Dr. Padmanabh K. Joshi on SJ ..."SJ worked independently and never totally relied on anyone"

First of all let me thank the SJ Group for welcoming me as a new member of the group.I have written a musical biography of Shanker-Jaikishan in GUJARATI but it will be also published in Hindi and in English.I knew the whole SJ team, namely, Shanker, Jaikishan, Shailendraji,Hasratji, Sebastian and Dattaramji. The book is based on my experiences and interactions with the team members.I being a Hindi Film music lover, I have tried to study almost all the music directors and also written articles on each of them but they were published in Gujarati. I also met Laxmikant-Pyarelal and spoke to them about SJ. Their first sentence was that when they decided to become Music Directors, their only dream was to become SHANKER-JAIKISHAN....With this dream they started their career. A great Music Director like O. P. Nayyar also mentioned SJ as his most favourite Music Director. When asked OP why SJ? His answer in real sense convinced me that SJ were the greatest among the all because according to OP, SJ were the only music directors in the Hindi Film Industry who had consistency in their work. In other words, SJ composed most popular and successful music from Barsat till Mera Naam Joker-a period of 20 years - during which they gave more than 100 movies. No other music director in the industry has this much consistency. OP himself mentioned that even he gave 2 excellent music movies and after that 5 of his movies miserably failed. But such a thing never happened with SJ. In addition, SJ all the time did experimentations as well as innovations in their music. SJ never depended on any musician. Even while creating both interlude music as well as background music, SJ themselves worked seriously as they worked on their melodies. For SJ songs, interlude music and the background music were equal. As Sebastian had mentioned to me that with SJ, he did as per the instructions of SJ. Though he sometimes suggested music but normally he had to follow SJ always. Goody Sirvai mentioned that once he was trying a music piece on his accordian and Shanker took the accordion from Goody and played the piece and told Goody to repeat the same piece in the recording. What I am trying to convey is that SJ worked independently and never totally relied on anyone. Anyway, this discussion is based on my experiences with SJ team. In future I shall try to discuss SJ style of music with examples. Thanksto all SJ group members.Regards.Padmanabh K. Joshi
COURTESY : http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/shankarjaikishan/message/154

SHANKAR - the egoist(?)

BUT PEOPLE COME DOWN ON SHANKAR.

http://gopalshroti.wordpress.com

SHANKAR'S PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY WAS DIFFERENT FROMOTHER MDs AND STARS....HE WAS A 'PAHALWAN' AND A PUCCA 'TABLA ANDDHOLAK' EXPERT AND WAS A CLASSICAL DANCER.....WITH SO MANY QUALITIESHOW SHANKAR CUD BE TREATED AGAINST HIS RESERVED NATURE.....EVERYBODY CANNOT BE OPENMINDED. CAN ANYBODY SAY OP NAYYAR WAS AN EGOIST, WAS HE AGAINST LATABAI.....IT WAS HIS NATURE.....LIKE A COCONUT WHICH IS HARD AS WELL AS SOFT, CUD THESE QUALITIES BE NOT FOUND IN EVERY HUMANBEING....SO SHANKAR AND OP WERE AS HUMAN BEINGS AS OTHERS.....BUT CUDNOT BOW TO THE OTHERS FOOLHARDINESS...(NOT LATABAI)....SO THEY WERE CRITICISED FOR WHAT.....FOR THE QUALITIES U HAVE, I HAVE, .....ARE WE EGOISTS.....ARE WE HUMBLE AND MEEK THROUGHOUT OUR LIFE WITHOUT SELFRESPECT.......CRITICISM IS EASY BUT MAINTAIN DISCIPLINE IN REAL LIFE IS NOT BEARABLE......NOBODY CRITICISES KISHORE KUMAR FOR HIS WHIMS,AND CLEARCUT EGOISM......BUT LAUGH AT HIS IDIOSYNCRACIES......WAS HE NOT A GREAT ARTIST?.......WHY LATAJI DID NOT SING FOR AGED SD BURMANDA.....WAS BURMANDA EGOIST.......THERE ARE SEVERAL EXAMPLE IN FILM INDUSTRY......BUT PEOPLE COME DOWN ON SHANKAR. WAS SHANKAR AND JAI WERE NOT SELECTED MANY TIMES AS PRESIDENT OF MD's ASSOCIATION. MADAN MOHAN WAS KING OF GAZALS, BUT ONCE IN MD's MEETINGS WHEN THE PRESIDENT AND SECRETARY ETC WERE ELECTED......IT HAPPENED THAT ALL IN ONE VOICE DECLARED MADAN MOHAN AS 'PRINCE' AND ON THE PART OF MADANMOHAN, HE THEN AND THERE HAILED SHANKER JAIKISHAN AS 'KINGS' OF FILM MUSIC OF HINDI FILM INDUSTRY......THEY WERE ALL FRIENDS AND MET REGULARLY AND PHONED EACH OTHER ON THEIR SUCCESSFUL SCORES.......LATAJI REVOLTED FOR THE ROYALTY.....WAS IT HER EGO.......YES IF IT WAS EGO THEN IT IS FOR THE BENEFIT OF OTHERS......SO SHANKAR WAS EGOIST IN ONLY CREATING THE IMMORTABLE NUMBERS.....GOD BLESS HIS SOUL FOR SO MUCH GREAT CONTRIBUTION TO US,THE MUSIC LOVERS IN THE FORM OF ''MUJHKO CHAHIYE BAHAR........''(AWARA). THANKS. gshroti

