His masters’ voices
The entrance to flat 405 of Vallabh Heritage Building in Indore’s Rani Bagh area has a distinctive look. It is impossible to miss the nine-foot-tall and 4.5-foot-wide wall poster of Kishore Kumar, RD Burman and Gulzar that greet visitors. It says ‘Pankiyana’ on the nameplate. Press the doorbell, and the prelude to the famous SD Burman composition Kora kagaz tha ye man mera from Aradhana (1969) plays. Welcome to Navin Khandelwal’s home—or, as he says, “a temple to RD Burman and Kishore Kumar”.
A Chartered Accountant, Khandelwal’s 250 gigabyte compilation containing every released album of Kishore Kumar and RD Burman—neatly classified and divided into interestingly named sub-folders: Dada (Kishore Kumar), Pancham, Gulzar etc—is a star attraction. The paintings, portraits and pictures on the walls of Pankiyana are the equivalent of murals or carvings one can expect to find in a temple or church.
With bookshelves, coffee table books, cushions with Gulzar’s lyrics inscribed on them, and a ‘Kishore Kumar’ pack of playing cards, Pankiyana creates that joyous feeling of being in a meditation room where music is the only prayer. A piano-shaped wardrobe houses signed vintage CDs gifted by Gulzar. At the entrance to the kitchen, a window blind presents the story of the first meeting of Kishore and RD and their subsequent collaboration.
On the kitchen wall Pancham is ‘seen’ eating bhutta (cooked corncob) and Asha Bhosle cooking. On the door to the toilet are images of Pancham and Kishore wiping their mouths with a napkin. Back in the drawing room you stumble upon a framed treasure—a replica of Paan ki Mahima, a poem penned by Kishore Kumar.
Everything inside Pankiyana is about music. Explains Khandelwal, “Pankiyana means ‘Pancham-Kishore ka aashiyana (home of Pancham and Kishore)’. The name was approved by Gulzar sahib.” An avid radio listener, Raipur-born Khandelwal never tires of hearing songs by this singer-composer combo. “I arrived in this world in 1970, when the RD-Kishore duo was beginning to take off,” he says.
A book, Kishore da—Ek Satat Jaadui Abhaas, authored by Khandelwal was released on the legend’s birth anniversary last year. He was also awarded Kishore Kumar Kala Ratna Samman in Delhi last year. Kishore’s son Amit Kumar’s effusive praise about Pankiyana during his visit to the place in 2023 is framed and reproduced verbatim on one of the walls. What is it about RD and Kishore that whips up so much passion in him? “Because they did what they were sent to this world for. They spread happiness, gifting us hundreds of melodies,” he sums up. Music to the ears of all ’70s fans.