Shri Chandra Gopal Shroti pays his homage to Shankar Jaikishan (Series-10) Photo : Courtesy : Dr. Raj Senani

TRIBUTE TO SHANKAR JAIKISHAN - 10

BY : chandra gopal shroti

(gshroti@gmail.com)

FIRST, let me thank mr bhangdi(bhangdi@hotmail.com) for getting me remembered reg Mannada’s song ”bhai bhanjana vandana sun hamari, daras tere maange, ye tera pujari” from ‘Basant Bahar' which i forgot to mention (in tribute to S-J–6). SO I BEG PARDON FROM THE READERS, IF I MISS ANY SONG because there is a great treasure of immortal evergreen songs of S-J. Reg. my association with S-J’s songs starts from my love to the sound of piano accordian, which nobody cud played yet as they thru Goodie Seervai or any other accordianist and it was the accordian and mendolin of AWARA which tied me to their lilting, melodious tunes some five decades plus ago. It was a cooindence that i was a painter in my school days. and while coming back from school, i used to visit local cinema ‘Narayan talkies’, and see the then painters, painting the film hoardings on cloth panel with water colours. and one day, i was asked to take charge of the same…and i was painting big portraits of Bharat Bhushan, Meena Kumari, Pradeep Kumar, Dilip Kumar and others in big panels. …while there, the agent for films used to come from Indore with the current film box and the list of coming films for booking in advance, so the film will not go to another theatre. the agent will read out the name of films and the question from Manager and others will be, ”who is the music director”, and he says ‘Shankar Jaikishan’ and the reply will be ‘BOOK FIRST’….and it was in Bombay film world, that after hearing the name of S-J as music director of the film, the stars signed the film not much caring for story, screenplay etc. this was the magic of TWO WORDS which TIED the then FILM WORLD FOR MORE THAN 2 DECADES.

IT is said that the ”HEYDAYS OF THE S-J WAS THE GOLDEN ERA OF INDIAN FILM MUSIC”. IF THE INDIAN FILM MUSIC was popular, the credit will go to the music maestros of 50s and 60s and Shankar Jaikishan stood out amongst them with the single identity and their credit to Indian film music will always be remembered and hummed. ”tum mujhe yun bhula na paoge, jab kabhi bi sunoge geet mere, sang sang tum bhi gungunaoge”.’……chhoti si ye dunia pehchane raste hain, tum kahin to miloge, kabhi to miloge to poochhenge haal”……..(gshroti@gmail.com)