Kishore Kumar to be this year's theme for Bhowanipore Durgotsav Samity
Kolkata: In a unique move, Bhowanipore Durgotsav Samity has made Kishore Kumar the theme for this year's Durga Puja.
This is for the first time that an actor-turned-singer has been made the central theme of a community Durga Puja. Sandip Bakshi, Trinamool Congress Councillor of Ward 72, is the president of the Durga Puja committee while social activist Nandini Bhattacharya is the vice-president.
Bhattacharya, who is also the spokesperson of the committee, said it has tied up with the film Kishore Kumar Junior and actor Prasenjit Chatterjee who, along with director Kaushik Ganguly, will be present at the pandal.
On October 7, there will be an audition for a competition on Kishore Kumar at ICCR.
The pandal will be decorated with posters and photographs of the versatile singer. From October 11, there will be cultural shows where artistes will present only Kishore Kumar's hit songs.
It may be mentioned that there are two statues of the singer in Kolkata — at Tollygunge and Baisnabghata Patuli respectively. A statue of Kishore Kumar and SD Burman will be installed opposite Nazrul Mancha on Southern Avenue in October.
Kishore Kumar (1929-1987) was a playback singer, actor, lyricist, composer, producer, director and screenwriter. He sang around 245 songs for Rajesh Khanna across 92 films which is a record for any singer- actor combination.
He sang 202 songs for Jeetendra, 131 songs for Amitabh Bachchan and 119 numbers for Dev Anand. Kishore Kumar sang Tagore songs for Saytajit Ray's films like Charulata and Ghare Baire — Ami chini go chini tomare in Charulata and Bidhir bandhan katbe tumi. He has sung many Puja numbers like Ekdin pakhi ure, Akash keno dake, Seto elo na, Sei raate rat chilo purnima which were all super-duper chartbusters.
From 1970s to 1980s, Kishore Kumar was the most popular Hindi playback singer. Phoolon ki rang se, Aaj madhosh mera, Meet na mila — all composed by S D Burman are immortal songs. Again, some songs composed by R D Burman like Yeh shaam mastani, Yeh jo mohabbat hai, Kuch to log kahenge and Aane wala pal were great hits.
"It will be a travelling back in time with all the singers presenting the popular numbers of Kishore Kumar in Bengali and Hindi.
"It is a unique way to pay our tribute to India's one of the finest playback singers Kishore Kumar," said Nandini Bhattacharya.
