Kishore Kumar is a personality in the Indian film industry who successfully became a melodious singer, a comic hero, a composer, a filmmaker and so on. The popularity of Kishore Kumar relied primarily on his innate talents. His phenomenal acting talent and amazing singing voice made this performer a genius of his era. The childhood of Kishore Kumar depicts much about his evolution as a legend.

Kishore Kumar as a singer got his first opportunity in Bombay Talkies Ziddi (1948) where he sang the song Marne ki Duayen Kyon Mangu for actor Dev Anand. Kishore Kumar was an ardent admirer of KL Saigal and the song was sung in the style of the legend. But in spite of Ziddi`s success, Kishore found few offers coming to him and did the odd singing assignment with small roles making a rather moderate acting debut as hero in the unmemorable Andolan (1951).

Kishore Kumar once approached SD Burman who had given him an opportunity in Pyar (1950) where interestingly he had sung for the actor Raj Kapoor. His style impressed SD Burman and he offered him more singing work. He sang the song Qusoor Aapka in Bahar (1951) that became a huge hit. As he got more singing assignments, he was simultaneously featured as the lead in films.

Kishore Kumar`s was the second golden male voice that the film industry produced. In a career across 42 years, Kishore Kumar recorded around 2,905 songs. The first being an ensemble number, Baankaa sipahiyaa ghar jaaye ho for a film Eight Days, released in 1946. His first solo song was Marne ki duayein kyon maangoon for the film Ziddi in 1948 and his last song was a duet with Asha Bhosle, Ae guru aajaao for Waqt Ki Awaz in 1988. Overall, he is known to have sung 2,648 Hindi songs, 154 Bengali, eight Gujarali, four Bhojpuri, three each in Marathi and Oriya, and one each in Assamese, English, Punjabi, Kannada and Malayalam. Other than these, he had recorded 80 non-film songs; 67 in Bengali and 13 in Hindi.

The number of songs Kishore Kumar do not however, account for the iconic status he holds in the history of Hindi film music. The impact of Kishore Kumar had over successive generations of music lovers is immense. His contemporaries were Mukesh, Mohammad Rafi, Talat Mahmood and Manna Dey. In 1969, he took away most of their fame and at one stroke with the film Aradhana and since then, has ruled as the indisputable king of the disc for nearly two decades. Very soon he became the "voice" of almost every top Hindi hero, starting from Dev Anand to Rajesh Khanna to Sanjeev Kumar, Randhir Kapoor, Mithun Chakraborty and of course, Amitabh Bachchan. All of the mentioned actors, without exception, do owe their success in some way or the other to this inimitable warbler.

Not only as a singer Kishore Kumar also achieved success as a composer. Kishore Kumar as a Composer is still regarded as a legend. Kishore`s own success is attributed to that grand old stalwart among music composers Sachin Dev Burman. Although the credit for recognizing his potential is actually given to composers like Saraswati Devi and Khemchand Prakash who gave him his break in playback singing. Sachin Dev trained Kishore under his wings in 1950 (with Pyaar, Baazi, Bahaar and so on) and together they came up with some of the most unforgettable hits in Hindi cinema. There were of course, many others like Madan Mohan, O.E Nayyar, Kalyanji-Anandji and Rahul Dev Burman who came in later and were to shape his career in varied other ways. But with Sachin Dev, the co ordination between the two living legends was different. Kishore often took the liberty of composing on behalf of his "guru" without even claiming credit for those tunes. Their relationship was almost like father and son.

Kishore Kumar had immense self confidence. He was supremely confident of being a successful singer and credited his voice as a naturally gifted one. Kishore Kumar was one of the rare singers who did not imitate anybody while singing and also did not take formal training in music. He found an idol in K.L. Saigal. But he was there more for inspiration than emulation. Ashok Kumar once said that Kishore`s voice had a distinct depth.Even if Kishore Kumar sang at the topmost pitch, his voice never cracked.

One advantage Kishore Kumar enjoyed over other playback singers of his time was that he could "enact" songs. Since, he had already faced the camera and knew the film medium inside out. It was therefore essential that the director convinced him about the situation of his song - who it would be picturised on and how it would help in taking the narrative forward. The director also made the dramatic highlights clear. He would then perform the song, sated with all the nuances and expressions that the actor would portray on screen. Music composers knew that jumping and enacting was his way to capture the spirit of the song he rendered.

Kishore had experimented and worked upon the singing styles of classical gurus like Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Pandit Bhimsen Joshi. Later, in privacy he would emulate them with effortless ease. Contrary to his image of a light-hearted entertainer, he was actually a serious student of music. He also learnt Rabindra Sangeet on his own.

Kishore Kumar is one of the singers in Indian film industry who has not only set a unique trend of natural singing but also innovative touches to the natural piece of art. Kishore Kumar as a filmmaker is not much known to people, but he has director few films, which had moderate success at box office.

Regardless of the number of hits and flops in the career of Kishore Kumar, he was without doubt one of the unique filmmakers and entertainers Indian cinema has produced. Kishore Kumar as an entertainer was unmatched even if compared to any actor of his time. For all Kishore Kumar`s talent, eccentricity, fame and chaotic behavior, he was at heart, a humble soul. He had endured so many storms in life, but still he kept a cheerful front in public. Nobody outside his immediate family ever saw him grieving over a personal misfortune or crying on anybody`s shoulders. As a singer Kishore remained at the top till the very end giving way to a major heart attack on October 13, 1987.