Singer, actor, filmmaker: Why Google got the perfect Kishore Kumar doodle

Now, what gets an average, Hindi-speaking Indian’s rainy weekend going? Among other things, a good Kishore Kumar playlist, especially when the rains have managed to disable the cable connection on TV. What works like balm after a rough day at work? Maybe Amar Prem on the iPod? What’s the groom’s friends’ go-to song in a sangeet to reprise their bachelorhood shenanigans? Bachna Ae Haseenon, of course! And the song, which 43 years after it was sung, will be played to death on the radio on Rakhi and no one will mind? You know the answer - Phoolon Ka Taro Ka from Hare Krishna Hare Ram. Almost every Indian has done some storytelling with a Kishore Kumar song. Almost every Indian has had at least one evening, spent just with him. Almost every Indian lights up at the very mention of Kishore Kumar - mostly because a few of his/her loveliest memories have something to do with a Kishore Kumar song. [caption id=“attachment_1648259” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Kishore Kumar Google Doodle.[/caption] Kumar, had been, many things to many people in India. And not just that - he was many talents in one. Singer, actor, writer, filmmaker - entertainer and memory-maker extraordinaire. So on his 85th birthday, Google has come up with a doodle that best represents what we make of the man from the several stories we have heard about him. The doodle’s simple - a sketch of his face on a banner-like strip. Simplicity, interestingly, is one the words that come up several times in anything that has ever been written about Kumar’s life. And on four corners of the rectangular strip are doodles representative of his various talents - there’s a music note, a outline of a film camera, masks representative of an actor and a pen and paper. While one would have expected a musical doodle on Kumar, but clearly that would be doing injustice to Kumar’s contribution to the Indian film industry and the lives of Indians in awe of him, years after his death. Kumar died in 1987, aged just 58 years old. The best testimony to his genius is probably the fact that decades later, people born years after he passed away in India, have most hit Kishore Kumar songs on their fingertips like they have the contemporary hits.