Shankar Jaikishan: A Retrospective Tribute

Prelude

Shankar being elder to Jaikishan by nearly half a score of years should have logically gone first. If it had happened that way Jai's position would have been similar.The disadvantage of being Shankar Jaikishan is as true the advantage of being Shankar Jaikishan. Both had reaped unprecedented success as music directors while both of them were living.

Salient features on sharing of workload :

To meet the workload from the plethora of films coming as a bounty in the wake of their resounding commercial viabilty, inevitably lead to a standing arrangement between the two.

The title songs, theme tunes,classical music and,the dance compositions which forms the most difficult part of song composition would be done by Shankar being a one time dancer himself.,

Whereas the softer tunes, romantic numbers, the more modern ones and the arduous task of scoring background music was done by Jaikishan. Naushad sab is on record on how Jai had the rare ability of instant mental notation once the film was unreeled for the background score and what a dream score it would be with its telling audiovisual impact on the viewer.

While the contours of day to day functioning were so distinct it was inevitable that there should have been disharmony and disarray immediately consequent upon Jaikishan's sudden demise and Shankar taking on those extra cudgels shared by Jaikishan.

It took some time naturally for Shankar to readjust and it is sadly this transit phase when Shanker was value judged as a solo composer and the commercial viability of Shankar at stake.

As a natural corrolary would it not have been Jai's fate as well?

In the aftermath of Jai's exit:

the year that Jaikishan passed away (1971) SJ had between them no fewer than 17 releases and bulk of those have flopped by the time Jai passed away.

But the moment Jai died only his success over the 22 years was remembered while Shanker had to carry the full onus, all by himself not only the flops that had already come in the year 1971 but the failures immediately after Septembe12 1971, though most of those compositions pertained to Jaikishan.

The harsh truth is that SJ's image broke when Jai so suddenly shuffled his mortal coil and Shanker had all by himself to pick up the pieces. A couple of immediate boxoffice hits (which were SJ's forte till then ) would have helped and rejuvenated Shanker from the sinking morass of depression he found himself in. But he had no such luck. Shankar fought what was at best a gallant rearguard waterloo.

Lady luck and Glamour kid Jai :

That is called luck for Jaikishan. Could it not be said Jaikishan was born to Lady Luck. He was this lady's glamour kid from word go.Jai patronised only the most modern restaurants at Churchgate in Bombay. His aura was built around his handsome semblance, endearing personality, his marriage to a socialite like Pallavi had added to his charisma. It was said that Jai would be the first person sent for no sooner Shammi Kapoor signed a film giving the composer a vantage position in the industry. Jaikishan had a tongue coated with honey. He only made friends and is amazing for one who was so enviably succesful all through his career. His death revealed that he was amiable with the entire industry . Shankar candidly spoke on these aspects of Jai which were his natural traits in an interview with Amin Sayani.

Shankar, Lata and Sharada :

Shankar never had the need for dealing with the commercial and PR aspects with film producers so long as Jai was alive and the need to curb his inbuilt outspoken trait of wearing his heart on his sleeve did not arise. In fact his rocklike stubbornness which had paid him dividends while the going was good was now a detrimental factor. Mind you when Shankar was asked why he chose Sharada as a singer who is a nonentity and a nobody, he nonchallantly replied that Lata also was the same when SJ chose her for the songs of Barsat.

Lata's word counted a lot in the industry at the time when Jaikishan died, and unfortunately, (for whatever reasons) Sharada did not turn out to be the Midastouch Shankar anticipated from her and Lata faced no threat ever from either Sharada or Shankar.

Shanker was a broken man by now, with the wind against him and with most of the bigwigs in the film industry havng deserted him, Shankar's pride of self respect now was mocking indignant when he was denied the large orchestra he was used to tantamounting to one's hands being tied to one's back.

Inscrutable are the ways of Nature, the duo's rehearsal room at Famous studios which many moons ago had hordes of producers throng its corridors waiting in anticipation with a thick wad of notes to sign the Silver Jubilee music directors has since dwindled. Yet holding his head high in the light of his bereavement from Jaikishan and his disillusion around not being recalled to RK, he still waged a relentless battle against all odds for the rest of his life and passed away on 26th April 1987.

RK's Intense feelings at Shankar's demise:

One person who could have resurrected Shankar at this stage was RK who was his maker and unfortunately his nemesis also and RajKapoor was seen to feel intensely for the man on his death as he made a personal appearance on Bombay TV's Chaya Geet, to pay his salad day's composer a tribute.

Nostalgia:

As I passed my boyhood, nourishing on SJ's music and passed on to adolescence and into the formative years stealing a prosaic glance into the sands of time I recollect how the S-J wave had gathered momentum just when I was leaving the harbourage of boyhood and peaked just when I was all set to sail the turbulent sea of life. Now, I am immune to the sting that S & J are no more in flesh and blood but their melodies in the form of memories live on and giving us cause to remember them in a large canvass of assosciated artistes, singers, accompaniments, arrangers,instrumen talists and so on.

It is perhaps, the Almighty's decree that Jaikishan ji be relieved at the top of the high tide and not be left forlorn by a receding wave,leaving the burden of the cross to be borne by his illustrious robust colleague Shanker for the next sixteen years. Even as the pain of their loss is dredged up along with the past, we continue to draw sustenance from the wellsprings of S-J's timeless nuggets.

May their souls rest in peace.

A humble tribute to the legends who made our moods and for me and am sure for most of us it is SJ always irrespective of whose tunes they are S or J.

with humble regards
ssmurthy