Whither Shankar Jaikishan?

The writer in his post expresses anguish and dismay over the negligence of Shankar Jaikishan's Treasure of Music- सुदर्शन पाण्डेय

A few days back I paid a visit to the local Planet M store at Sadar Bazar. I visited it after several months and as ever, I returned disgustingly disappointed with their lopsided collections, especially in the older music section. There were plentiful albums on RD Burman, a handful on Madan Mohan, a few on SD Burman and even a couple of polite ones on Naushad and - surprise surprise, Chitragupta- but there wasn’t a single piece on Shankar-Jaikishan- the tunesmiths who unarguably ruled the charts in the golden fifties and sixties!
A similar story was seen at the newly opened Music World store (at Pacific Mall) last week, where I had even dared to ask the salesman about this unjust anomaly but had received only a blank quizzical look from him as if I had asked some impossibly tough Newton’s theory!
It’s not that the smaller Agra editions of these stores are cutting out Shankar-Jaikishan. The problem is repeated at their bigger versions in Delhi also. And the root of this lies in the sheer negligence on HMV’s part (the music company which controls the rights of 80-90% movies from that era).

Take Lata Mangeshkar, for example. Till date I have seen only one album featuring the diva with the composers. Quite strange! From Barsaat till about the mid-sixties, when the rift between the two widened, Lata Mangeshkar was the leading singer in nearly all their films, so much so that there are some movies like Poonam and Aurat where she is the only singer, no male solos, not even any duets! Even beyond the mid-sixties, despite their differences, Latadi continued to be permanently placed in their recording room, with some significant releases like Raat Aur Din, Prince, Laat Saaheb and Teesri Kasam coming out in the late sixties. Post-Jaikishan’s untimely demise, when Shankar continued to compose solo (though keeping the joint brand name as a mark of respect towards his late partner), they patched up big time and gave us Sanyasi, Do Jhoot, Chorni and Paapi Pet Ka Sawaal Hai.
For such a long-lasting and dazzling association, some of which encompasses some magnificently brilliant melodies, one single album is a grossly small representation!
Also, HMV should realize that they cannot keep on playing one song from a film like a warped stuck record. For example, Dil Apna Aur Preet Parayii has two beautiful solos Andaaz mera mastaana and Sheesha-e-dil itna na uchhalo, both equally good, if not better than Ajeeb daastaan hai! Similarly, one has to delve into Chhoti Bahan to notice that the album is not restricted to that one song played once a year or about Jaaoon kahan bata e dil (both realy nice songs). There is the porcelain fragile Baaghon baharon mein ithlaata gaata aaya koii as well, which for some unknown reason is criminally neglected. Why can’t HMV feature this in some collection of Latadi, possibly in the myriad ‘Love’ or ‘Romance’ series that the company releases with quite an alarming regularity, but with all the same solos that have been oft repeated? In Yahudi the focus always centres on Yeh mera deewanapan hai, but who will carve out the rhythm wonder Dil mein pyaar ka toofan (a tune used by Yash Chopra as Neeche paan kii dukan in a tipsy scene in Silsila) or the pain-lashed Aansoo kii aag leke teri yaad aayi? Why the latter number wasn’t included in the ‘Dard’ series of Lata Mangeshkar is anyone’s million dollar guess? Similarly, the tender Lo aayii milan kii raat suhaani aaj from Aashiq is never found in any album, and from Aah, the love-lorn ditty Sunte the naam hum jinka bahaar se is always short-changed!
I can go on and on about this!
Even if I momentarily set aside my obsession for Lata Mangeshkar, there is huge bulk of work by Asha Bhonsle for the enterprising duo some of which are, if I may be allowed to be a little blasphemous, by far superior to her numbers for either SDB or OPN. In fact, many of my personal favorite numbers of Ashaji from that era invariably emanate from Shankar Jaikishan’s rich repertoire. For example, amongst her cabaret songs, it’s the unsung beauty of Parwano ki raah mein (Haryali Aur Raasta) that excites me the most (the wanton and lush interludes are only rivaled by Helen’s energetic dance to the song). Or, take for example, the lusty intonations of Mujhe pyaas badi pyaas lagi hai or the rustic come-hither calls of Dekhoji raat ko julam ho gaya both largely unknown songs, but nevertheless mindblowingly mesmerizing. And then there was the steamy, sensuous and sensational Dilruba dil pe tu yeh sitam kiye jaa (Rajkumar), with some lip-smacking rigorous and vigorous drum beats. Moving aside from the hot numbers, they also gave her the innocence of Nanhe munhe bachhe teri muhhi mein kya hai and the romance of Raat ke humsafar thak ke ghar ko chale! In the latter years, Asha Bhonsle worked for many big projects of Shankar-Jaikishan - the title song of Hare Kaanch Kii Choodiyan is a precious example from this age. And then there are the bumper hits Parde mein rahne do parda na uthaayo (Shikar) or the sizzling Ang lag ja baalma (Mera Naam Joker). I have yet to come across an album depicting this momentous association.
The male singers don’t fare any better. It is a common knowledge that Rafisaab teamed up with Shankar Jaikishan to create colossal ditties for Shammi Kapoor, Dharmendra and Rajendra Kumar starrers. Yet, again, for this vast collection there is just one cassette that I have seen. Even there, the focus is just on the hit songs, leaving behind some genuinely interesting numbers. For example, Rafisaab’s heart wrenching rendition of Kahan jaa raha hai (Seema) is almost impossible to find.
