Happy Birthday
Amit Kumar
Born 3rd July 1952 turns 71 today.
The true heir of Kishore Kumar,but never imitated him.
Amit Kumar is himself a talented and melodious singer with a style of his own who has sung many popular songs. However, some people believe that he has not been able to fulfil his full potential. There are a few reasons for this.
Amit Kumar was and had always been overshadowed by his father ,Kishore Kumar who was a larger-than-life personality and a hugely maverick singer. Amit Kumar was always compared to his father , but he as far as possible never imitated him.
Second, Amit Kumar has never been as prolific as his father . Kishore Kumar recorded hundreds of songs, while Amit Kumar has recorded a fraction of that number. This is partly due to Amit Kumar's own choice. He has always been more interested in singing for the love of it, rather than for commercial success.
Again it’s a classic case of a tree not growing under the shadow of a taller tree.
There are so many Kishore Kumar clones or imitators but Amit Kumar preferred to stay away from that group and maintained his own unique identity. Kishore Kumar had the depth deepest baritone. Amit's voice is not that deep-throated.
The choice of songs Amit Kumar sings on stage and picks for his own private albums suggests that out of the two diverse aspects of his father's repertoire — being as sad in emotional songs as he was peppy in comic ones — he picked only the latter. Amit Kumar has very, very few numbers that move you for their sheer pathos; his father had many.
Amit Kumar also suffered also because he had barely started rising as a constant voice of first Kumar Gaurav and then Anil Kapoor — four back-to-back hits in the late 1980s and early 1990s — when Kumar Sanu took the audience by storm, debuting with Ashiqui. While Sanu's greatest support Nadeem-Shravan was on the rise, the only duo that was giving Amit chances repeatedly, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, was at the fag end of their career followed by Anand Milind.
Amit Kumar gave his best with his mentor Pancham ( R.D.Burman ). After Burman's death in 1994, citing a lack of quality music composition, Kumar withdrew from playback singing and concentrated on live orchestra shows. In addition to singing in Hindi, has also performed in Bengali, Bhojpuri, Odia, Assamese, Marathi and Konkani.
Kishore Kumar and Amit Kumar sang a total of 28 songs together. 5 of them for Amitabh Bachchan starrers.
When you listen to them together you understand how individual and different they were from each other.
He now sings with his brother Sumeet and both give Private albums under their own banner.
Amit Kumar's best would be Base Acche Lagte Hain followed by his songs in Love Story and Teri Kasam.
Later his songs of Baazi
One of my favourites is the one stanza he sang in Roz Roz Aankhon Tale (Jeeva).
One landmark moment in his career when he sang for Rajesh Khanna ( Kishore Kumar was known as Voice of RK) in Fiffty Fiffty, Akhir Kyon.
Another moment was when he won the Best Singer award in 1982 for Yaad Aa Rahi Hain when KK was also nominated for Choo Kar Mere Man Ko ( Yaarana) and Hamen Tumse Pyaar Kitna ( Kudrat).
These days he comes on various TV programs as an expert or Guest and his tales of his father are a treat to one's ears.
Happy Birthday Amit Ji..
Base Acche Lagte Hain Aapke Nagme.
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