Rafi’s relationship with Shankar Jaikishan had not been glorified in bollywood history
This article is written by Mr. Souvik Chatterji.
Rafi had a very sweet relationship with Shankar Jaikishan but unfortunately their relationship had not been glorified in bollywood history. Whenever contribution of composers relating to classic creations involving Rafi are highlighted the name of Naushad, Roshan, Madanmohan, OP Nayyar are glorified and the contribution of Shankar Jaikishan is ignored.
If Rafi’s stylish andaz relating to westernized compositions are adequately utilized it is Shankar Jaikishan who had used it to perfection. They had used Rafi for singing romantic songs with Japanese orchestration in Love in Tokyo including songs like “aja re aa zara aaâ€, “Japan, Love in Tokyoâ€, “ o mere shahekhubaâ€, etc. In Biswajeet’s April Fool SJ’s composition for Rafi including “aa gale lag ja†had westernized background.
SJ’s composition for Rafi in Shammi Kapoor’s An Evening in Paris like “akele akele kahan ja rahe hoâ€, “raat ke humsafarâ€, had loud French music with echo effect and Rafi’s intonation was also westernized. Shankar Jaikishan gave a completely different style of music to Rafi in Rajender Kumar’s Aarzoo with songs like “aji ruth kar abâ€, “chalke teri aankho seâ€, “ai nargisi mastanaâ€, etc.
Shankar and Jaikishan with Sharmila Tagore and Mohd Rafi. – An Evening in Paris
SJ had given songs addressing children to Rafi including “nanne munne bache teri mutthi me kya hai†in Boot Polish, “hai na bolo boloâ€, “re mamma re mamma re†in Shammi Kapoor’s Andaz and “chakke pe chakka†in Brahmchari. Rafi pronounced the words with childish accent and SJ used the orchestration to attract children.
There were ghazals also given by SJ for Rafi including “rukh se zara nakab†in Jeetender’s Mere Huzoor, “unke khayal aye to†in Raj Kumar’s Lal Patthar, etc. Besides SJ’s creation involving Rafi in somber mood had created great impact including songs like “teri zulfon ki judai to nahi maangi thi†in Dev Anand’s Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai, “ehsaan tera hoga mujhpar†in Shammi Kapoor’s Junglee, “yaad na aye†in Rajender Kumar’s Dil Ek Mandir.
Shankar Jaikishan had used Rafi’s classical andaz in the songs “radheke tune bansoori churaiâ€, “ajahu na ayeâ€, etc., and combined the ragas with devotional andaz. SJ ha given music in almost 200 films within the span from 1949 to 1971, and at least each year they composed music for approximately 10 films. As Rafi was given predominance over other male singers SJ had use him in regular intervals even without doing injustice to Mukesh, Manna Dey, Kishore Kumar, Talat Mehmood and others. Songs like “kaun hai jo sapno me aya†from Jhuk Gaya Aasman, “to bura maan gaye†from Ayee Milan Ki Bela, “yeh ankhen†from Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai, “tujhe jeevan ki dor se†from Aasli Nakli, “dheere dheere chal†from Love Marriage, “badan pe sitaren lapete hue†from Prince, “mai kahin kavi na banjayun†from Pyar Hi Pyar, “mai gayun tum so jao†from Brahmchari, had not lost their flavour even 40 years after their creation due to sheer brilliance of Shankar Jaikishan. It is really tragic neither Shankar Jaikishan had received the accolades that they deserved nor Rafi’s association with them had been glorified but history says that the combination of Rafi with Shankar Jaikishan had produced invaluable creations which had become immortal over the period of time.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:08 am
Not to forget immortal song ,purely classical , which I firmly believe could not and cannot be sung in the same style by any other singer (other than probably manna dey ) , as rafi saab under sj ,from Basant Bahar ..duniya naa bhaye mujhe ab to bulaa le charno mein ..
October 23rd, 2008 at 6:57 am
Rickshawala mein Rickshawala sung for Mehmood in the film Choti bahen sung by Rafi Saheb (composed by SJ) in an altogether differnet mood is one of the popular song during 50s.
October 23rd, 2008 at 7:52 am
Nov.16 , 2008 a grand shankar-jaikishan concert at GCC club, Mira Road, near Mumbai. Singers are Shrikant Narayan, Vrushali Patil, Sagar, Kumar Subu, Jignesh vora, Aparna , and Joginder pal kakaji.
the event will begin at 6.30 p.m. , is staged by rafi foundation, mumbai and is free to its members.
binu nair…….cell 9833 250 701, mumbai.
