INTIMATE IMPRESSIONS - A book on eminent film Lyricists, Music Directors & Singers by Rajnikumar Pandya

Face of the Book

This Book reflects the internal beauty of the prominent artistes of India. Shri Rajnikumar Pandya has penned this book on information gathered from the artistes with whom Shri Pandya had very intimate relations. This book contains features on 1-Talat Mehmood, 2-Talat & Jagmohan, 3-Shamshad Begum, 4-Mubarak Begum, 5-Jaikishan, 6-Mukesh, 7-Mohammed Rafi, 8-Kalyanji & Anandji's Father, 9-Manna Dey, 10-Amir Bai Karnataki, 11-Kavi Pradeep, 12-Anil Biswas & 13-Hemant Kumar. Published by Prakashan Sansthan, this book is a must for music lovers.

Very down to earth and polite. Born at at Jetpur (Saurashtra - Gujarat) in 1938, he has presented more than 50 books in Gujarati leterature. He stands in the foremost row of Gujarati writers. The outstanding novel "Kunti" by him inspired for making of Hindi TV serial twice in succession on normal as well as international platforms.

He has been honoured by more than five awards by Gujarat Literary Academy, Statesman Award for the best Rural Development journalism. He has also been awarded the Gold Medal by "Kumar" Magazine for his presentation of the history of Hindi films from 1931 to 1941.

सुदर्शन पाण्डेय

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
Retrieved from "http://taranaa.com/Tarang/index.php?title=SJTribute"

A DHOLAK MASTER BECOMES MUSIC DIRECTOR…….

Chandra Gopal Shroti's Tribute to SJ (13th Episode)

(Courtesy : Shri Gopal Shroti's blog http://gopalshroti.wordpress.com

Raj Kapoor was to launch ”AB DILLI DOOR NAHIN”, in which a boy goes to Delhi to meet CHACHA NEHRU, against the injustice done to his father. when the subject of music came before the team, SHANKAR AIKISHAN suggested themselves the name of their disciple/asstt.MD, DATTARAM. Raj had no doubts about the talent of Dattaram, but still suspicious and cud not announce the name of music director of the said film at that time.
IN between came HOLI and RK STUDIO’s holi was famous and most of the film stars, directors, producers used to play holi there. and SITARA DEVI’s performance was a great event. however, at that time dancers were there but Dholak player was singular and he played that sort of the ’saaz’, that Raj had nothing but full praise of the person in the words ”oh my friend, u did wonder today and i am very happy. ask, what u want”. it was Dattaram and without losing the chance he prayed Raj to allow him to give music independently. Raj saab called him next day in his studio, where S-J were also present. Raj agreed on his request, but told him that he will do this under the supervision of S-J. what more Dattaram wanted. S-J were his Guru. ……S-J told Raj Kapoor, that Dattaram has had several tunes with him, which he composed himself. Raj asked to let him listen any of his tunes. Dattaram played the Dhun of ”ye chaman hamara apna hai” and Raj liked the tune and he became sure that DATTARAM has the capacity to give music independently.
THE songs’ situations were selected and Shailendra and Hasrat were assigned to write the songs on those tunes for ‘AB DILLI DOOR NAHIN’. then and there Hasrat wrote on one tune ”chun chun karti aai chidiya, dal ka dana lai chidiya” and everybody liked the song. and Dattaram added the voices of the animals, which were named in the song. ”haati bhi aaya, mor bhi aaya, chooha bhi aaya, bandar bhi aaya” and the song the children liked so much with elders as well, that the radio played thousands of time and still it gives the freshness of the childhood………(to continue) …..(gshroti@in.com)….

SSMURTHY writes for this blog about CHORI-CHORI

A nostalgic recaptulation of the great musical film Chori-Chori.

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A breezy romantic film Chori Chori had shades of "The Taming of The Shrew" by the legendary Holywood pair Richard Burton and Liz Taylor.
Ironically for Rajkapoor and Nargis it was their last movie together as the romantic pair and for SJ their maiden Filmfare award.

Inspite of having established themselves as the leading commercially viable musical giants in this field with a string of outstanding hits to their credit,
and becoming the cynosure of all eyes, that mattered in filmdom,with their uncanny blend of class and mass at their command, had to wait uptil 1956 for being bestowed on them, the coveted filmfare award, a very prestigeous extravaganza, since its inception in 1953.

And what a dream score they gave, each piece an orchestral marvel, sculpted from the nectar like mould and chiselled to perfection

Strangely SJ's first filmfare award sucess was an RK starrer sans Mukesh.
The arrestingly electrifying accordion beats of "Aaaja sanam .." with the deep sonorous elongation by Mannadey with Lata's pristine voice captures the listener to an outer world of boundless joy highlighting the ecstasy a well orchestrated number can take you to.
The "Panchi banoo...." number truly depicts the spirit of gay abandon ,an unfettered freedom loving Nargis to perfection and reverberates into the vista of the open sky permeating the joy of this freedom which Hasrat has so rapturously captured.