Lapak Jhapak Tu Aa Re Badarawa a write-up by Dr. Mandar, author of cinemasangeet.com

Lapak Jhapak Tu Aa Re Badarawa

by- Dr.Mandar (www.cinemasangeet.com)

Lapak Jhapak Tu Aa Re BadarawaFilm: Boot Polish (1954)Music: Shankar- JaikishanSinger: Manna Dey

Anyone who has seen the movie Boot Polish will not forget Lapak Jhapak Tu Aa Re Badarawa- a song based on a classical melody but picturised and portrayed in such a funny and comic manner. The old bald man- David (who has just entered the jail- cell that very day) is sitting in the midst of his jail-mates (most of them baldies themselves!) and singing Lapak Jhapak Tu Aa Re Badarawa. He is pleading to the rain-Gods, Sar Ki Kheti Suukh Rahi Hai Baras Baras Tu Kaare Badarawa. (My scalp is turning into a dry barren field, so o dark cloud you please bring on the rains!)

Just a moment ago, a professor among those jailbirds- (who was jailed for making a faulty and fraudulent hair-growth formula!)- had put forth his profound ‘philosophy’ about ‘scientific’ connection of ‘Ghatayen’(Dark rain-clouds) and ‘Jatayen’ (Thick hair) and David is desperately trying out the musical formula to bring in the rains a la Tansen, in order to get hair on his bald scalp!

To listen to the origin of this song from singer Manna Dey himself is a treat. In his inimitable manner, Manna Da says, “One day I had gone for a rehearsal in Dadar’s Ranjit Movietone for a song composed by Mahendra Singh. After I finished my work, I came across Raj Kapoor (who was busy shooting with Nargis in the same studio), who immediately made me come to his set and started discussing about music. It was his routine habit. He was practically inseparable from music. He asked me- “Manna Da, Yeh Malhar Kya Cheez Hai?” (Manna Da, what is this thing called Malhar?) I explained to him that Malhar was a raga which was associated with rainy-season. He then made me sing some notes of Malhar and commented- “Oh, Bade Gahre Gambheer Sur Hain!” (Oh, these are very deep and serious musical notes.) He also told me that somewhere down the line he intended to use those notes in his film-song!

"Within four days, I got a call from RK-camp. When I went there, Shankar, Jaikishan, Raj –saab, Hasrat Jaipuri- everyone was present. There I was astonished to see (character artist) David and asked him, “David Chacha, Aap Kya Kar Hain Yahan?” (David Uncle, What are you doing here?) He retorted – “Tujhe maloom nahi- Tu mere liye gaa raha hai?” (Don’t you know you are called to give playback for me?)

“That announcement came to me as a shock. Singing for David? What kind of song is it?” But when I heard the tune, I realized that Raj-saab had thought over those Malhar-notes and he had made Shankar- Jaikishan compose a song using the beauty of that raga but dispensing with the serious, somber mood making it easy for common listeners to enjoy that number.”

Pointing out to the funnily rendered ‘Na dhin dhin dha’ interjections in that song, Manna Da says, “This was sung by Raj-saab himself. So engrossed did he become in that recording that he himself joined in the song.”

