SHANKAR JAIKISHAN ,PILLAR OF BOLLYWOOD MUSICS ALWAYS TO BE REMEMBERED
Shankar Jaikishan (also known as S-J), were an Indian duo who composed music for the Hindi film industry, working together from 1949 to 1971. Later, Shankar continued to function as a Music Director alone, still giving music under the banner Shankar-Jaikishan, till 1987.
Shankar-Jaikishan, along with other artists, composed "everlasting" and "immortal melodies" in the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s.[1] Their best work was noted for being "raga-based and having both lilt and sonority".[
| Shankar | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Shankar Singh ram singh |
| Born | 15 October 1922 Hyderabad Deccan, Hyderabad State present Telangana State |
| Died | 26 April 1987 (aged 64) Mumbai, Maharashtra, India |
| Years active | .,jo8 |
contrary to the adverse propaganda that he was illiterate and never went to school, as per his surviving close relatives (families of his sisters), this is not true. In fact, Shankar had studied at Hyderabad and had passed 10th class, before moving to Bombay. A 10th class pass of pre-independence era, cannot be considered to be illiterate by any means!
Shankar started his career with a theater group run by Satyanarayan and Hemawati, before shifting to Prithvi Theatre where he played tabla and performed some minor roles in plays. Shankar worked as assistant to the leading composer duo of Husnlal Bhagatram.
| Jaikishan | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Jaikishan Dayabhai Panchal |
| Born | 4 November 1929 Vansda, Bansda State, British India |
| Died | 12 September 1971 (aged 41) Mumbai, Maharashtra, India |
Formation of the composer duo[edit]
Apart from working at Prithvi theaters, Shankar used to frequently visit the office of a Gujrati director Chandravadan Bhatt who had promised Shankar a break as a Music Director when he produced a film. It was outside the office of Bhatt that Shankar saw Jaikishan a number of times. One day, he started a conversation and discovered that Jaikishan was a harmonium player, and that he too was visiting the same producer in search of work.
Shankar later recollected that they developed a liking for each other and it was he who then and there assured Jaikishan of the job of a Harmonium player at Prithvi theaters (without asking Prithviraj Kapoor, fondly referred to as 'Papaji'). Papaji honoured Shankar's selection and gladly accepted Jaikishan as a Harmonium player at Prithvi. Soon, the two of them developed very close friendship to the extent that the people started referring to them as 'Ram-Lakshman' ki jodi and by several similar-meaning nicknames. Apart from following their musical pursuits, they also used to play significant roles in various plays including the famous play "Pathan".
While working in Prithvi Theaters, Shankar and Jaikishan used to compose tunes and were in touch with Raj Kapoor, who was working as an assistant to the famous director Kidar Sharma and was aspiring to be an actor/director. Thus, the three had met at Prithvi Theater.
Barsaat: the first break[edit]
Raj Kapoor made his debut as a director with the film Aag in 1948. Its music director Ram Ganguly was assisted by Shankar and Jaikishan. However, during the recording of a song for his new venture Barsaat, Raj Kapoor had some serious differences with Ram Ganguly and decided to assign its music to Shankar who insisted on taking Jaikishan as his partner. Thus came into existence the new pair of music directors named 'Shankar-Jaikishan' who composed the music for the film.
Himself being a trained singer (he and Mukesh learned vocal music from the same Guru), Raj Kapoor thus took on board a new team of composers Shankar and Jaikishan and lyricists Shailendra and Hasrat Jaipuri (a former bus conductor). On the insistence of Shankar, he and SJ co-opted the upcoming singing talent Lata Mangeshkar, and repeated Mukesh as Raj Kapoor's ghost voice for the various songs of Barsaat.
The film also had the distinction of featuring two firsts in Hindi cinema — a title song ("Barsaat Mein Humse Mile") and a cabaret ("Patli Kamar Hai").
Early works b/w 1949-1959[edit]
The two became known by the acronym "S-J".
