Shankar - Jaikishan

April 27, 2022

Shankar - Jaikishan

SHANKAR - JAIKISHAN

(Music Composer (Duo) )

(Active 1949 - 1987)

Shankar-Jaikishan were an Indian composer duo of the Hindi film industry, working together from 1949 to 1971. They are widely considered to be the greatest ever music composers of the Hindi film industry. Later, Shankar continued to function as a music director alone, still giving music under the banner Shankar-Jaikishan, till 1987.

Shankar-Jaikishan, along with other artists, composed ‘everlasting’ and ‘immortal melodies’ in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. Their best work was noted for being “raga-based and having both cult and sonority”.

Early Years

Shankar :

Shankar Singh Ram Singh Raghuvamshi (15 October 1922 - 26 April 1987) was from Hyderabad. During his formative years, Shankar played the tabla and learned the art formally from Baba Nasir Khansahib. For many years, Shankar studied as a disciple of legendary composer Khawaja Khurshid Anwar, in whose orchestra he performed. Shankar started his career with a theatre group run by Satyanarayana and Hemavathi, before shifting to Prithvi Theatre where he played tabla and performed some minor roles in plays. It was at Prithvi Theatre where he learnt to play and mastered several other instruments like sitar, Accordion and Piano etc. Besides his work at Prithvi Theatre, he also started working as an assistant to the leading composer duo of Husnlal Bhagatram and nurtured the ambition of becoming an independent music director.

Jaikishan :

Jaikishan Dayabhai Panchal (4 November 1929 - 12 September 1971) as a child lived in Bansda (Vansada), a town in present day Gujarat. Jaikishan was adept at playing the harmonium. Subsequently, he obtained his musical lessons from

Sangeet Visharad Wadilalji and later from Prem Shankar Nayak.

After moving to Mumbai, he became a disciple of Vinayak Tambe.

Formation of the Composer Duo

Apart from working at Prithvi Theatre, Shankar used to frequently visit the office of a Gujarati director, Chandravadan Bhatt, who had promised Shankar a break as a Music Director when he produced a film. It was outside the office of Bhatt that Shankar saw Jaikishan a number of times. One day, he started a conversation and discovered that Jaikishan was a harmonium player, and that he was also visiting the same producer in search of work. Shankar later recollected that they developed a liking for each other and it was he who then and there assured Jaikishan of the job of Harmonium player at Prithvi Theater (without asking Prithviraj Kapoor, fondly referred to as ‘Papaji’). Papaji honoured Shankar’s selection and gladly accepted Jakishan as a Harmonium player at Prithvi. Soon, the two of them developed very close friendship to the extent that the people started referring to them as ‘Ram Lakshman ki jodi’ and by several similar-meaning nicknames. Apart from following their musical pursuits, they also used to play significant roles in various plays including the famous play ‘Pathan’.

While working with Prithvi Theatre, Shankar and Jaikishan used to compose tunes and were in touch with Raj Kapoor. Who was working as an assistant to the famous director Kidar Sharma and was aspiring to be an actor/director. Thus the three met at Prithvi Theatre.

Barsaat : the first break

Raj Kapoor made his debut as a director with the film Aag in 1948. Its music director Ram Ganguly was assisted by Shankar Jaikishan. However, during the recording of a song for his new venture Barsaat , Raj Kapoor had some serious differences with Ram Ganguly and decided to assign its music to Shankar who insisted on taking Jaikishan as his partner. Thus came into existence the new pair of music directors named ‘Shankar-Jaikishan’ who composed the music for the film.

Himself being a trained singer (he and Mukesh learned vocal music from the same Guru), Raj Kapoor thus took on board a new team of composers Shankar and Jaikishan and lyricists Shailendra and Hasrat Jaipuri (a former bus conductor). On the insistence of Shankar, they coopted the upcoming singing talent Lata Mangeshkar, and repeated Mukesh as Raj Kapoor’s ghost voice for the songs of Barsaat. The film also had the distinction of featuring two firsts in Hindi Cinema - a title song (“Barsaat mein hum se mile “) and a cabaret (“Patli Kamar Hai”), which were also the first two songs written by Shailendra.