Reminiscing about that golden era, Manna Da said, “That was the team- spirit of that era where everybody contributed their bit in creation of those songs. That kind of creativity, effort and dedication went into the making of songs in those days and that’s why listeners still remember them till today!”

(COURTESTY-http://cinemasangeet.com/EachArticle.aspx?rid=390.xml&articleId=390

SJTribute (Courtesy Taranaa Tarang)

SJ Tribute

Andaz Teraa Mastaanaa

The year is 1949. The song starts in a dance club, where Premnath, the reckless lover flirts with a dancer singing patli kamar hai, tircchi najar hai. This, while Nimmi, his faithful love stands at the door of a cottage, her eyes lost in his quest singing aa, aajaa mere man chaahe baalam, aajaa teraa aakhon mein ghar hai. The interlude before the first stanza is typical of music one would hear in a club, before Premnath starts singing in Mukesh’s voice. Lata’s melancholic cry of tum bin nainon ki barsaaten rok na paaoon is preceeded by music and orchestration perfectly apt to show Nimmi’s plight. Two completely different emotions brought together in the same song with the words and music smoothly sailing between the two shores. A duet, which though not as popular as the other songs from the film, but which nevertheless manages to showcase the genius of two young composers composing in their maiden venture. Shankar Singh Raghuwanshi and Jaikishan Panchal started their careers with Barsaat, and literally drenched music lovers over the next two decades with a mesmerizing blend of melody and orchestration to create a timeless legacy of musical magic.
Shankar was born in 1922 and could play several instruments like the piano, dholak, tabla, pakhwaaj, accordion and harmonium. He had a strong grounding in classical music before he left Andhra Pradesh and came to Mumbai to live his dreams. He found the perfect Godfather in Prithviraj Kapoor and started working in his studio. Jaikishan was born in 1929 in Gujrat. He was musically inclined too and could play the harmonium well. He came to Mumbai too to become an actor and began working as a timekeeper in a factory, though the dreams of making it big in the world of films occupied most of his own time. The two met by accident and Shankar, seeing the young man’s interests and drive, took him to Prithvi studios. They worked with Ram Ganguly in Raj Kapoor’s first production Aag. The news soon reached Raj that SJ had played a significant role in the music of Aag and when he started working on Barsaat, he was convinced the two were the men for the job. Thus began a journey of several personalities, who would change the face of Hindi film music forever. SJ brought in two fresh lyricists – Shailendra and Hasrat Jaipuri to write for their compositions. Shankar had heard Lata sing once before and in spite of there being other established female voices, he decided Lata’s would be the voice for Barsaat. Mukesh too, was struggling to break free from the shadows of K.L. Saigal at the time. Mohammad Rafi was perhaps the only established name in the music cast. In Raj Kapoor, they had the perfect producer with more than a keen ear for music and they had little trouble getting the elaborate orchestra, which was unheard of in films of the time. Barsaat, an all-hit album pioneered the idea that music could be as important a commercial aspect as the film itself.
The years that followed confirmed that the SJ magic was far from a one-off phenomenon. Awaara and Nagina in ’51, Daag in ’52, Aah, Boot Polish and Patita in ’53 and then Seema and Shree 420 in ’55 firmly positioned the duo at the top of their trade. Music was the integral part of almost every RK Productions film, so much so that SJ had to keep several tunes ready for each situation and Raj would then personally handpick one for the picturization. Grand sets, dream sequences, theme songs, lost love – RK films had it all. Here was a generation pregnant with dreams in an independent India and here was a young director who could use extravagance to sell the common man his own dream. Shailendra penned the pulse of the common man with lines like muTThi mein hai taqdeer hamaari and us des mein tere pardes mein sone chaandi ke badle mein bikate hain dil. Shankar and Jaikishan composed tunes that were potent enough to portray the protagonist flawlessly, but easy on the ears to be hummed by generations to come.
Even given the number of talented composers in the business then, there was hardly anyone who could match SJ in terms of popularity and prolificity. If there were critics, they were ones who felt SJ could not handle classical music with the same finesse, as they could do the lighter stuff. All that was to change with Basant Bahar in ‘56, a film with which they proved they could not just effortlessly tread into the territory, which till then was Naushad’s bastion, but even conquer it effortlessly. Nain mile chain kahaan, duniyaa na bhaaye mohe, badi der bhayi, ketaki gulab juhi, bhay bhanjanaa, sur naa saje, kar gayaa re, main piyaa teri and jaa jaa re jaa baalamawaa made up an album as classical and as original as one could imagine. In the same year, they delivered Chori Chori, Halaku, New Delhi and Rajhath too. Chori Chori went on to win them their first Filmfare award and there was no looking back.