Their early works include Barsaat, Awaara, Badal, Poonam, Nagina, Aurat, Parbat, Kaali Ghataa, Aah, Patita, Shikast, Badshah, Mayur Pankh, Naya Ghar, Seema, Shree 420, Basant Bahar, Halaku, Rajhath, New Delhi, Kathputli, Anari, Chori Chori, Daag, Begunah, Yahudi, Main Nashe main hoon, Kanaiah, Boot Polish, Chhoti Behan, Sharaarat, Love Marriage, and Ujala.[citation needed]
Musical collaborators[edit]
S-J formed a core team with lyricists Shailendra (himself regarded as perhaps the greatest of his ilk) and Hasrat Jaipuri and with singers Mohammed Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar. SJ had two other lifelong companions who worked as their assistants: Dattaram Wadkar and Sebastian D'Souza, the former supervising their rhythm section and the later writing musical notations for all SJ compositions (during SJ's musical sittings as can be seen in a number of photographs of such sessions) and then rehearsing all the musicians of the grand SJ orchestra according to SJ's compositions and directions. SJ also patronized the immensely talented singer Manna Dey, who sang his best songs with them and used Mukesh's silken voice as playback for Raj Kapoor. Among the directors, they worked most closely with Raj Kapoor and were considered the kingpins of his legendary banner RK Films.
They were commercial geniuses in addition to be wonderfully god-blessed on music. They lead the Bollywood music in spite of tough competition from maestros like Roshan, SD Burman, OP Nayyar and Madanmohan and remained on the top much to the chagrin of very highly talented music directors!
S-J worked with almost all singers of their time. They had a good working relationship with all of them and were masters in extracting the very best from every one of them. They were steady as a team with Hasrat Jaipuri & Shailendra as their lyricists; but after the demise of Shailendra, they worked with a host of other lyricists such as Indeevar, Gulshan Bawra, Gopaldas Neeraj, Verma Malik, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Vithhal Bhai Patel and Rajinder Krishan, to name a few.
S-J were the "house composers" for RK Films and were on their pay-roll till the end. Raj Kapoor used to maintain a music bank where he stored compositions of S-J.[citation needed] Even after the termination of the professional association between Shankar and Raj Kapoor (Jaikishan had died by then), the latter had used a number of S-J's earlier compositions (which were in his custody) for all his films though the credits were given officially to other composers, e.g., Laxmikant Pyarelal (Bobby, Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Prem Rog) and Ravindra Jain (Ram Teri Ganga Maili). S-J also worked with other stars like Shammi Kapoor, Rajendra Kumar, Dev Anand, Sunil Dutt, Kishore Kumar, Manoj Kumar, Biswajeet, Joy Mukherjee, Dharmendra & Manoj Kumar.Beside them S-J combo works above all of with Mohd Rafi and secondly Mukesh, produced numbers of hits and unmatchable gems. Mohd Rafi was their favourite singer despite having good reputation with other playback singers of its time.
Most of S-J's films show Dattaram and Sebastian as their assistants. Dattaram handled the percussion section of the orchestra and composed original beats, and Sebastian handled the rest. Shankar met Dattaram when the latter was a page boy at Prithvi Theatres and stayed with him throughout. As recalled by Dattaram,[3] Sebastian composed the musical background of most of S-J's songs and also conducted the orchestra. Thus S-J were fortunate to have top quality assistants and used their talents well.
Composition style[edit]
Statue of Jaikishan at Bansada near Valsad, Gujarat (Jaikishan's native town).
Shankar-Jaikishan made a significant contribution in promoting Indian classical music throughout their career. It was their established practice to have at least one song in a movie based on semi-classical style. These included songs like `Jhanak-jhanak tori baje payaliya' (Mere Huzoor), `Chham chham baje re payaliya' (Jane-anjane), `Radhike tune bansari churayi' (Beti Bete), `Manmohana bade jhoothe' (old `Seema'), `Koi matwala aya mere dware' (Love in Tokyo), `Ajahu na ayae baalma, sawan beeta jaye' (Sanjh aur Savera), `Lapak jhpak tu aa re badarwa' (Boot polish), `Ye barkha bahar sautaniya ke dwar' (Mayur pankh), `Re man sur mein ga' (Lal pathar), `Sooni sooni sans ke sitar par' (Naina), `Kate na kate raina' (Mera naam joker) and numerous others. Their music in `Basant Bahar' and Amrapali both of which had every song based upon Indian classical music. While "raga Bhairavi" remained their perennial favorite, SJ used a variety of Raagas in their compositions.
Shankar Jaikishan also used the western classical-based waltz rhythm in a number of songs.
Shankar-Jaikishan gave a new style and meaning to the genre of sad songs by composing them on a fast tempo. Songs like "Zindagi Mein Hardam Rota Hi Raha" (Barsaat), "Tera Jana Dil Ke Armanon" (Anari), "Haye Tu Hi Gaya Mohe Bhool Re" (Kathputli), "Aye Mere Dil Kahin Aur Chal' (Daag) and "Andhe Jahan Ke Andhe Raate" (Patita) demonstrated this. The last two songs, along with many others (notably "Awaara Hoon" from the film Awaara), also demonstrate the composers’ use of musical instruments – a harmonium is used to produce the effect of a piano accordion.
