shankarjaikishan music

Abt Shankar jaikishan Music

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The blogs here are selected work from SJ yahoo group posts. These are opinions of members with respect to discussion on a topic. so dont try to derive things from these. Authors are open to corrections regarding any mistakes. There is no intention of authors to hurt any artist. Since this is part of a discussion not full fledge article , so dont copy part of these articles without permission of the author !

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

S-J in the 70's: Re-visiting their Gems
              Ali Rashid writes on  SJ's gems from 70s

I have been listening to a lot of S-J 70's songs of late, and re-visiting their gems during that period.
Why do some critics give S-J the short end of the stick when it comes to the 70's. These critics label S-J's music during that time as  "loud",  "low-quality", and so forth. It is true that S-J did  produce few sub-standard  songs during that period (as did others), but they also produced many great songs too. After listening to these songs, I am even more convinced that had Jaikishan lived, S-J would still have been a force to reckon with.

Even amidst their problems, S-J in the 70's could still come up with vintagemelody, fantastic orchestration, and soulful compositions. In fact, a good number of these songs were better than what others were churning out during this  time.The songs we have of this duo in the 70's are to be cherished.

Some gems I was listening to (YTube links provided for some which were available):

Jane anjaane log mile - Jane Anjaane - 1971 - Kishore


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1h0UTD2Ick&feature=related


RD used what I like to call a "piano accompaniment" technique where flourishes of the piano showed up in his compositions (I wrote an article on that earlierthis year). S-J have also used that technique in the bove Kishore solo.Ofcourse they did not copy this from RD, but it was their own unique creativity. One of KK's best early 70's songs.

Saanjh savere nain tere - Duniya Ka Jaane - 1971 -

Kishore/Asha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwgFKGm0klY


A beautiful Kishore-Asha duet. From the orchestration, it seems like a Jaikishan composition. Kishore had a different charm singing under S-J.

Ae badal jhoom ke - Nadaan - 1971 - Mukesh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtjC6v76yvk


Jhoom ke gaa yun - Patanga - 1971 - Rafi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsuwzrle6Zk



Wasta hi na jab raha - Chori Chori
One of the last Mukesh masterpieces composed by Jaikishan.

Ek tera sundar mukhda - Bhai Bhai - 1970 - Rafi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1E_6_ROeh0


Wah Wah Rafi-saab !.

Tumhare bin guzare hain - Atmaram - 1979 - Lata/Rafi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWGU3gV8L18&feature=related


A stunner...probably the last Lata/Rafi duet Shankar (Jaikishan) composed....beautiful melody and rendition.

Jab mohabbat jawan - Jawan Mohabbat - 1970 - Rafi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWWwSELMejk

Sooni sooni sans ke sitar - Lal Patthar - 1972 - Asha

------------

Also, try finding a better set of male songs (from a variety of singers) in the  early 70's:

Rafi - Jab bhi yeh dil udaas - Seema - 1971
Mukesh - Jaane kahan gaye woh din - Mera Naam Joker - 1970
Kishore - Bhanwre ki gunjan - Kal Aaj Aur Kal - 1971
Rafi - Tum mujhe yun bhula na - Pagla Kahin Ka - 1970
Manna - Re man sur mein ga - Lal Patthar - 1971
Mukesh - Jeevan bhar dhoondta jisko - Nadaan - 1971
Kishore - Zindagi ek safar - Andaz - 1971
Manna - Ae bhai zara dekh - Mera Naam Joker - 1970
Rafi - Humko to jaan se pyaari - Naina - 1972
And Many others.......

Cheers

Ali 

Monday, September 14, 2009

                             Sangam - The Memories
                                        N Sridhar   recalls the memories of watching Sangam !


