Shankar Jaikishan – The most versatile Musical Giant of the Last Century
This article is written by Mr. Souvik Chatterji, Master of Law, Warwick University, UK, Master of Law Case Western Reserve University, USA.
Shankar Jaikishan are probably the most versatile music –duos that hailed the music of Bollywood during the Golden Age of Indian Cinema, the 40s, 50s and 60s. The golden era of Indian film music can be associated with the musical giants of different capabilities and specialisations. The Legends include Roshan- the king of melody, Madanmohan- the shahenzah of ghazals, Naushad- the Genius of Hindustani classical ragas with a blend of Lucknow Gharana, Salil Chowdhury –the Master of Westernised chorus with Eastern folk and poetic excellence, O. P. Nayyar – the Master of Westernised Tunes with Eastern flavour, Jaidev – the Legend of Urbanised Folk and Rural tunes, and many other Classical composers who have become immortal with their everlasting tunes. 1 Shankar Jaikishan emerged in that arena with a range of tunes and compositions which could not be categorised under a single head. There were folk songs like “chalat Musafir” sung by Manna dey in “Teesri Kasam”( 1966) to ghazals like “Chalke Teri Aankhose sharab aur ziada” sung by Mohammad Rafi in “Aarzoo”(1965). There were rock and roll compositions like “aajkal tere mere pyarke charche har zabanpar” in Brahmchari(1967) to pure classical composition like “Sur na saje kya gayun mai” in “Basant Bahar”(1957).
They had composed music in almost 200 films in a tenure of around 22 years.2 So great was the impact of their creative genius that it had a lasting impact on the music of the Hindi films. Shankar-Jaikishan understood the taste of the masses, were able to cater to them, as well as moulded their tastes. No wonder then that during their tenure as music directors, they were exceedingly popular and 75 per cent of the films for which their scores were everlasting hits - many have celebrated silver jubilees.
They were probably the only musical pair, who have given music to all the leading giants who had glorified the silver screen during the 1940, 1950s, and 1960s. They have given music to Dilip Kumar in Yahudi, 1958, Rajender Kumar in Suraj, 1966, Bharat Bhushan in Basant Bahar, 1957, Balraj Sahani in Seema, 1956, Pradeep Kumar in Raat Aur Din, 1966, Dev Anand in Asli Nakli, 1961, Manoj Kumar in Hariyali Aur Raasta, 1962, Shammi Kapoor in Professor, 1962, Shashi Kapoor in Kanyadan, 1969, Biswajeet in April Fool,1964, Joy Mukherjee in Love in Tokyo, 1965, Dharmender in Pyar hi Pyar, 1968, Jeetender in Mere Huzur, 1967, RajKumar in Lal Patthar, 1971.
The team of Shankar Jaikishan consisted of Shankarsingh Raghuwanshi and Jaikishan Dayabhai Panchal. Shankar (October 15, 1922 - 1987) was born in Punjab and trained under the famous Husnlal Bhagatram. He later settled down in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. Jaikishan (1929 - 1971) hails from Panchal, Gujarat, India. Before the duo met, Jaikishan worked as a carpenter. Their career started as music directors for Raj Kapoor’s 1949 film Barsaat. Songs like “Jiya beqaraar hai” and “Barsaat mein humse mile tum” became a rage. Barsaat was also the starting point of the pair’s long and successful association with the R.K.Banner. Hit music in films like Aah and Awaara followed in the early 1950s. The song “Ghar aaya mera pardesi” went on to become a benchmark for dream-sequence songs. Their music for most R.K.films was considered a huge success, but two films stand out, Shree 420 and Sangam. The songs “Pyaar hua ikraar hua” and “Ramaiyyaa vasta vaiyya” from Shree 420 and “Dost dost na raha” and “Har dil jo pyaar karega” from Sangam were popular favorites.3
Shankar Jaikishen with Mohd Rafi and Raj Kapoor
They were honored with the maximum number (nine) of Filmfare awards in the Indian film industry. In 1968, Shankar Jaikishan released an album, “Raga Jazz Style : Shankar Jaikishan with Rais Khan.” Shankar Jaikishan made a great impact on film music from the start. Their tunes range from pure classical Indian themes to more westernised tunes. They had a distinct style, which was adaptable to different stars and films. In the West, they are best known for the song “Jaan Pechan Ho“, which originally appeared in the 1965 film Gumnaam. The musical number was replayed in the American film Ghost World and helped to catapult the popularity of Indian film music in America.