Early works between 1949 and 1959

The two became known by the acronym “S-J”

Their early works include Barsaat, Awara, Badal, Poonam, Nagina, Aurat, Parbat, Kali Ghata, Aah, Patita, Shikast, Badshah, Mayurpankh, Naya Ghar, Seema, Shree 420, Basant Bahar, Halaku, Rajhath, New Delhi, Kathputli, Anari, Chori Chori, Daag, Begunah, Yahudi, Main Nashe Mein Hoon, Kanhaiya, Boot Polish, Choti Behan, Shararat, Love Marriage and Ujala.

Musical Collaborators

S-J formed a core team with lyricists Shailendra (himself regarded as perhaps the greatest modern day Hindi film music lyricist) and Hasrat Jaipuri and with singers Mohammad Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle. SJ had two other lifelong companions who worked as their assistants : Dattaram Wadekar and Sebastian D’Souza, the former supervising their rhythm section and the latter writing musical notations for all SJ compositions and then rehearsing all the musicians of the grand SJ orchestra according to SJ’s compositions and directions. SJ also patronised the immensely talented singer Manna Dey, who sang his best songs with them and used Mukesh’s voice as playback for Raj Kapoor. Among the directors, they worked most closely with Raj Kapoor and were considered the kingpins of his legendary banner RK Films.

They were commercial geniuses in addition to being wonderfully god-blessed in music. They led the Bollywood music in spite of tough competition from maestros like Naushad, C Ramchandra, Roshan, SD Burman, OP Nayyar, Salil Choudhury and Madan Mohan and remained on the top much to the chagrin of very highly talented music directors!

S-J worked with almost all singers of their time. They had a good working relationship with all of them and were masters in extracting the very best from every one of them. They were steady as a team with Hasrat Jaipuri and Shailendra as their lyricists; but after the demise of Shailendra, they worked with a host of other lyricists such as Indeevar, Gulshan Bawra, Gopaldas Neeraj, Verma Malik, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Vithhal Bhai Patel and Rajinder Krishan, to name a few.

S-J were the "house composers" for RK Films and were on their payroll till the end. Raj Kapoor used to maintain a music bank where he stored compositions of S-J. Even after the termination of the professional association between Shankar and Raj Kapoor (Jaikishan had died by then), the latter had used a number of S-J's earlier compositions (which were in his custody) for all his films though the credits were given officially to other composers, e.g., Laxmikant-Pyarelal (Bobby, Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Prem Rog) and Ravindra Jain (Ram Teri Ganga Maili). S-J also worked with other stars like Kishore Kumar, Shammi Kapoor, Rajendra Kumar, Dev Anand, Sunil Dutt, Manoj Kumar, Biswajeet, Joy Mukherjee and Dharmendra. Beside them S-J combo worked above all with Mohammed Rafi and secondly Mukesh, and produced numbers of hits and unmatchable gems. Mohammed Rafi was their favourite singer despite having good reputation with other playback singers of the time.

Most of S-J's films show Dattaram and Sebastian as their assistants. Dattaram handled the percussion section of the orchestra while Sebastian handled the rest. Dattaram met Shankar in a Gym when the latter was already working at Prithvi Theatre as a musician. After listening to Shankar's Tabla at the Gym and being highly impressed by his virtuosity, Dattaram became his disciple and remained with S-J throughout. As recalled by Dattaram, Sebastian used to write the musical notations of S-J's compositions and also conducted the orchestra.

Composition Style

Shankar-Jaikishan's compositions broke new ground in Hindi film music. Apart from relying upon their knowledge of Indian classical music, they also employed western beats and orchestration. Shankar-Jaikishan were the pioneers in establishing the role of the orchestra in song compositions as a medium to express and enhance the meanings and feelings of songs rather than using it just as a `filler' as per the prevalent practice before their advent on the scene. They made use of the orchestra and musical instruments (often dozens or hundreds of them) in their songs which consisted of the following format: The song starts with a `prelude' (preparatory music to create and introduce the environment and mood for the beginning of the song), then the mukhda starts and is followed by 'interlude' containing music pieces on the orchestra. With very few exceptions ("Ye mera deewana pan hai" is a good example), they always used different interludes before each stanza. 'Multi-layered music studded with counter melodies' played by the orchestra accompanied while the mukhda or the antara of a song was being sung and finally came the 'epilogue' – the music with which the song ended after the singer(s) had finished their singing.

