumar himself. Till the date of his death, it was he who ruled the male playback singing. All that genre of songs went to Kishore Kumar. Amit, who sounded pretty much like his father had to be satisfied with the left overs. Any other songs, which were in the Rafisqe mould, went to singers like Mohd. Aziz, Shabbir Kumar .
After Kishoreda’s death, indeed a vacuum was created, and Amit Kumar should have been the ideal voice to carry the legacy forward, but to his mis-fortune, it was the leanest period of Bollywood music. All the Govinda & Mithun songs were the flavor of the season, where quality was at its nadir. This helped Amit Kumar’s cause no way.
The revival in melody came in the form of Nadeem- Shravan’s Aashiqui, but then that marked the arrival of another singer Kumar Sanu, who became the music director duo’s favorite after the roaring success of Aashiqui. This combo ruled the industry for more than half a decade, and by that time, having pocketed five consecutive filmfare awards, Kumar Sanu was touted as the next Kishore Kumar in the making. The public was mesmerized by his vocal similarity to Kishoreda, and was even ready to forgive his nasal indulgence. The ultimate sufferer again was Amit Kumar. He was almost non-existent during this period of time.
But just to showcase his talent, you need to hear his version of the song kajal kajal composed by Anu Malik for the movie Sapoot. This song was also sung by the then super-successful Kumar Sanu. It doesn’t take too much of brain storming to figure out that Kumar Sanu’s version was simply out classed by the Amit Kumar version in the album. But only very few of these kind of songs came Amit's way,so he kept himself busy doing concerts all over the world.
Any body who has heard him singing his father’s numbers on stage must admit that he is by far the best person to do a cover version for Kishore da's songs, if at all, rather than the Kumar Sanus, Abhijeets, Babul Supriyos, or all other Kishore Kumar clones, who have prospered in their respective careers at different points of time by doing so.
One gets a feeling that Amit Kumar might just have missed a trick or two at least in marketing himself, which saw him out in the cold, when singers with far lesser talent kept on raking the moolah thanks to their effective PRO.
Well, at 58, Amit Kumar’s career is certainly at its twilight zone, even as we still keep hearing his voice in a few hit numbers here and there.But we sincerely hope that his younger brother Sumit Kumar, who has since burst into the Bollywood playback scene, and has rendered a few very fine numbers like, Bandne lagi from Naach and the title track of Aie , enjoys better luck in bollywood. We see tremendus talent even here, and wish all the best to the younger son of our favorite Kishore da
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