However, according to Raj Kapoor, the pair’s most notable score came in the film “Mera Naam Joker” in 1970 which has landmark songs like “Jaane kahan gaye woh din“, “Jeena yahan marna yahan“, and “Ae bhai zara dekh ke chalo“. Arguably, the background musical scores of “Sangam” and “Mera Naam Joker” are considered to be among the best ever in the history of Hindi film music. Of the two, Shankar’s speciality was dance-based compositions, whereas Jaikishan’s forte was the background musical score. Both of them preferred Raaga Bhairavi over other strains of classical music.
Shankar Jaikishan created few classical oriented tunes fit for the Golden voice of Mohammad Rafi. In the film “ Lal patthar”(1971), Shankar Jaikishan had composed for Rafi “ unke khayal aye to ate chaale gaye” in raag gara. There the nostalgic mood of badshah was presented by Rafi. Other quality creations of Shankar Jaikishan included “ Aji ruth kar ab kahan jaiyega” in raag desh in Aarzoo(1966) starring Rajenderkumar, “ Khudabhi asma se jab zamin par dekhta hoga” in the film ‘Dharti,” “mujhko apne gale lagalo ai mere humrahi” ( Humrahi, 1962) “surahidar gardan koel si hai awaz” in the film “ Aman”. The lyrics were written by Hasrat Jaipuri.4
One of the other shades of the character of the Legendary duo was that they had encouraged a number of singers both male and female, at an era when the other Music Directors preferred only Rafi and Lata. They have composed songs for Subir Sen, “ Dil mera ek aas ka panchi” in the film Aas ka panchi,1960, Suman Kalyanpur , “Dil ek mandir hai,” in the film Dil Ek Mandir,1963, Manna Dey, “Yeh Raat Bheegi Bheegi” in the film Chori Chori,1956, Asha Bhosle, “Mur Murke na dekh Mur Mur ke” in the film Shri 420,1955, Sharda, “Titli Uri” in the film Suraj,1966, Mukesh, “Yeh mera diwanapan hai” in the film Yahudi,1958, Talat Mehmood, “Koi nahi mera is duniya mai” in the film Daag, 1955, Kishore Kumar, “Zindagi ek safar hai suhana” in the film Andaz, 1971. The songs were complimented with brilliant orchestration which had added lights to the composition of the giant.
Shankar Jaikishen with Mohd Rafi, Asha Bhonsle and Raj Kapoor
The other aspect of their creation include blending the Indian flavour with the foreign tunes wherever the films were picturised. Best examples can be the song “Sayonara sayonara” in the film “Love in Tokyo”, 1965, had Japanese orchestration, the other being “Raat ke humsafar” in the film “An Evening Paris”,1967, had French flavour. Besides their use of few instruments showed the class of their own, Accordion in “Sub kuch sikha Humne na siki hoshiari” in the film Anari,1959, Saxophone in “Ai sanam jis ne tujhe chand sa surat di hai” in the film Diwana, 1967, Synthesized Harmonium played by V. Balsara in “Awara Hoon” in the film Awara, 1951.5
One of the reasons why Shankar Jaikishan did not get the acknowledgment of providing immortal tunes in that era is because it could not be identified as which song is composed by Shankar and which song is composed by Jaikishan. Otherwise Naushad was awarded with Dada Saheb Phalke for his brilliant contribution to Indian music, Majrooh Sultanpuri also received the same award in the lyricist category, Shankar- Jaikishan was deprived of that honour. The other reason may be that they had worked with Raj Kapoor for the longest period and most of the credit of the unforgettable tunes were taken away by Raj Kapoor himself. An archive should be created for the rich and classical creations of Shankar Jaikishan where the works can be preserved for future generations to take inspiration from.
Souvik Chatterji (author), Rumi Chatterji (wife), Supriya Chatterji (mother), Chitta Ranjan Chatterji (father) and Sathvik Chatterji (son)
1 http://www.indianetzone.com/2/bollywood_music.htm
2 Dattaram, their Assistant also made immortal tunes like “Ansu Bhari Hai” in the film “Parvarish”, 1959, starring Raj Kapoor.
