Tuesday, 29 May 2012

Zindagi Ek Safar - Kishore Kumar [1989]

Kishore Kumar Ganguly, better known as Kishore Kumar to his legions of ardent fans, received fitting commemoration through this documentary. Satyajit Ray and he shared a long-standing friendship (he even sang a couple of songs for Ray’s films – most notably, the iconic “Ami Chini Go Chini” in Charulata); consequently, Ray’s son Sandip was best placed to try and capture the life of the eccentric and versatile genius who wasn’t just a marvelous (albeit untrained) singer with an incredibly fluid and mellifluous voice, but also a brilliant comedy actor, a talented composer, and a filmmaker too. It is filled with interviews with a number of who’s who of the Bombay film industry. His contemporaries, like the great composer R.D. Burman (for whom he sang innumerable unforgettable songs), former superstars like Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna and Dev Anand (who all lipsynced to a plethora of marvelous Kishore numbers), fellow legendary singers like Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle (Kishore sang numerous memorable duets with them), etc. have shared some delightful anecdotes about the mercurial artist. Even Ray spoke about his memories of Kishore. One of the most touching aspects about the docu happened to be being apprised of the kind of relationship Kishore shared with S.D. Burman and the role the legendary music composer played in shaping his career. It is also filled with footages covering nearly his entire career in the film industry. On the flip side, the production values weren’t good, and it was more of a vanilla, straightforward docu without any notable creative decisions (apart from a recurring monologue by Kishore that set the tone for it). But, that said, this is certainly a treasure trove for all Kishore Kumar aficionados.








Director: Sandip Ray
Genre: Documentary/Biography/Biopic
Language: Hindi
Country: India

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