Kozhikode: The maverick and versatile Kishore Kumar turns a year younger today. Millions of his fans have been enchanted by the artiste's prowess over mellifluousness in multiple languages. Mind you, Kishoreda didn't give the Malayalam language a miss either, albeit on one number.

August 4 marks his 96th birth anniversary, and even the most devoted fans are often startled to discover that the Hindi-Bengali music legend once sang a Malayalam song.

Yes, it happened — just once. And the song? It's called “ABCD Chettan” — a humorous, offbeat track from the 1975 Malayalam film Ayodhya, directed by PN Sundaram.

The music for the film was composed by G Devarajan, while the lyrics were penned by P Bhaskaran, and the song was written as a light-hearted, playful piece that required a very specific voice: quirky, energetic, and full of mischief. In short, it had to be Kishore da.

Though he didn’t speak Malayalam, Kishore Kumar took on the challenge, reportedly learning the lyrics phonetically and delivering them in his signature free-spirited style. ‘ABCD Chettan’ is exactly what it sounds like — a whimsical track revolving around an English-speaking ‘Chettan’ (Malayali man), peppered with alphabet rhymes, comic situations, and cheeky Malayalam lines. Listen to the song here: 

The song is part satire, part children’s rhyme, and all charm — carried entirely by Kishore’s voice, which dances through the unfamiliar phonetics like a kid let loose in a candy shop.

For years, the song remained largely unknown to the wider public, unlisted in most of his discographies and not easily found on early music platforms. However, in the YouTube era, ‘ABCD Chettan’ has made a nostalgic return, delighting fans who never imagined Kishore Kumar speaking Malayalam — let alone rapping the alphabet with such flair.

While the film ‘Ayodhya’ itself wasn’t a blockbuster, this one song has become its most enduring legacy, especially in the digital age. Old audio cassettes and rare LPs gave way to YouTube rips and fan uploads, where Kishore Kumar aficionados rediscovered this oddity and fell in love with it all over again.

There are no grand orchestras or philosophical metaphors in ‘ABCD Chettan’. Just a man, a mic, a melody, and a whole lot of mischief. And in many ways, that’s what Kishore Kumar was all about — breaking rules, breaking into song, and breaking expectations.

It stands as a testament to his fearlessness, as a performer who refused to be boxed in by language, geography, or genre.

And while the song may not have the emotional weight of ‘Kuch Toh Log Kahenge’ or the romantic pull of ‘Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas’, it captures something else that defined Kishore: his ability to have fun with music, to never take himself too seriously, and to surprise his audience at every turn.

So on his birthday, revisit “ABCD Chettan” — not just as a song, but as a moment. A musical prank. A historical curveball. And above all, a reminder that Kishore Kumar truly sang for everyone, even if just once, in Malayalam.