3 My father Chitta Ranjan Chatterji, Ex chief Public Prosecutor, Bankshall Court,( CMM Court), Kolkata had solved a case relating to Music Rackett in HMV in the early 1980s. The Zonal manager of HMV, Mr. SriDaure gave him a present of HMV discs of film “diwana-composed by Shankar Jaikishan” and Disc of “ Pakiza- composed by Ghulam mohammad”. Mr. Sri Daure was involved with numerous immortal recordings of HMV and he mentioned that there was a song in Diwana, titled “ tumhare bhi jai jai, humare bhi jai jai, na tum hare, na hum hare”. The song was picturised with Raj kapoor staying in the railway station and Saira Banu travelling in a train. The song beat that was composed by Shankar-Jaikishan synchronised the actual sound of the movement of the train. It was only possible from Shankar-Jaikishan.It was reported in AnandaBazar Patrika, the Bengali Newspaper under the column of Ashis Ghosh.
4 Noted Music Director Anu Malik says that Raj Kapoor had dug a well full of everlasting music and Shankar Jaikishan drew water out of it.
5 http://bootsalesounds.blogspot.com/2006/07/shankar-jaikishan.html
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Please give me the address.mr.premangshu chatterjee.
May 17th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
I am a great fan of Milon Gupta & Saikat Mukherjee. I am also a friend of Saikat. I live in Melbourne, Australia and play harmonica.
I am keen to collect as many tracks as possible of Milon Gupta & Saikat.
April 15th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Felt nice to read about SJ, the greatest of all music directors to have ruled the Indian Film Music. I am a die hard fan of SJ and has collection of albums of around 75 of their movies. I am now converting the old HMV cassetes into CDs. I like to listen to their music film wise as it always fascinates me how the mood of the movie is brought out by them.
In Kochi, where I live, we had a SJ Revival Nite in 1992, where Hasrat Jaipuri relived his experience and some of the behind the scene stories of their compositions. None of the team is now with us..but we can always find happiness listening to SJ songs.
April 3rd, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Re. Post # 45: I fully agree with Mr. Sudarshan Pandeyji that the song “Ajeeb Zindagi Hai Yeh…” from film “Door Nahin Manzil” is superb and so nicely sung by Rafi Saheb. A must for all Rafi Saheb fans. Anybody need it, can mail me anytime. melodiousrafi@yahoo.com
April 2nd, 2008 at 6:30 pm
I would like to correct the wapsite add this is
shanker-jaikishen.peperonity.com…i read all the posts on this site and very glad to post my own, I would just like to request if anyone posses songs of The Gold Medal, Eent ka Jawab Patthar, and Love in Bombay, all films having music by shanker jaikishen. i have now songs of Door Naheen Manzil with me. Thanks and my goodwishes to all Rafi lovers and s-j lovers as well lovers of music in totality.
April 2nd, 2008 at 6:24 pm
one more song from Shanker Jaikishen and Rafi ..”Ajeeb Zindagi hai yeh…” from the film Door Naheen Manzil…a superb song
April 2nd, 2008 at 6:23 pm
I am a Shanker-Jaikishen fan. I use to surf to know more and more about them, their unearthed stories etc. Yours is a good forum with some knowledged people here, i have opened one mobile site(wapsite) shanker-jaikishe.peperonity.com where i have given some information about them. I would also like to use all three pictures incorporated on the page of this forum.Anyone can respond me on my email i.d. shankerjai@yahoo.com.