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Vivek Mehta : Very true, great song, great rendition, see how rafi saaheb almost cries and pleads to the gods.( Post…. 51.) the second song that moves people is from Gopi, the song sukh ke sab saathi, dukh me na koyee. this song outclassed all other songs in the movie. this song was during the so-called lean period of mohd rafi. i wonder what had happened to the ears of music composers other than madan mohan, usha khanna, l and P , shamji ghanshamji and few others during the early seventies. binu nair, mumbai, binus2000@hotmail.com
October 30th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
A very informative article that spells out the relationship between Mohammed Rafi and Shankar Jaikishan. However, I would like to mention one wonderful music compositin of the romantic mood of Shankar Jaikishan and sung by Mohammed Rafi Rafi in an outstnding manner. ” Yeh mera prem patra padh kar” of the film ” Sangam”
October 31st, 2008 at 8:59 am
Rafi had sung many semi-classical songs for SJ over a span of time including “awaz deke hume tum bulayo” in Professor, “to bura man gaye” in Ayee Milan Ki Bela, “ajahu na aye” in Saanjh Aur Sawera, “aji ruth kar ab” in Aarzoo, “o mere shahekhuban” in Love In Tokyo, to name a few. Shankar Jaikishan had used the westernised andaz of Rafi more than other composers in bollywood films, yet when the relationship of Rafi with renowned composers is discussed the names of Naushad, Roshan, OP Nayyar, Madanmohan gets predominance which is unfair for Shankar Jaikishan.
Souvik Chatterjee
November 1st, 2008 at 11:34 am
I agree it is SJ- Rafi combo which is rocking and pl correct me if Iam wrong Rafi sahab has sung 3 times more than Mukeshji in the SJ combination . undoubtedly above 95% were hits
November 3rd, 2008 at 11:43 am
In Response to the question of Mr. Narayan, Rafi had sung even 5 times the songs of SJ if compared with Mukesh. The reason was ver obvious, SJ had used Mukesh only in films of Raj Kapoor and Manoj Kumar. Rafi had been used by SJ in films of Shammi Kapoor, Rajender Kumar, Biswajeet, Joy Mukherjee, Dev Anand, Shashi Kapoor, Pradeep Kumar, to name a few. The number does not matter. What matters more is that SJ had used Rafi for every type of song that can be composed for bollywood films including bhajans, semi-classical songs, rock and roll songs, folk songs, etc. The song “radheke tune bansoori churai” has no similarity with “akele akele kahan ja rahe ho”. “aji ruth kar ab” has no similarity with “aaj kaal tere mere pyar ke charche”. The list can go. Articles after articles can be written on the outstanding relationship of SJ with Rafi.
Souvik Chatterji.
November 4th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Shankar Jaikishan gave brilliant tunes to Rafi in films of Dev Anand like Asli Nakli, Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai, Pyar Muhobbat, to name a few. The notable songs include “jiya ho jiya ho jiya kuch bol do”, “sau saal pehle”, “yeh ankhen uff umma”, “teri zulfon ki”, “dil ki awaaz khuda khair karen”, “pyar muhobbat”,”ek boot banayunga”, “tujhe jivan ki dor me”, etc. He showed the audience that Rafi could adapt to the dialogue delivery style of De Anand and sang very melodious songs under SJ all of which were super hits. Teh credit goes to SJ to discover Rafi’s capability of matching Dev Anand’s style of giving lips in films.
Souvik Chatterji.
November 12th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
SJ and Rafi combined well in the film Suraj. The relevant songs include “baharon phool barsao”, “gustaqi maaf”, “kaise samjhayun”, “itna hai tujhse pyar mujhe”.
The combination gave super hit songs in Ayee Milan Ki Bela – like “aha ayee milan ki bela”, “to bura man gaye”, “o sanam tere ho gaye hum”, “tum khamseen ho”, etc.
They did extremely well in Jhuk Gaya Aasman too with songs like “o priya”, “sachha hai”, “kahan chal diye”, etc.
Souvik Chatterji
November 15th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
SJ and Rafi combo ke baare mein to jitna kaha jaye kum hi hai. What a lovely song they have composed in An Evening In Paris “Mera Dill hai tera, tera dil hai mera.” Though not as much popular as other songs of the same movie but just listen to the song and feel the sheer brilliance of not only the composition but also the orchestration and recording of the song for which they are widely known. In fact what I feel words are not enough to describe the pristine purity of their numerous creations.
November 15th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Hi SJ and Rafi fans,
One more thing I want to bring to the knowledge of all that Jaikishan Sahab’s full name is not Jaikishan ‘Dayabhai’ Panchal but it is Jaikishan “Dahyabhai” Panchal. “Dahyabhai” is a very common name in vogue in Gujarat and here it stands as the name of his father.