The "Man bhavan ke ghar jaaye gori....is another gem of a beauty which went on to become a trendsetter for the bidai type of songs, excellently narrated by Shailendra,
the saga of womanhood in its critical phases, immaculately composed by SJ that just recall the tune and the lyrics will just follow, a real hallmarkof a great composition.
The pathos filled heart wrenching "Rasik Balma..." number for once tends to prove that Hasrat and Jai can tune as serious a melody as this, countering the Shailendra Shankar combo myth which had become synonymous with such pathos filled numbers. It's well known by now that Mehboob while recuperating at a NewYork Hospital craved for this tune to be crooned by Lata on telephone as a soothing balm to his agonised soul.
The "Us paar saajan.....boat song has this "Timba timba timba..... from Telugu folklore incorporated so daintily by Shankar that it aptly fits into the scenic backdrop, producing a heavenly audio-visual impact on the audience and keeps the listener wondering at the novel improvisation.
The sawa lakh ki lottery....is a lovely rendering by Rafi and Lata with Shailendra venting his leftist leanings, portrayed through the impoverished aspirations of the common man in anticipation of the sawa lakh. Truly Shailendra stands out in such situations as these and thereis that spark of suffering he can so well convey to the listener.
All line clear is all fun and gaitey regaling the audience into alighter vein.
The "Jahan main jaati..hoon ".. kathputli number by all ways was a novel presentation and the lyrics and composition is extraordinaryand just brilliant symbolising the romance through the kathputli ballet.
Amiya Chakravarthy I'm told was so inspired by this number and its novel presentation that had promised to himself to make a movie with Kathputli as the base and called Shailendra and Shankar and hinted them the possibility. Was the film Kathputli the outcome of this ?
Then the Thillana number of M.L.Vasanthakumari fame fitted into the frame more because of the producers fascination to have an SJ's thillana into his film.

"Woh chaand muskuraaya sitaren sharmaaye...was composed by MadanMohan, and when told how much this number resembles SJ's "Yeh raat bheegi bheegi..."wistfully acknowledges, "It is my token of paying tribute to that great compositionof Shankar" And therefore last but not the least "Yeh raat bheegi bheegi...Like in the great epic of life, there is everything that one can wish for in this masterpiece, lyrics, melody, philosophy, deep sonorous male and femalevoices, the unision of fusion of the night's scenario,the shadows of the> trees under the moon's luminence, the bristle of its leaves, andthe romance of anxiety filled lovers.... " Again Shailendra at his simple, lofty and profoundly thought provoking expression of lyrics as they are voiced "Aise me bhi kyoun bechain hai dil, jeewan me na jaane kya hai kamin.... Is raat ki jag mag me doobi, main dhoond rahi hun apne ko.." have ever baffled me from the time I became conscious of the depth of those words and the impact they had on me .
and in a continious search for its full meaning,
stand in desolate awe of the abyss, like a little boy before the bay
at a truth with an unfathomable depth
and a relentless search
only rendering it still unfathomable.

ssmurthy

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Raju Bharatan in Hindusthan Times (17/12/2007 issue) writes about music of CHORI-CHORI (Link - http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=&id=3df288aa-d674-4c58-9486-9c57422736a7&&Headline=Those+EMGeetmala%2fEM+days+&strParent=strParentID)

The happening pair of Nargis-Raj Kapoor fetched Messrs Shanker-Jaikishan their first-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.

"They (S-J & Rafi) played a very crucial part in making my place which was very tough with all the competition from the giants around me"

Q-Don't you think your image as a path-breaking dancer-actor was helped by great music Shankar-Jaikishan and sons sung by Mohammed Rafi who knew exactly suited your new image?

Shammi Kapoor- "Of course, they did. They played a very crucial part in making my place which was very tough with all the competition from the giants around me. They created music that went with my image, songs that are immortal, not classic songs but songs that celebrated life. I will always be grateful to them. God bless their good souls". (Photo:Courtesy:mohdrafi.com)

Full text of an interview with Shammi Kapoor at http://in.movies.yahoo.com/interview-detail/146/13718/The-Spirit-Is-Always-So-Young.html

शंकर-जयकिशन

संगीत की दुनिया के बेताज बादशाह

यह ब्लॉग शंकर-जयकिशन की याद एवं उनके बेमिसाल संगीत को समर्पित है, मेरी तरफ़ से एक छोटी सी कोशिश

ब्लॉग पर आने के लिए धन्यवाद, कृपया कोई सुझाव हो तो अवश्य लिखें या आपको मेरी यह कोशिश कैसी लगी, आभारी रहूँगा - सुदर्शन पाण्डेय