60 years of Shankar Jaikishan

It suddenly struck me that this year marks 60 years of Shankar Jaikishan's music. Both these men are no longer around, but their music continues to enthrall succeeding generations of music lovers. It is fair to say that few compoers have had such a long-sustained run of success. For almost two decades, they remained popular music directors who created music across different genres and styles which meant that their music had something for everybody.

I break S-J's output to three halves - "Barsaat" to "Basant bahar", "Basant Bahar" to "Junglee" and post-"Junglee". The first phase of S-J's career is filled with compositions that feature in my list of favorites. Some of their songs in their next phase I enjoy a lot but overall, I feel their music became repetitive and louder. Their eyes appeared to be fixed more on the Filmfare awards than on the music itself. The last phase was one where they reached their peak of popularity and reigned supreme in the film music world but qualitatively, their music rarely emerged above the average and I can recall only a few worthy soundtracks or songs from that last decade.

If legend is to be believed, then Shankar Jaikishan were roped in by Raj Kapoor in a quick move to replace Ram Ganguly. Ram Ganguly had given very successful music for Raj's first production, "Aag". Raj Kapoor persisted with him for his next film "Barsaat" also. Recordings had begun for the film when Lata Mangeshkar reported to Raj Kapoor that she had heard Ram Ganguly rehearsing almost the same compositions for another production also. This led to a fallout between Raj Kapoor and Ram Ganuly and Shankar Jaikishan were roped in to complete the music for "Barsaat". The film was a runaway musical success and formed a great musical team - Raj Kapoor, Shankar and Jaikishan, Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri, Lata Mangeshkar and Mukesh.

"Barsaat" is not a soundtrack I much enjoy, neither is the next output from this team "Aawaaraa" a great favorite of mine. But two songs from this film stand out - Mukesh's "ham tujhase muhabbat karake sanam" and Lata's "aa jaao taDapate hai.n aramaa.N". It is my opinion that SJ's best music came outside the RK banner and 1951 saw qutie a few unforgettable scores from their baton.

Baadal : "mai.n raahii bhaTakane vaalaa huu.N", "do din ke liye mehamaan yahaa.N" and "ae dil naa mujhase chhupaa"
Nageenaa: "rouu.N mai.n saagar ke kinaare", "dil beqaraar hai meraa". These were also amongst C.H.Atma's finest songs.
Kaali ghataa: "o kaalii ghaTaa ghir aaii re"

Another feature of Shankar Jaikishan's music was that they combined with almost all top singers of the time and created something memorable with them. As I said earlier, C.H.Atma's songs in "Nageenaa" are amongst his best remembered melodies. Lata and Mukesh's careers had already received a trmendous boost thanks to their songs in "Barsaat" and "Aawaaraa". In 1952, Shankar Jaikishan did the music for a Dilip Kumar film for the first time in "Daag" and this resulted in some of Talat Mahmood's most popular songs. "ae mere dil kahii.n aur chal", "ham dard ke maaro.n kaa" and "koii nahii meraa is duniyaa me" are all masterly compositions. Add to this Lata's "kaahe ko der lagaaii re" and "Priit ye kaisii bol rii duniyaa" and you have a soundtrack of desert-island proportions.

1953 was an interesting year in that it saw S-J releases with each of the upcoming superstars of Hindi cinema - Raj Kapoor's "Aah", Dev Anand's "Patitaa" and Dilip Kumar's "Shikast". All three had memorable music.

Raj Kapoor's next venture "Aah" was released in 1953 and SJ came up trumps again with such melodies as "jaane naa nazar", "ye shaam kii tanahaaiyaa.N", "raat andherii duur saveraa", "chhoTii sii ye zindagaanii re" and "raajaa kii aayegii baaraat".

1953 also saw Amiya Chakravarti's "Patitaa" released which is my personal S-J all-time favorite soundtrack. Every song in this film is worth a treasure. The Lata solos "kisii ne apanaa banaa ke mujhako" and "miTTii se khelate ho", the magnificent Lata-Hemant duet "yaad kiyaa dil ne kahaa.N ho tum" and Talat's magic in "andhe jahaa.N ke", "tujhe apane paas bulaatii hai" and "hai.n sab se madhur vo giit jinhe". What melodies!! Great lyrics, great renditions and great music. Dilip Kumar's "Shikast" is memorable for two bewitching songs - one of Talat-Lata's best duets "jab jab phuul khile" and Lata's "kaare badaraa tuu na jaa".

"Boot polish" was the high-point of SJ for 1954 and saw Manna Dey coming into prominence for the first time in a RK film. "Thahar zaraa o jaane vaale", "nanhe munne bachche terii", "raat gaii phir din aataa hai", "lapak jhapak tuu aa re badaravaa", "tumhaare haim tumase dayaa" and "chalii kaun se des" are all memorable in their own way. A truly great soundtrack!

"manamohanaa baDe jhuuThe" from "Seema" in 1955 endures as of the Lata's finest semi-classical songs in films. Lata's voice is at its sweetest and she takes the murkis with such apparent ease.eema" boasts of other unforgettable melodies like "tuu pyaar kaa saagar hai", "kahaa.N jaa rahaa hai" and "suno chhoTii sii guDiyaa kii". While "Seema" brought SJ a lot of critical acclaim, Raj Kapoor's "Shree 420" swept the box-office. Again, its not a personal favorite of mine but Lata's "o jaane vaale muDake zaraa" is one her bests for SJ.

We now approach the end of the first phase of SJ's musical cateer. 1956 had two great soundtracks - "Chori chori" and "Basant bahar" with "New Delhi" and "Halaaku". "Chori chori" temporarily threw up Manna Dey as a Raj Kapoor voice. Mannada has rarely sounded as romantic as he does in "ye raat bhiigii bhiigii" and "aa jaa sanam" and "jahaa.N mai.n jaatii huu.N". And who can forget the great Lata solos "pa.nchhi banuu.N" and "rasik balamaa". A grand soundtrack indeed. "Basant bahar" was a response to critics who questionaed SJ's classical bearings. While the music is good, it is definitely not in the leagure of other great pre-dominantly classical soundtracks like "Baiju bawra" and "Jhanak jhanak paayal baaje". Unforgettable melodies from "Basant bahaar" include "sur naa saje", "mai.n piyaa terii", "duniyaa naa bhaaye mohe", "baDii der bhaii" and "bhay bhanjanaa". SJ provided Rafi-Lata with one of their best duets in "Halaaku" - "aajaa ki intazaar me" while Kishore Kumar had his first major hit with SJ in "nakhrevaalii" in "New Delhi".

With the fading away of the older legends like Anil Biswas, C.Ramchandra and Husnlal Bhagatram in the later 1950s, SJ went on from strength to strength as they defined the new-age music. They struck immediate gold with the new-age superstars Shammi Kapoor and Rajendra Kapoor and became their composers of choice, while continuing to compose for almost all Raj Kapoor films. Their successful run continued non-stop till Jaikishan passed away in 1971. This duo definitely brought in planty of joy to us music lovers and despite other reservations, I must doff my hat to them for the kind of musical creations they gave us.