Girish Modi
By Girish Modi
When I was growing up in the 1950s, I had started listening to Kishore Kumar’s songs since my passion is music. He was not my favorite singer, though I liked many of his old songs including S. D. Burman and Madan Mohan compositions. Kishore Kumar became famous when he sang in the opening scene of the Aradhana movie for Rajesh Khanna. He then reached a pinnacle when started singing for Amitabh Bachchan and other actors.
Kishore Kumar’s maiden USA concert in 1978, with Amit Kumar and Anuradha Paudwal, had kicked off in New York. I remember that Ameen Sayani of Binaca Geetmala fame had introduced Kishore Kumar and I had snapped many photos of the concert with my film camera. I had taken a few action photos of Sayani on stage with Kishore Kumar, which I sent to him in Bombay via someone.
Sayani wrote me a nice thank you letter and invited me to meet him on my next trip to India. I did meet Sayani in 1980 at his office near Naaz theater in Bombay and had spent about an hour with him talking about Radio Ceylon. I also watched Sayani recording an episode for a program and had explained to me that he did not record songs in between commentary but placed cues so that the engineers at Radio Ceylon played the actual records. Sayani had complimented me for having some rare 78-rpm records in my collection, which he told me Radio Ceylon did not have! I was surprised that when I was asking my wife to take my picture with Sayani, he spoke in fluent Gujarati with her.
While Anuradha had sung a couple of duets with Kishore Kumar, her husband Anil was acting as the lead musician and accordion player. After the show I invited both to my home in New Jersey to spend a couple of days as guests.
Amit Kumar performed for the first time in public at this concert. He and Kishore sang a couple of songs that included yodeling. They also sang the famous Padosan song “ek chatur nar” intermixed with comedy. I believe Helen also performed a couple of dances in that concert.
Since I was providing free photography, national promoter Mr. Walia became my friend and gave me permission to meet Kishore Kumar privately at the hotel and at JFK airport when they were leaving after finishing his tour in America.
When Kishore Kumar was waiting in the hotel to be driven to the airport, Amit asked him to give him some money so that he could buy some audio cassettes. I remember vividly that Kishore Kumar had lifted his white shirt and reached into the hidden pocket in his tee-shirt and pulled out a wad of dollar bills for his son.
He then asked me to escort Amit so that he would not get lost.
Amit and I then went to a nearby Woolworth store, where he had bought a couple dozen audio cassettes of American singers.
I was quite shocked that a Hindi singer was trying to learn and imitate American singing styles. After we returned to the hotel, Amit signed a photo of him which I had taken while he was singing on stage.
I saw Kishore Kumar sitting in the baggage area with his fianceé Leena Chandavarkar and actor David when I went to the airport. Amit was not there, perhaps he had decided to stay on a few more days.
I presented him with the photo album of the New York concert and impressed him. I remember, though all my photos were color photos, Kishore Kumar commented that all the media in India would prefer to have photos in black and white.
I explained to him that they can convert color photos into black and white.
Afterwards, when I asked Kishore Kumar to give autograph on five copies of his best photograph I had taken, he commented in Hindi, “Modi I know you are going sell these photos,” to which David replied, why does it matter since I already gave him the album. I had not recognized Leena Chandavarkar, since I had never watched her movies previously because of my interest in music only.
When Kishore Kumar asked me to meet him when I go to India, I asked him that I want to see him recording a song, to which he had agreed. When Kishore Kumar and Leena got up and went to the ticket counter, I took the opportunity and took a photo of Kishore Kumar standing next to Leena, her father and Walia. I remember that Leena was reluctant to have her photo taken, so she not only grabbed Kishore Kumar’s goggles and put them on but also tried to cover her face with her sari!
Later, when Kishore Kumar moved in the boarding area, I followed him and asked a musician to take my photo with him. I did not see Leena but the actress Helen was sitting next to Kishore Kumar and was looking for something (maybe lipstick?) in her purse.
The photographer was so quick that I could not ask Helen to look at the camera.
I remember Kishore Kumar came to America every year for the next four years. However, I had not attended his concerts. But Walia had told me that Kishore Kumar remembered me for my photography.
Girish Modi is a retired engineer who is passionate about Indian music and classical dances. He donates money to various Indian organizations and provides free photo service. Contact: [email protected].