Working styles: 'SJ' were two composers in one name[edit]
"We have never thought of the public as the 'masses', but as individuals who want the best from us"
While working as a team, Shankar and Jaikishan used to compose their songs separately. Generally, Shankar liked to work with Shailendra and Jaikishan with Hasrat Jaipuri though there are notable instances where Shankar worked with Hasrat and Jaikishan with Shailendra. Between the two, Shankar was the senior partner and hence, he would usually arrange the orchestra, even for Jaikishan's songs. There was a gentleman's agreement between them for not identifying the actual composer of the song. As a result, it has been a popular pastime for S-J aficionados to try to tell a Shankar song from a Jaikishan song. Dance numbers, title/theme songs and soulful songs were Shankar's forte while Jaikishan was a master of composing background score, apart from romantic songs (he is generally regarded as the best ever in this genre) and simple, catchy compositions which became instant hits ("Ehsaan Mere Dil Pe" being a typical example of such songs). However, Shankar was no less in this aspect of devising simple 'straight line' tunes: "Mera Joota Hai Japani" (Sri 420) being the best example of this genre.
It is said that Jaikishan would count some numbers on his fingers before coming up with the background score for a particular scene on the spot! Two of S-J's films, viz., Sangam (1964) and Mera Naam Joker (1971) are regarded even today as having some of the best background musical scores of Hindi films till date. Although, by and large, it was Jaikishan who used to work on background music of SJ movies as per their mutually agreed division of work, it may be an over-simplification to presume that therefore, whatever went in background scores was solely Jaikishan's creation. Since SJ had a common pool of tunes in their stock, made by either of them during their numerous music sessions/sittings (Riyaz), it was perfectly legitimate and natural for Jaikishan to have used tunes created by Shankar also wherever needed. It is understood that in RK films, Shankar and Jaikishan both used to work on the background scores. On the other hand, both Shankar and Jaikishan were equally proficient in scoring western music based songs.
Despite their distinct working styles and preferences, it is very difficult, if not altogether impossible, to ascribe most of their songs to only one of them. In most of the songs, they invariably contributed to one another's creation, either in the form of improvisation of tune or of orchestration, thus, making their compositions truly a joint effort. Furthermore, each of the two could compose in other's style now and then thereby making the identification still more difficult.
Contrary to the popular mis-conception that `it was Jaikishan who used to handle the public relations and business/financial aspects of the duo's career', the fact is that it was Shankar who had the final say on all financial/business aspects of the SJ-team.
Raaga-jazz style[edit]
SJ's 1968 Indo-jazz album, Raaga- Jazz Style.
Shankar Jaikishan made a major contribution towards the development of jazz music in India and the new genre Indo jazz. Their 1968 album Raaga-Jazz style is the earliest Indo-jazz recording in India. In this album, considered to be one of the most innovative, SJ created 11 songs based on Indian Ragas with saxophone, trumpet, sitar (by Rais Khan), tabla, bass etc.[4]
Awards[edit]
During their career, S-J won Filmfare Best Music Director Awards nine times. The last three awards were won in three successive years, thereby making S-J the first composers to score a hat trick of these awards.
S-J also came out tops in Binaca Geetmala, the legendary countdown radio program on Hindi film music, where their compositions were declared the most popular on six occasions (a record later equaled by Laxmikant Pyarelal). These songs were "Mera Joota Hai Japani" in 1955 (Shree 420), "Teri Pyari Pyari Surat Ko" in 1961 (Sasural), "Ehsaan Tera Hoga Mujh Par" in 1962 (Junglee), "Bol Radha Bol" in 1964 (Sangam), "Baharon Phool Barsaao" in 1966 (Suraj), and "Zindagi Ek Safar Hai Suhana" in 1971 (Andaaz). In 1959, seven of the top ten songs for the year were composed by S-J, a sort of record that stands perhaps to this date, though the top honors for that year went to SD Burman.
Government recognitions[edit]
1968 - Shankar-Jaikishan was honoured with the Padmashri by the Government of India.[5]
2013 - A postage stamp, bearing their face, was released by India Post to honour them on 3 May 2013.
Filmfare Awards[edit]
FILMFARE AWARD STARTED DURING 1954 FOR BEST MUSIC DIRECTOR
Winner[6]
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