Bade acche lagte hain... Amit Kumar’s singing aur dastaan!

Charismatic singer Amit Kumar won the hearts of Lucknowites with his singing prowess, storytelling and striking the chord by engaging them during his performance. Starting with Pyare bandhuon, Lucknow vasiyon... he mingled with the audience straight away.

Performing at the 160th foundation day celebrations of Kali Bari Temple, the 71-year-old singer presented his “bread and butter” song Bade Achche Lagte Hain (Balika Vadhu, 1976) which he also calls a “wiper song as it couldn’t be wiped off from the heart!”.

Narrating the dastaan, he recalls, “It was in 1973 when baba (his legendary singer father Kishore Kumar) told me that you have a song. When we were driving down, it started raining and the wiper got damaged! Somehow, we reached with a broken wiser. Had RD Burman (composer) not given me that song, I would not have come out of my father’s shadow.”

Kumar recalls how on Sanjay Dutt’s insistence a para was added in Roz roz ankhoon tale (Jeeva, 1986) and he got an opportunity to sing the hit number with Asha Bhonsle.

The singer then presented his hit numbers, including Keh do ki tum (Tezaab, 1988), Deko maine dekha hai and Yaad aa rahi hai (both Love Story, 1981) which was followed by a number of hits songs of Kishore Kumar. The singer was joined by playback singer Sispia Banerjee and together they presented hit Bengali numbers as well.

“Singing is his forte but it’s a big nostalgia for us - cutting along generations. His style of presentation of dastaans, mimicry of legends and comic timing is just outstanding,” says temple trust president Abhijit Sarkar.

Chief guest on the occasion was social welfare minister Asim Arun while the guests of honour were bureaucrat Hari Om, Dr Subhashish Munsi, Jatin Verma and AL Banerjee.

The management committee president Gautam Bhattacharya proposed the vote of thanks. A souvenir was also released on the occasion.