December 12th, 2007 at 7:58 pm
ref post 42
sanyal da,
thank you very much for the information. in fact i spoke to saikat da on phone a week ago. i was very much delighted to speak to him.
in fact i will again speak to him and request him to send the mp3 cd as its not available in hyderabad.
sanyal da i am indeed very sorry to say that this beautiful instrument is loosing popularity day by day due to the modern times ‘ synthetic music ‘
ramakrishna ( pujari of rafi sahab )
hyderabad
09949509592
December 12th, 2007 at 1:35 am
Recently an album had been published on Hindi Film tunes, played by SAIKAT-DA (Saikat Mukherjee). This is an MP3 CD with a collection of 50 songs played by saikat-da. Costs Rs. 59/-, by SA-RE-Ga-MA (RPG). Any one who wants to play Harmonica perfectly can approach saikat-da with prior appointment. “….After MILON-da (Milon Gupta) now SAIKAT-da (Saikat Mukherjee) is the living legend amongst the Harmonica players…” - ARNOB SANYAL
November 6th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
Shankar Jaikishan’s prelude in Raj Kapoor’s films used to mark the entry of Raj Kapoor like Pied Piper of Hamlin. They made very unique introductory music in the song Awara Hoon in Awara, 1951, Kisiki Muskurahato pe ho nisar in Anari, 1959, Diwana Mujhko log Kahen in Diwana, 1967. Either the sunthesized harmonium, or the Sexaphone or the Accordian marked Raj Kapoor’s entry.They also used chorus effect in Aa ab laut chalen in Jish desh me Ganga behti hai where Lata Mangeshkar’s tune descended when Mukesh’s tune having ascending effect.
Souvik Chatterji.
November 6th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
Shankar Jaikishan even made Rafi say a few words in between songs because his voice was not only golden in respect of singing, the bass was very soft, romantic and sweet. The songs include o priya, kaun hai jo sapno me aya, from the film Jhuk Gaya Asman picturised on Rajender Kumar in 1968 and ajare a zara a in the film Love in Tokyo picturised on Joy Mukherjee. Shankar Jaikishan gave the listeners a taste of Rafi’s voice for conversation also. The first lines of yeh mera prem patra par kar including meherba likhon was also presented by Rafi very melodiously.
Souvik Chatterji.
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:44 am
Shankar Jaikishan had such admiration for Rafi that he made Raj Kapoor sing a Rafi song Tumhi tumho is gagan me in the film ek dil sau afsana in 1963. Besides Raj kapoor ended the film Sangam with Rafi’s song ki tum naraz na hona. Shankar jaikishan made Rafi take an alaap when Raj Kapoor and Vaijayantimala dropped the ashes of the character played by Rajender Kumar in the Prayag Sangam in Allahabad. Shankar Jaikishan always cared for Rafi much more than most Mds and made sure that when Rafi any song in his film, either it ended up being the most popular song in the year or bringing him acclamation from musical experts
October 31st, 2007 at 9:28 pm
The Address of Mr. SAIKAT MUKHERJEE IS 50 THAKURDAS CHATTERJEE ROAD, KAMARHATI, 24 PGNS (n), KOLKATA
PH NO. 033 25531009.
HE HAD BEEN PLAYING MOUTH ORGAN FOR LAST 40 YEARS & ASSOCIATED WITH HMV.
RECENTLY HE HAD BEEN FACILITATED BY HMV ON THR EVE OF DURGOTSAB IN CALCUTTA “SHAARAD ARGHYA”.
HIS NUMBERS HAD BEEN COMPILED BY HMV (20 SONGS) IN A CD & RECENTLY A CD WITH COMPILATION OF 50 SONGS PLAYED BY MR. MUKHERJEE IN MOUTH ORGAN.
IF YOU WANT TO HARMONICA PLAYER, I WOULD RECOMMED TO LISTEN ONLY MILON GUPTA’S & SAIKAT MUKHERJEE’S NUMBER. AS THEY ARE PERFECT, THEY DO NOT PLAY HARMONICA, THEY SING THROUGH HARMONICA. FOR MILON GUPTA’S NUMBER ONE MAY VISIT (HMV/rpg saregama site) ENROLL, & THEN SELECT THE NUMBER (AT PRESENT 34 SONGS ARE THERE IN THE SITE) & ORDER THE CD.
SAIKAT MUKHERJEE’S SITE IS UNDER PREPARATION AS TOLD BY HMV’S PERSONNEL. ABOUT 100 SONGS PLAYED BY HIM IS EXPECTED TO BE UPLOADED. I WOULD REQUEST YOU TO FLOOD HMV WITH REQUEST MAILS FOR THIS SITE & ALSO UPLOAD SOME MORE NUMBERS OF MILON GUPTA’S ALSO.