November 21st, 2008 at 11:22 am
myk,
i would like to ask you a question regarding your most favourite mds of all time– Shankar-Jaikishan:
Where would you rank S-J in the period of 1949-60? well, it’s a well known fact that from 1960 onwards S-J became more regular with Rafi Sahab and together they ruled there onwards commercially and their quality was great as well, i love all those dance numbers, romantic numbers,classical numbers of S-J-Rafi combo but in the period of 1949-60 musical tastes were different, those days the highly classy MDs such as–Naushad,Roshan and C Ramchandra were commercially successful too, no doubt that S-J came with superb qualtiy there also but in quality i would rate Naushad,dada and CR slightly above than S-J. now if you look at Naushad, his 40’s output is no way inferior to his 50’s, he was mind blowing in 40s too, just to recall few of his albums–Shehnshah, Ratan,Anmol Ghadi,Dard all of them were superb and divine albums. year 1949 was 1st peak of excellence for naushad-Rafi, remember those 3 Rafi solos– “Is dunia mein aey dil walo”, “Tere kooche mein armano ” and “suhani raat dhal chuki” . Lata’s career also flourished under Naushad, Naushad extracted something different out of Lata(Like Anil b,Cr and LaterMM and S-J)–perfect example is “Uthaye ja unke sitam aur jiye jaa”. i love the era of 1949-60 as my 3 most favourite sigers(Rafi,Talat and Lata) were most active and spread the magic through their vocals….. so, where would you rate S-J here?
November 22nd, 2008 at 7:28 pm
Kapil,
From 1949-1960, I’d rate S-J in the Top 3 of MD’s along with SD, Naushad, CR. There is absolutely no doubt that the other three produced gems during this period, but in my view S-J were no less. Looking at S-J, during 1949 to say the mid 50’s, they catered more to Lata, and made more female based songs, probably because the films they worked for needed only those types of songs. What is astonishing is that even from 1949 to around 1960, Rafi still sang slightly more than Mukesh for S-J (I have done some research and came to an interesting conclusion). So while its true that the Rafi-SJ combo flourished in the 60’s, they gained momentum in the 50’s, and have quite a number of gems during the 50’s too. Lata and Mukesh ofcourse received great songs from S-J during this time too (and after).
I rate S-J as good as the others in the 50’s, because of their revolutionary aspect, just like RD in the 60’s and 70’s, S-J virtually changed film music and set new standards and trends combined with quality, that others had to match their consistent output.
If we look at the excellent trio of Lata, Rafi, Talat, we will see that S-J used them all very nicely in the 50’s as well. Talat has beautiful songs with the duo during this period including many of my favourites from Daag, Aas, Patita, Shikast etc.
December 6th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Dear All,
SJ were one pair of Music directors who knew their job and were judicious in using the singers. Unlike Naushad Sb who gave song after song in Rafi Sahib’s voice and ignored Mukesh ji, Manna Da, Kishore Da and literally dumped Talat Sb. This perhaps is the reason how their music sounded fresh. They shared exceptional relationship with most of the leading singers be it Rafi Sb, Mukesh Ji or Manna Da. That was the reason for churning out gems after gems. One dear friend has written in his post that Mukesh ji was hopelessly outclassed in Dost Dost na raha (Sangam) by Rafi Sb’s ye mera prem patra. I think personal opinion must not be made a rule. Both the songs are great and it will lead to a conflict between the fans of two legends. No one can ignore a fact that Rafi Sb has sung about 2600 songs (Although his ardent fans claim it to be 26000. I advise them to refer Mr Harminder Raj Singh’s Hindi film Geet Kosh). Mukesh ji on other hand has sung 1100 songs. The uniqueness of these legends never made them competitors and they both remained admirers of each other and great friends too besides being the humble human beings. The present lot of singers have alot to learn from them as singers and humans. SJ no doubt were out of this world. No one can replace them. With the help of media and sponsored publicity present day composers can make big claims but I challange if any one can touch the following gems of SJ all in different voices.