Shankar-Jaikishan made a significant contribution in promoting Indian classical music throughout their career. It was their established practice to have at least one song in a movie based on semi-classical style. These included songs like `Jhanak-jhanak tori baje payaliya' (Mere Huzoor), `Chham chham baje re payaliya' (Jane-anjane), `Radhike tune bansuri churayi' (Beti Bete), `Manmohana bade jhoothe' (old `Seema'), `Koi matwala aya mere dware' (Love in Tokyo), `Ajahu na ayae baalma, sawan beeta jaye' (Sanjh aur Savera), `Lapak jhapak tu aa re badarwa' (Boot polish), `Ye barkha bahar sautaniya ke dwar' (Mayur pankh), `Re man sur mein ga' (Lal pathar), `Sooni sooni sans ke sitar par' (Lal Patthar), `Kate na kate raina' (Mera naam joker), Hone Lagi Hai Raat Jawaan ( Naina) and numerous others. Their music in both `Basant Bahar' and Amrapali had every song based upon Indian classical music. While "raga Bhairavi" remained their perennial favourite, SJ used a variety of Raagas in their compositions.

Shankar Jaikishan also used the western classical-based waltz rhythm in a number of songs.

Shankar-Jaikishan gave a new style and meaning to the genre of sad songs by composing them on a fast tempo. Songs like "Zindagi Mein Hardam Rota Hi Raha" (Barsaat), "Tera Jana Dil Ke Armanon" (Anari), "Haye Tu Hi Gaya Mohe Bhool Re" (Kathputli), "Aye Mere Dil Kahin Aur Chal' (Daag) and "Andhe Jahan Ke Andhe Raate" (Patita) demonstrated this. The last two songs, along with many others (notably "Awaara Hoon" from the film Awaara), also demonstrate the composers’ use of musical instruments – a harmonium is used to produce the effect of a piano accordion.

Working Styles : ‘SJ’ were two Composers in one name.

While working as a team, Shankar and Jaikishan used to compose their songs separately. Generally, Shankar liked to work with Shailendra and Jaikishan with Hasrat Jaipuri though there are notable instances where Shankar worked with Hasrat and Jaikishan with Shailendra. Of course there are a number of songs done jointly in which both of them contributed. Between the two, Shankar was the senior partner and hence, he would usually arrange the orchestra, even for Jaikishan's songs. There was a gentleman's agreement between them for not identifying the actual composer of the song. As a result, it has been a popular pastime for S-J aficionados to try to tell a Shankar song from a Jaikishan song. Dance numbers, title/theme songs and soulful songs were Shankar's forte while Jaikishan was a master of composing background score, apart from romantic songs (he is generally regarded as the best ever in this genre) and simple, catchy compositions which became instant hits ("Ehsaan Mere Dil Pe" being a typical example of such songs). However, Shankar was no smaller in this aspect of devising simple 'straight line' tunes: "Mera Joota Hai Japani" (Shri 420, 1955), Yeh Mera Deewanapan Hai (Yahudi, 1958) Awaara Hoon (Awaara, 1951), Kisi ke Muskurahaton (Anari, 1959), also being the best example of this genre.

It is said that Jaikishan would count some numbers on his fingers before coming up with the background score for a particular scene on the spot! Two of S-J's films, viz., Sangam (1964) and Mera Naam Joker (1971) are regarded even today as having some of the best background musical scores of Hindi films till date. Although, by and large, it was Jaikishan who used to work on background music of SJ movies as per their mutually agreed division of work, it may be an oversimplification to presume that therefore, whatever went in background scores was solely Jaikishan's creation. Since SJ had a common pool of tunes in their stock, made by either of them during their numerous music sessions/sittings (Riyaz), it was perfectly legitimate and natural for Jaikishan to have used tunes created by Shankar also wherever needed. This is also one of the reasons why he was able to finish this job in a few days' time. It is understood that in RK films, Shankar and Jaikishan both used to work on the background scores. On the other hand, both Shankar and Jaikishan were equally proficient in scoring western music based songs.

Despite their distinct working styles and preferences, it is very difficult, if not altogether impossible, to ascribe most of their songs to only one of them. In most of the songs, they invariably contributed to one another's creation, either in the form of improvisation of tune or of orchestration, thus, making their compositions truly a joint effort. Furthermore, each of the two could compose in the other's style now and then thereby making the identification still more difficult.

Contrary to the popular mis-conception that 'it was Jaikishan who used to handle the public relations and business/financial aspects of the duo's career', the fact is that it was Shankar who had the final say on all financial/business aspects of the SJ-team. After Jaikishan's very early death in September 1971, Shankar flew the SJ flag which had been rampant in Bollywood ever since Barsaat's release in 1949. However, he was ever able to regain the popularity that Shankar - Jaikishan once enjoyed after Jaikishan’s death.

