The original version of the famous song, "Koi Humdum na Raha..." was picturised in a 1936 film Jeevan Naiyya. The music composer was Saraswati Devi (real name Khorshed Minoche Homji), the first music director of Hindi cinema.
Those were the days when professional playback singers were not on the scene and the actors and actresses themselves used to sing their own songs and record them for playing with the video. And yes, a woman music director had pioneered the Hindi film music.
Ashok Kumar sang this song for his own acting. Unfortunately, the original song video clip has not come to the YouTube, though the entire film (Jeevan Naiya) is there.
25 years later, the younger brother Kishore Kumar copied Saraswati Devi's musical score for this song note by note, got the lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri to change the words of the song here and there and sang this song in exactly the same tune in his own 1961 film Jhumroo.
Today, it's the Kishore Kumar's copied version that is more popular, while the original has faded away from people's memory. Kishore Kumar didn't bother to credit the music to Saraswati Devi. Rather, he wrote his own name as the Music Director for his 1961 version.
Kishore Kumar was actually not trained in music or singing. Because of this, his voice sounded flat without modulation, especially when ascending to higher notes of the scale. For a long time till 1969, he remained mostly a comical actor, with only the songs for Dev Anand coming his way, many of these composed by SD Burman. His singing career had received a break from Khemchand Prakash, a stalwart from the 1940s. In addition, he used to sing his own songs for films in which he acted. In a few songs, Muhammad Rafi, the stalwart singer even gave his voice to Kishore Kumar's acting.
It was only with the massive success of Aradhana songs that Kishore Kumar became popular, but originally Muhammad Rafi was supposed to sing Aradhana songs. However, SD Burman the Music Director fell ill and his son RD Burman asked Kishore Kumar his friend to sing the Aradhana songs instead.
It must be added that even without musical training, Kishore Kumar had great calibre to adapt to the tunes that he got from the music directors.
Following are the details of the 1936 version -
Film - Jeevan Naiya (1936)
Actor and Singer - Ashok Kumar
Music - Saraswati Devi
Lyrics - JS Kashyap
"There is no more a companion for me,
No more a solace for me,
I belong to no one; nor does anyone belong to me,
When all my desires are down in the dumps,
I have no recourse to anything except crying,
What kind of proomise is that,
which gives you the desire for Paradise,
Now there is no companion, nor any solace..."
Click this link to watch the original 1936 version on YouTube, sung by Ashok Kumar.
Here is Kishore Kumar's 1961 version for Jhumroo.
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