With several hits under their belt, the work started increasing manifold and the duo had to distribute the work to keep up. Shailendra, who had the penchant for writing sad melancholic songs, started writing mostly for Shankar and Hasrat, good at the light romantic stuff wrote for Jaikishan’s compositions. The aficionado could distinguish Shankar’s work from that of Jaikishan, though they always maintained to the last day that every song was nothing less than a SJ composition. They had Sebastian D’souza and Dattaram (who also composed music individually) as their music arrangers. Besides these two stalwarts, the SJ orchestra had many names that would go on to become popular in the times to come – Ali Akbar Khan, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pannalal Ghosh, Enoch Daniels, Prabhakar Jog, Arun Paudwal, Anil Mohile being a few of them.
SJ won their second Filmfare award for Anadi in 1959, another all-hit music score. The same year saw them come up with such hits as Chhoti Behen, Kanhaiyya, Love Marriage, Main Nashe Mein Hoon, Sharaarat and Ujaalaa. The audience would start dancing and would throw money when jhoomtaa mausam mast mahinaa started playing. More importantly, Ujaalaa formed SJ’s partnership with another star who would go on to rule the 60’s with his dashing looks and inimitable style. If the fifties had seen Raj Kapoor’s steadfast loyalty towards SJ, the sixties was to see his younger brother Shammi, also insist for the popular duo to compose for his films. After films like College Girl, Singapore and Boyfriend, the Shammi-SJ combination served a big hit with Junglee in ’61. They followed it with Dil Tera Diwaanaa, Professor, Rajkumar, Jaanwar, An Evening in Paris, Brahmachari and Andaaz among others. The transition from B&W to color cinema was seamless given Shammi’s persona and SJ’s lilting tunes.
From the early sixties, talks were rife about the strife between Shankar and Jaikishan. The weight of the SJ name however, was not lost on them and they put on a united front for the world. Insiders believed they distributed the work and composed tunes completely independently in the last few years of their association. The final straw probably came with Shankar’s insistence for Sharda, while Jaikishan was firm it would be Lata, who would be the singer of choice as she had always been. Even in this period of contention, the quality of their music never suffered. Success was still a loyal companion, till Jaikishan left us for another world in 1971 at the age of 39. Shankar, who had been paralysed just a few years ago by the loss of his chief lyricist Shailendra, could no longer conjure the same magic now. He continued to compose under the Shankar-Jaikishan name, but he had lost all but his own genius. The change in fortune only highlighted the fact that the weight behind that hyphen in the Shankar-Jaikishan label was far more than the hype created by the media, thanks in part to their larger-than-life images. The elaborate orchestra, which was a feature of SJ songs was withdrawn by most producers after Jaikishan’s demise. Even Raj Kapoor, who had built the RK dynasty with no mean contribution from SJ, turned towards R.D. Burman and Laxmikant Pyarelal for his forthcoming films. Shankar breathed last on April 26, 1987, exactly two decades ago.
I consider myself fortunate to have been exposed to great music at a very early age. Even to this day, many a tune easily brings me to tears, regardless of the composer. I cannot definitively choose between the great composers of that age, each was an institution in his/her own right. What strikes me though about Shankar-Jaikishan is the sheer versatality of their compositions. The Orient and the Occident blend magically in their tunes. Spanning all of four minutes, they could compose a manmohanaa baDe jhooThe, which flows more like a classical bandish than a film song, sans any fancy orchestration. And then they could compose an almost two-minute long prelude with trumpets, cello, violin, guitar, saxophone, ghungroos and what not to create the perfect atmosphere for Lata's divine voice to splash andaaz teraa mastaanaa, maange dil kaa nazraanaa, zaraa sochke aankh milaanaa, by which time, it's humanly impossible for the dil to not be diwaanaa. Whether it be the folk tunes in films like Teesri Kasam or the tunes to color the lush locales of Love in Tokyo or An Evening in Paris, it seemed like everything came just as naturally to the two.
aaj do phoolon ki khushboo se mehek uthaa chaman, gungunaatee hain fizaayen raks karti hai pawan
har kalee ke lab pe naghmaa hai mubaarak baat ka, ban gaye padmashree Bharat mein Shankar Jaikishan
This was written by the great composer Naushad when the Padmashree was conferred upon them in 1967. They won nine Filmfare awards, a feat unparalleled in the industry. More importantly, their music has lighted the hearts of many a music lover and continues to do so. When ajeeb dastaan hai ye starts playing, my daughter doesn’t want it to stop. I can only marvel and ponder kahaan shuru kahaan khatam, ye manzilen hain kaunsee, na wo samajh sake na ham
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Shankar Jaikishan & Binaca Geetmala - Raju Bharatan

