For many who grew up in the 1990s and graduated in the 2000s, Krishnakumar Kunnath, better known as KK, is a name that evokes a plethora of emotions. Be it love at first sight, the melancholy of heartbreak, or the comfort of deep friendships, the singer lent his voice to help a generation understand and articulate their sentiments.
If Shah Rukh Khan and Karan Johar made the world believe that ‘pyaar dosti hai’ (love is friendship) in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), KK’s songs elevated the status quo of friendship in the whole scheme of human relationships.
Such was the lasting impact of KK’s swooning voice that colleges and schools across India have religiously played some of his songs year after year during the graduation ceremonies. Pyaar Ke Pal and Yaaron are the crowning jewels of his discography — both released in 1999 — with millions of views recorded on YouTube, official and fan videos combined. His other big hits include Tadap Tadap Ke, Dus Bahane, Tune Maari Entriyaan, Dola Re Dola from the 2002 movie Devdas and Khuda Jaane from the 2008 romantic comedy Bachna Ae Haseeno.
Born in a Malayali family in New Delhi, KK took to music like fish to water. From stage shows to college festivals across the national capital, the singer earned accolades with no professional training. After his untimely demise in 2022, his college friend from Kirori Mal College, Gautam Chikermane tweeted about his dear friend.
“In music, he lived life, in music he met death. Sorrow is for the rest of us, for KK it is possibly a stairway to heaven,” he wrote. Minutes before he passed away, the 53-year-old singer was performing live in Kolkata.
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Malayali-born Bollywood rockstar
Before KK went on to mesmerise music enthusiasts for over three decades in the Hindi film industry, he began his career in advertising jingles. As a playback singer, he recorded songs in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali and Malayalam. A rare feat for a Malayali singer, who happened to make it big in Bollywood.
With no backers in the film industry and no professional training, the 20-something singer began knocking on music composers’ doors in the early 1990s.
Things came around for him after his first album came out. Not everyone could make a music album back in the day.
“I took some of his jingles to Sony Music. They loved his voice and asked me to make an album with him,” musician Lesle Lewis of ‘Colonial Cousins’ band told The Hindu after the vocalist’s demise last year.
KK’s natural diction in Hindi during his growing-up years in Delhi helped him breeze through various Bollywood projects. And it was essentially his familiarity with different languages that helped him flourish in so many film industries in India.
The popularity of the Tamil song Appadi Podu from the 2004 movie Ghilli is a testament to KK’s versatility with emotions regardless of the language.
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A familiar voice, unfamiliar face
For many singers and musicians, their voice is often an extension of their personality. So much so that oftentimes it is difficult to believe an actor lip-syncing a song on screen because the audience is so well versed with the voice and the face behind it. Be it, Sonu Nigam or Arijit Singh, it is not easy to detach the voice of the singer.
KK, however, truly recognised what it meant to lend his voice to characters. Neither did he ever want to be stuck with an actor’s voice, nor was he keen on “being seen” as he “fiercely protected” his privacy.
“Cameras don’t make me very comfortable… I am very comfortable with the mic,” he told Bollywood Hungama in a 2019 interview. The singer had said that anonymity goes out the window once you start feeling more and more seen. He called himself a “very private person”.
His voice, as many have regarded it over the years, has been the ‘voice of heart’.
Director Mahesh Bhatt who worked extensively with KK in films like Gangster (2006), Rog (2005), Woh Lamhe (2006), Jism (2003), Jism 2 (2012), Jannat (2008), Tum Mile (2009), Sadak 2 (2020), felt the latter had an “emotional bandwidth which echoes all the seasons of the heart”.
“Emraan’s rise couldn’t be possible without KK’s extraordinary songs,” Bhatt told Rediff.com after the singer’s death.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)