AWARDS

During their career, S-J won Filmfare Best Music Director Awards nine times. The last three awards were won in three successive years, thereby making S-J the first composers to score a hat trick of these awards.

S-J also came out tops in Binaca Geetmala, the legendary countdown radio program on Hindi film music, where their compositions were declared the most popular on six occasions (a record later equalled by Laxmikant Pyarelal). These songs were "Mera Joota Hai Japani" in 1955 (Shree 420), "Teri Pyari Pyari Surat Ko" in 1961 (Sasural), "Ehsaan Tera Hoga Mujh Par" in 1962 (Junglee), "Bol Radha Bol" in 1964 (Sangam), "Baharon Phool Barsaao" in 1966 (Suraj), and "Zindagi Ek Safar Hai Suhana" in 1971 (Andaaz). In 1959, seven of the top ten songs for the year were composed by S-J, a sort of record that stands perhaps to this date, though the top honours for that year went to SD Burman.

Government recognitions

1968 – Shankar-Jaikishan was honoured with the Padma Shri by the Government of India.[6]
2013 – A postage stamp, bearing their face, was released by India Post to honour them on 3 May 2013.

Filmfare Awards

FILMFARE AWARD STARTED DURING 1954 FOR BEST MUSIC DIRECTOR

Winner

Year	Film	Lyricist(s)
1957	Chori Chori	Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri
1960	Anari	Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri
1961	Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai	Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri
1963	Professor	Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri
1967	Suraj	Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri
1969	Brahmachari	Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri
1971	Pehchaan	Neeraj, Indeevar, Varma Malik
1972	Mera Naam Joker	Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri, Neeraj, Prem Dhawan
1973	Be-Imaan	Varma Malik

Nominated

Year	Film	Lyricist(s)
1959	Yahudi	Hasrat Jaipuri, Shailendra
1960	Chhoti Bahen	Hasrat Jaipuri, Shailendra
1962	Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai	Hasrat Jaipuri, Shailendra
1964	Dil Ek Mandir	Hasrat Jaipuri, Shailendra
1965	Sangam	Hasrat Jaipuri, Shailendra
1966	Arzoo	Hasrat Jaipuri
1969	Diwana	Hasrat Jaipuri, Shailendra
1970	Chanda Aur Bijli	Neeraj, Indeevar
1972	Andaz	Hasrat Jaipuri
1975	Resham Ki Dori	Neeraj, Indeevar
1976	Sanyasi	Vithalbhai Patel, Varma Malik, Vishweshawar Sharma, Hasrat Jaipuri, M G Hashmat

The Sur-Singar Awards

Winner

1968 – For the song "Jhanak Jhanak Toree Baje Payaliya" of the film Mere Huzoor
1971 – For the song "Re Man Sur Mein Ga"of the film Lal Patthar

Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards

Winner

1968 – Best Music Director for the film Brahmachari [8]
1971 – Best Music Director for the film Andaz [9]

Jaikishan's death :

Jaikishan died on 12 September 1971 due to cirrosis of liver. At the time of his death , the duo enjoyed an unparelled popularity which was underlined by a massive turnout at his funeral procession.

After Jaikishan’s death Shankar carried on with the banner of Shankar-Jaikishan alone (as per their mutual understanding made during their lifetime). He was clearly hampered by numerous reasons such as the departures of his soulmate Jaikishan and his favourite lyricist Shailendra.

Shankar’s Death :

Shankar Died in 1987. His death received little media coverage and his funeral was attended only by his family and some friends.

After Shankar died, the nearly 40 year old SJ banner came to an end, which was the end of what is widely regarded as the best direction in bollywood history.

Achievements :

Their regular lyricists were Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri. They wrote maximum number of songs for them.
They also worked with lyricists like Anand Bakshi, Indeevar, Neeraj, Anjaan.
They were regular composers for Raj Kapoor's banner, RK Films from the start of their career till 1971 (Jaikishan's death).
Barsaat has been rated the best soundtrack ever by Planet Bollywood on their "100 Greatest Bollywood Soundtracks".[10] Other soundtrack in the list include Awaara (3), Sangam (8), Shree 420 (15) Junglee (18), Chori Chori (19), Mera Naam Joker (48), Suraj (86), Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai (88), Anari (92).

SOURCE : Wikipedia

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