COURTESY - http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=3df288aa-d674-4c58-9486-9c57422736a7

The happening pair of Nargis-Raj Kapoor fetched Messrs Shanker-Jaikishan their irst-and-last genuinely earned Filmfare Best Music Award - for Chori Chori in 1956. A Chori Chori.. seeing SJ compulsively having to go without Mukesh on Raj.

This opened a lifetime's opportunity for Manna Dey. Whether it be Shanker's Yeh raat bheegee bheegee or Jaikishan's Aa jaa sanam, Manna never sounded so fluidly romantic on Raj - opposite Lata on Nargis.

Winner takes all

The Binaca Geetmala competition, as Shanker then emphatically told Ameen Sayani, was euphoniously between his own Yeh raat and Jai's Aa jaa sanam. Not so much between Shanker's Jahaan main jaatee hoon and Jai's Panchchee banoon udtee phiroon.

But Ameen played Geetmala favourites here by according pride of place to Jai's Raag Pahadi-based Panchchee banoon on Nargis – a duet in which Manna intriguingly chipped in with just Gilloree! This is what set the tone for Shanker, ultimately, to challenge Binaca Geetmala's credentials.

Clearly Shanker's pathbreaking Jahaan main jaatee hoon, as compared to Jai's Panchchee banoon, was the superior duet with its Czech-puppeteering folk-motif. But Shanker identified Jahaan main as Punjabi folk!

Likewise Punjabi folk in spirit was Jai's O tamkaa timbaa timbaa, so well-crafted for Lata in Raag Gaara.

Favourite pick

Staying with Chori Chori, which lighter number do you prefer - Lata-Rafi's Tum arabon kaa her fer (on Raja Sulochana and Bhagwan), as tuned by Shanker, or Rafi's All line clear on Johnny Walker - as composed by Jai?

If it's for Jai you always go, Chori Chori plump, straightaway, for this composer's Rasik balamaa, in all-time Shudhdh Kalyan, as it unfolded on Nargis. This was the Chori Chori classic that Jaikishan so wanted his heart-throb Lata personally to render at the Filmfare Awards ceremony.

When Lata refused, on the ground that there was no Filmfare Best Singer award forthcoming yet, some lovers' tiff there was! It was Shanker who smoothed ruffled feathers by noting that Lata had an award point to press.

In Chori Chori, the same Shanker had Lata and Asha collaborating, tellingly, on Manbhaavan ke ghar jaaye goree, going on the Apalam chapalam pair of Sai-Subbulaxmi.

One up

Yet Shanker's Manbhaavan ke ghar couldn't make even a fraction of the impression C Ramchandra had left, on the electric-heeled Sai-Subbulaxmi, with Lata-Usha Mangeshkar's Apalam chapalam and O baliye o baliye in Sriramulu Naidu's Azaad.

For all that, O P Nayyar's C.I.D. (Shakila, Dev Anand) lost out to SJ's Chori Chori (Nargis-Raj Kapoor) in the 1956 Filmfare Awards.

Chori Chori is the film with which SJ's musical sway began. Or so we felt – until OP Nayyar robustly materialised to lift the 1957 Filmfare Best Music Award for heralding, with the good old Punjabi beat, a Naya Daur in Hindustani cinema.

Few Rare Photographs of Naushad, Lata, Asha, Shankar-Jaikishan, Madan Mohan, SD Burman, RD Burman, Manna Dey, Chitragupta,CR etc