THANKS & REGARDS
ARNOB SANYAL
October 8th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Dear Mr Ramakrishna,
I am Milon Gupta’s nephew and would be interested to speak to you all. You can check out one album called ‘’Down Memory Lane'’ Harmonica Revisited - by Arijit Mukherji… Music Today is the label. Drop me an email with your phone number at arijit.mukherji@fidelity.com and I would get in touch with you.
Thanks
August 16th, 2007 at 8:12 am
ref post 35:
mr. salim, I’m going to stop at the musicworld store on park street and purchase the cd.
August 14th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
DEAR MR. HALDER
PLEASE REFER MY POSTED COMMENT NO. 20 .
HAVE YOU CHECKED THE NAZRUL CD ?
REGARDS/A.T.M. SALIM
August 13th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
ref post - 30.
Haldar babu,
thank you very much for your reply. I regret to inform you that Mr milon Gupta has left us on 18th february 1995. This news his daughter suchitra had informed us. We celebrate his death anniversary here in hyderabad every year. we celebrated his anniversary on 18th feb 2007 in my house this time. We are 12 mouth organ players in hyderabad, & we have a get together bi monthly in some ones house & have interaction. I play sj , lp & op numbers with songs of rafi sahab as rafi sahab is my inspiration since my childhood. pls get me the address of Saikat mukherjee & Premangshu Chatterjee if you happen to visit Kolkata in the near future .
August 12th, 2007 at 9:29 am
Halder ji :
The orkut babes need to receive ” basic education in music “.
The trend in Mumbai in the media arena is to employ “youngsters”
who have done their Media Management courses - on fat salaries.
This is a good thing.
But, the managements do not have the time to put these babes on
a few months of research where they will learn the history of music.
So, they are not aware of legends like Saighal, CH Atma, Talat Mahmud,
Shankar Jaikishan, Iqbal Quereshi, Firoz Nazam, Shaym Sunder,
R.C. Boral and many other giants of the music industry.
They listen to what Asha Bhosle has to say on pancham and thinks
that pancham is the only musical giant who strode the industry.
The filmfare award in the name of Pancham :perpetuates this kind
of thinking.
The music lovers firmly have to write to these channels about their
“frog in the well thinking “: it’s felt.
A better way is to have a national fm station : for vintage songs;
the golden numbers of each era.
This will be a treat to m u s i c lovers. Perhaps the orkut babes
will also hear and learn about the musical treasures of this land.
binu nair : the rafi foundation mumbai binus2000@hotmail.com
August 12th, 2007 at 3:18 am
assalmaolikum sj k baray may kya kahna hai bohatt baray musicdirectors thay ye dono in ki tareef kernay k lya meray pass words nhi ye dono legendary music directors thay or meray sab say zayada favourite aakhir may itna kahon ga k i love u sj
August 11th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
ref post 26:
mr. salim, you are right about all the songs. The KKK song is “Hai duniya usiki”.
August 11th, 2007 at 11:07 pm
ref post 25:
Mr. Ramakrishna, I’ve been out of Kolkata for over 20 years, but I can tell you the name of the famous mouth organ player who used to play for SJ and LP. His name is Milon Gupta, but I don’t know about his bearings now. Mr. Ram Akela, who seems to be on vacation now, would know a lot about the professional musicians in Kolkata. He has played the accordion and synthesizer professionally with several rafi clones and I’m sure the two of you can share notes. I’ll be visiting Kolkata next week and I’ll see if I can get any information. I’ll also report on how the orkut babes are managing the fm channels.
August 11th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
ref post 24:
myk, it’s possible that maruti rao assisted sj with rhythm but I’m not aware of it. Most of these musicians were freelancers, though they might have owed their allegiance to one group or the other. So you have Kalyanji playing for Hemant Kumar, Laxmi playing for C. Ramchandra, MM, SD and SJ, RD playing for SD and Laxmi, Manohari playing for Salil, Hemant, SD, OP, SJ and RD, the Lords playing for SJ and RD, Sumeet Mitra playing for SJ and LP, Uttam Singh for SJ and RD, Shashikant for LP and RD …. The credits are never given on the albums, so it’s difficult to know who played what unless people like Salil, OP, Pyare, Manhohari and Kersi give you some inside information.