1. Jane Kahan gaye woh din.
2. Yad na Jaye beeto dino ki.
3. Tu Pyar ka sagar hai.
4. Ruk Ja raat thehar ja o Chanda.
5. Zindagi ik safar hai suhana.
6. Unhe tu bhool ja aye dil.
7. Parde mein rehne do.
8. Rula kar chal diye ik din.
Regards to all
GB Singh
December 20th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Shankar -Jaikishen were the divinely inspired musicians. They were the victims of politics in the Bolliwood music industry. In the later half of their career they were completely sidelined by Lata Mangeshkar who allegedly promoted Laxmikant & Pyarelal whose whole career was built upon plegiarism of SJ’s tunes. It is said that Lata Mangeshkar had demanded an unfair share from the royalty of their musical compositions. Without SJ Rajendra Kumar would never have become successful.But he also became selfish and forgot his benefactors and signed a contract with R.D> Burman for his home production starring his own son Kumar Gaurav. Dharmender had also gone back on his words when he did not keep his word to Shankar that he would sign him for his film Bicchu directed by Sai Paranjape. To cap it all Raj Kapoor deserted the great musicians when he invited Laxmikant Pyarelal to score music for Bobby. It was a very humiliating experience for them when during the Premier of Kal Aaj Aur Kal they had to see their mentor signing with LP. It is alleged that at the behest of Lata Mangeshwar a number of SJ’s musicians were encouraged to join the camp of Laxmi-Pyare. A number of such behind-the-curtain evens , politics in the bollywood affected. However. it would not be an exaggeration to say that they would be the First and the Last musicians who exhausted all the possibilities of experimentations in the field of film music. They will continue to inspire minds of posterity through their immortal compositions.Rafi’s association with them is unforgettable. Unde the guidance he sang in different voices for Rajendra kumar , Shammi Kapoor, Dilip kumar,and others.
December 27th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
The reason why SJ’s relationship with Rafi is not glorified is because they dumped Rafi after Aradhana and switched vehemently to Kishore..”Main sundar hoon”,”Aankhon aankhon mein”, “Kal aaj aur kaal”, “Beimaan”,”Jungle mein Mangal”- SJ in 70s were entirely changed from SJ in 60s..Although the quality of output came down a lot, but still, at that time of crisis in Rafi’s career, SJ could have helped him better-rather they shifted to kishore full fledgedly like SDB and Kalyanji Anandji-once Rafi loyalists.
April 18th, 2009 at 12:35 am
SJ ,undoubtedly the greatest of all the duos gave Rafi some of his best.
How long did Jaikishen live after 1969 ?He died in 1970 and perhaps had the opportunity to compose only for few films like Tumse Achcha kaun hai,Andaz ,Mera Naam Joker ,and Patanga which were all released in the early 70s.
And in all these filsm except Mera Naam Joker they gave Rafi his due.
However, after 1969 they also experimented successfully with Kishore Kumar. It is absurd to say that RK ditched SJ and opted for LP ,which is not true .In fact, Raj Kapoor mentioned in one of his interviews on the TV that he gave up hero roles because Jaikishen,Mukesh and Shailendra had all passed away and no one can replace them.
It is important to mention here that Raj Kapoor also gave up Lata for SJ in Mera Naam Joker ,that was the kind of loyalty he had towards them.
SJ were also greatly responsible for giving Lata her own recognition.
But it seems that towards the end their relation had strained and SJ stopped using Lata .
It should be noted that Jaikishen died in his early 40s in the year 1970 only after which people seriously started recognising LPs music.But the fact remains that LP compromised on the quality of their tunes and never really came anywhere close to SJ .In fact it is ridiculous to even think of comparing LP with the magic wizards SJ.
However, Shankar’s music after his partner Jaikishen’s death steadily deteriorated and went something like aiyo na maro in one of his last movies.
The 70s saw the end of the golden era with deaths of S.D Burman,Jaikishen and Madan Mohan .Also Naushad could not recreate the magic of the 60s. O P Nayyar , another big name in 50s and 60s became helpless without Asha and his composotions were never again the same.
September 6th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
I am one of the greatest fans of SJ.and do not rate anyone above them.Shankar in one of the interviews quoted about S.D. Burman praising the duo’s work.S.D. infact had said IS INDUSTRY ME HAR COMPOSER KI KUCHH TUNES CHALTI HAIN KUCHH NAHI CHALTI LEKIN SHANKAR JAIKISHEN KI YEH KHOOBI HAI KI WO JO TUNES BANATE HAIN SUB POPULAR HOTI HAI.The space is too short for expressing my feelings.Whenever I visit Mumbai (I stay at Bhopal ) I invariably visit Shankar Jaikishen Chowk.
November 26th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
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January 20th, 2010 at 8:14 pm
I though that I was the only SJ fan, but going thru all comments I am so much pleased that SJ has so many followers. I am their fan since last 50years, I would buy any magazine just to see if any SJ write up is there or listen to songs on radio just to hear SJ’s name, it is only last week I googled their name and I was surprised to get all the information about them. I went on twitter and yahoo and all that I missed all these years, I was updated. In early 1969 I was outside Gobind Mahal at Marine Drive, just to get glimse of Jaikishan but unfortunately could not see him. I remember in early 60’s SJ used to post their phographs to their fans, I was also lucky to receive one. On Binaca Geetmala I used to keep track of their songs for years. Todays music directors are lucky as they can be seen everywhere on the tv programmes, we really miss SJ. Their team with Raj/Shammi kapoor and Rajendra Kumar was the best. I really enjoyed going thru all the comments. God Bless all
February 14th, 2010 at 3:02 pm
If one is familiar with Hindi Films songs down the years since 1948 and noting the variety of songs of Mohd Rafi saab sung for the great SJ clearly reflects their variety and versatility. Other composers may find difficult to reach their talent.