KK: Hum Rahen Ya Na Rahen Kal

 

As Tuesday and the month of May were drawing to a close, the tickers on TV news channels began flashing that popular Hindi singer KK died after a concert at Kolkata. Soon I began Googling for more information. Certain early bird publications had come out with bare minimum details about the tragedy that had befallen the playback singing world.

The next day morning there were more details. After the singer left for the hotel, he felt uneasiness. Though he was rushed to a nearby hospital he was brought dead. That he was just 53 – evoked a feeling of heaviness in my heart, as he was a couple of years younger than me. And certainly, not an age to go.

The whole country was in shock. As details began trickling in, the shoddy arrangements by the event organisers became very glaring. The auditorium was packed way beyond its capacity, there was no air conditioning and the bright lights were adding to the hot and stuffy atmosphere of the auditorium. These lapses have prompted the police to register an unnatural death case.

The initial report of the post-mortem suggests that the singer died because of a heart attack and there was no foul play. The singer had cardiac issues in the past. Surely the organisers left a lot to be desired while staging the event.

Krishnakumar Kunnath aka KK began figuring in the music channels like Channel V and MTV in the late 1990s with his debut album Pal, which was composed by Leslie Lewis. After it gained popularity, he began getting Bollywood offers, and the first song was Tadap Tadap in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.

After that, there was no looking back. A steady stream of offers came in and KK’s soulful rendition began winning many hearts. He soon was a household name, and for the nineties kids, his songs became the coming-of-age anthems. Be it the first crush, falling in love, or breakups, KK’s voice moved them in a way no other singer could. His influence over this generation was akin to what Kishore Kumar had over the 1970s children.

But KK wore his fame lightly on his shoulders and went about churning one chartbuster after another. He was not the person to court controversies or indulge in publicity stunts. As one Twitter user said he was the Rahul Dravid of playback singing, he went on with his soul-stirring songs with remarkable ease setting new benchmarks.

I had a sketchy picture of his accomplishments. Hence when I began checking out his body of works, I was astounded. Almost every second good film song that was a major hit after 2000 was sung by KK. I had heard most of them in the past on music TV channels or on FM radio while driving my car but had no idea they were sung by him.

Hence, it came as a major surprise laced with a tinge of guilt – here was a singer who has now fallen silent, and I haven’t had the foggiest idea about his accomplishments while he was alive.

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