If you consider the musicians who played for SJ, you can compile a who’s who list in music. We’ve already discussed Sebastian, Dattaram, Balsara, Mulki, Servai. But there were so many other legendary figures like Pannalal Ghosh, Rais Khan, Samta Prasad, Hariprasad Chaurasia and Shivkumar Sharma who played for SJ. In guitar, you have Dilip Naik, Van Shipley (who has quite a few albums of his own), Tony Vaz and Anibal Crasto (who used to accompany Rafi saab for his shows). In accordion, in addition to Goody Servai, you have Sumeet Mitra (who later became LP’s arranger). In sax, in addition to Manohari, you had Narinder Kaka (who used to play the sax and clarinet in Rafi saab’s orchestra). And then there was the lord family who took care of organ, synthesizer, drums, bongos and what not. Last year, at a Manna Dey concert, a very old gentleman had to be helped on to the stage and he played the synthesizer for over three hours. Manna da mentioned that he used to play in SJ”s orchestra — I think it was Anil Mohile.
Here’s an article that has Manohari’s interview. See the picture on top: Rafi saab with three of the most talented musicians the film world has seen.
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1038792
August 11th, 2007 at 11:48 am
REF:POST-19
DEAR ANMOLJI
THANKS FOR YOUR ELABORATE & FINE COMMENTS ON S-J !
REGARDING SJ , RAFI SAHAB & DEV ANAND COMBINATION, I AM MENTIONING
TWO MORE FILMS : 1) PYAR MOHABBAT ( ” AAP NARAZ KHUDA KHAIR KARE ..”)
AND 2 ) DUNIYA (” FALSAFA PYAR KA THUM KYA JANO …” ).
THERE IS ANOTHER SONG ” MIL GAYEE ..” OF PYAR MOHABBAT .
IN THE STARTING OF THIS SONG,RAFI SAHAB UTTERS SOME WORDS ” ITREE ITREE. ..”
SOMETHING LIKE THIS . CAN YOU PLEASE TELL - IN WHICH LANGUAGE HE SAYS ?
OR IS IT JUST SOME WAY OF THROWING / UTTERING TUNES BY RAFI SAHAB .
REGARDS/ A.T.M. SALIM.
August 11th, 2007 at 11:19 am
REF.POST-17
DEAR MR. HALDER
THANKS FOR YOUR EFFORT FOR MAKING ME TO LISTEN 3 SONGS THROUGH
YOUTUBE.COM . BUT SORRY I COULDN’T SEE/LISTEN THROUGH THIS
YOUTUBE.COM AS I AM HAVING SOME PROBLEM WITH MY COMPUTER.
THE 3 SONGS YOU HAVE MENTIONED ARE : 1) OONCHE LOG; 2) ” TERE MERE
SAPNE ” FROM GUIDE & 3) KASHMIR KI KALI ( MOST PROBABLY).
YES, THESE SONGS OF RAFI SAHAB DO CONTAIN SAX MUSIC AND
IT IS PLAYED EXCELLENTLY !
THE “OONCHE LOG ” SONG IS ONE OF MY MOST FAVOURITE SONGS OF RAFI SAHAB.
THANKS & REGARDS/A.T.M. SALIM
August 11th, 2007 at 11:18 am
REF.POST-17
DEAR MR. HALDER
THANKS FOR YOU EFFORT FOR MAKING ME TO LISTEN 3 SONGS THROUGH
YOUTUBE.COM . BUT SORRY I COULDN’T SEE/LISTEN THROUGH THIS
YOUTUBE.COM AS I AM HAVING SOME PROBLEM WITH MY COMPUTER.
THE 3 SONGS YOU HAVE MENTIONED ARE : 1) OONCHE LOG; 2) ” TERE MERE
SAPNE ” FROM GUIDE & 3) KASHMIR KI KALI ( MOST PROBABLY).
YES, THESE SONGS OF RAFI SAHAB DO CONTAIN SAX MUSIC AND
IT IS PLAYED EXCELLENTLY !
THE “OONCHE LOG ” SONG IS ONE OF MY MOST FAVOURITE SONGS OF RAFI SAHAB.
THANKS & REGARDS/A.T.M. SALIM.