Mukesh and Manna Dey are other two singers who featured copiously in Shankar Jaikishan songs yet exclusive albums featuring the artistes with the composers are conspicuous by their absence. For example, Mukesh’s Mast nazar dekh idhar (Ek Dil Sau Afsaane) is a fabulous number that has been unfairly buried in the debris of time; the rhythm, the beats and the interlude in this song would put any modern musician to shame! The same ignonimous fate stuck other scintillating numbers e.g. the sarcastically poignant Ae pyaase dil bezubaan (Begunaah), the tragic Yeh zindagi (Sapnon Ka Saudagar) and the shining-as-gold Yaad aayi aadhi raat ko kal raat kii tauba (Kanhaiya).
Every singer who worked under Shankar Jaikishan, be it Mukesh, Manna Dey, Rafisaab or even Suman Kalyanpur and Subir Sen, has found that single (usually more) number that they could cling on to for a lifetime. It would have been impossible for a shrilly Sharda to survive had she not found a mentor in them (I am deliberately not going into any debatable issues about their personal lives here!) In fact, if I could bear Sharda, it is solely because she sang under Shankar- Jaikishan’s (more the former’s) exquisite orchestra - take for example the ultimately wide-angled, luxuriant and breathtakingly enormous title song of Around The World or, on the other spectrum, the dew-drop fresh and delicate love-duet Jaane chaman shola badan (Gumnaam).
If we leave the collections for a while, the movie albums of Shankar-Jaikishan are fast dwindling. In the early nineties, HMV had done the favor of re-releasing some of them I had managed to get hold of Poonam/Shikast, Main Nashe Mein Hoon/Kanhaiya, Saanjh Aur Savera/Ek Dil Sau Afsaane and a few more. But try finding them now! It s like searching for the proverbial needle in the haystack. And even if you get the cassettes, the CD’s wouldn’t be there. But shouldn’t HMV also realize that there would be a mass of interested people like me who would like to own the entire albums of such superb musicals like Raj Hath, Nagina, Patrani or Aurat. The songs of these films are easily exchanged in the gray space of the web world but the rightful revenue to the company, and the resultant royalty to the artistes’ heirs, is irretrievably lost!
There have been a few (IIRC, only two) Golden Collection Series on Shankar Jaikishan and strangely there is no Legends Series edition released on the duo. Why so?
In the Golden Collection-Shankar Jaikishan series, my grouse about including the more common-placed numbers remains. For example, once again there was Ajeeb daastaan hai, or Raja kii aayegi baaraat or Kisiki muskurahaton pe ho nisaar. I accept these are all numbers worth their weight in gold. But for the series, they could easily have come up with more editions, including many of the unknown ditties that have been mentioned up above in this write-up. Or some other ones that I can immediately (and off-hand) think of - for example, the fusion fiesta of Sajan sang kaahe naina lagaaye (Mai Nashe Mein Hoon) or the philosophical twinge of Duniya isi ka naam hai (Duniya) or the masti of Patli kamar hai tirchhi nazar hai (Barsaat) or the choral beauty of Naacho gaao nacho (sans any lead singer)(Amrapali) or the haunting notes of Do din ke liye mehmaan yahaan (Baadal) or the deceptively vivacious but inherently tragic Mai har raat jaagi tumhaari qasam tum bahut yaad aaye (Gaban) {what a splendidly sensational song with a complex tune that sucks you into its many folds} or the orchestral sizzler Teen kanastar peet peet kar (Love Marriage) or the naughty Dil se dil takraaye (Love Marriage, again) or the reckless abandon of Thandi thandi hawa mein (Prince) or the optistic Baat baat mein rootho na (Seema) or the impish Aaj na jaane paagal manwa kaahe ko ghabraaye (Begunah) - the list is simply endless!
HMV’s neglect of Shankar Jaikishan is sad, disgusting and horrible; especially considering the fact that they were the pioneers of Hindi film music, imparting it with the grammar that has been the foundation for subsequent generations. Shankar Jaikishan gave a fresh sound to the music, and their interlude music is par excellence - often, I have loved their songs for the flawless orchestra they built into their songs. And all Shankar Jaikishan tunes are extremely easy on the lips, so much so that listening to them one can feel the effortlessness in them. They gave a definite structure and symmetry to the songs.
Sadly, it is not only HMV’s collection where Shankar Jaikishan are getting a raw deal. Even on the internet it is hard to find good articles on the duo. On Orkut, a popular youngster site, the members in Shankar Jaikishan club are a mere 338 (compare this to Panchamda’s 7505 members in one of the clubs, it is way too less, but this is still understandable, but even for that music-chor Pritam one finds 395 members, you would know why I am fuming!) On Mouthshut.com, another fairly popular site where common readers post their views and reviews, there is simply no listing on Shankar Jaikishan under the Bollywood Movie Personalities (you can find even a non-star Shayan Munshi and Tushar Kapoor, but no SJ!!!)
With HMV holding a treasure trove of music rights, the company has a formidable responsibility in educating the young generation about the values of the undoubtedly Golden Era of Hindi Film Music the fifties and the sixties. They have to go beyond just making quick bucks in releasing shoddily done up remixes (when they have the originals with them!). Till a few years up to his death, RD Burman was a lost entity, but the collective force of media, Ashaji and the music industry revived his memory a big way posthumously. Similar effort needs to be done for Shankar Jaikishan as well. The Golden Era of Music has to be informed and told to all. And in that, they have to rightfully return the crown to the shahanshahs of that time - Shankar Jaikishan!
www.deepakjeswal.com/shankar-jaikishan-expressions-2-non-lata-mangeshkar-duets/ - 28k