Sangam brings back to me the memories of a Saturday around 30 years back. One of my elder brother (who instilled the love for Shammi Kapoor and SJ in our family as they became his favorites) took me out in the morning in his bicycle riding doubles and we reached the theater named Prasanna in our locality. Till the time, we reached the theater, I was not aware of where we were going. It was only on reaching the theatre that I realised that this was one of the ocassions to watch a movie - a morning show rerun of the old hit movie Sangam.  We were quite early for the show and the ticket counters had not yet opened. We waited for the ticket counters to open and the crowds as was usual with the morning shows were sparse.

The movie rolled out on the screen and gosh, what a movie it was. It made a deep impression on me and even to date I can vividly recall certain scenes from the movie. It was an excellent movie shot in colour and I think one of the first hindi movies which was shot in foreign locales. As mentioned by Devraj ji, I think RK fell in love with his shooting and this increased the duration of the movie to something less than 3 hrs.

I got the opportunity to view this movie again a few years back and while the film was unfolding on the screen, I could still recall the scenes as I had seen it decades back. It was a coincidence that last Thursday night, I had the opportunity to watch the climax scene of this movie which has superb dialogues for all the 3 actors in one of the TV channels here. As was usual with RK movies, this movie also had SJ giving their best, but it still was not able to get the Filmfare award and this privilege had to go to Mera Naam Joker, the last movie that RK directed and acted with SJ's music.
This film had great songs and the picturisation of certain songs - Yeh Mera Prem Patr, Dost Dost Na Raha, O Mehbooba O Mehbooba as well as Ich Liebe Dich (meaning I Love You in German language) were really out of the world.
I remember reading somewhere that Raj Kapoor wanted Dilip Kumar to one of the roles, but Dilip Kumar did not agree to it.  Of course Raj Kapoor had to settle for the so called poor man's Dilip Kumar instead - Rajendra Kumar. It is ironical to note the tag of poor man's Dilip Kumar since Rajendra Kumar used to earn more money than Dilip Kumar in the decade of 60's. Much has been written about  Rajendra Kumar's acting (or non-acting, the way you look at it) abilities, but still IMHO, he gave a good performance as a close friend sacrificing his love, also mouthing superb dialogues in the climax of the movie and finally giving up his life for the sake of his friend. This has been one of his performances which moved me quite a lot. Raj Kapoor of course himself was a great actor. However, in most of his movies he acts as a simpleton/comic/ buffoon (numerous movies like Awara, Shri 420, Jis Desh Main Ganga Behti Hai, Mera Naam Joker, Diwana, Sapnon Ka Saudagar, Chalia, Dulha Dulhan etc are the ones I can recall immediately) an image which he consciously and deliberately developed. There are very few movies wherein he has acted naturally. Some of those movies which come to my mind are Aah (an excellent performance by him in a real serious role) ; Dil Hi To Hai. In this movie also, as usual, Raj Kapoor comes across a simpleton in the first half wherein he is obsessed with his love for Radha and keeps expressing it all opportunities, while not caring for the feelings of Radha or Gopal. Somehow this is the only aspect of the movie which can be described as a weak point in the script. Thought Gopal and Sundar are very close friends, it beats me as how Sundar as a friend could not detect that Gopal also had love for Radha, maybe as they say, love makes a man blind.

This film also is of historical interest to fans of SJ as this was the movie which publicly brought out the differences between Shankar & Jaikishan with the composer's themselves identifying certain songs as composed by them. I think this was the only instance where in public, either S or J identified their creations. I have a feeling that in the team, they had an unwritten rule not to do this. This is th reason that you will find that in any of the interviews of SJHS, none of them publicly identify the songs as created by Shankar or Jaikishan.  Evan in the late 70s and 80s while Shankar was down and had few assignments, in none of the interviews has he tried to differentiate the songs as composed by S and J. For him, it was always an SJ creation. It was only some journalists like Raju Bharatan, who played the game of trying to identify certain songs as composed by S and others by J. As  an ardent SJ fan, for me both Shankar as well as Jaikishan were  one. Any music of their's will remain as SJ's music and not as individual S music or individual J music.

We had an interesting discussion on this movie on the Sangeet Ke Sitare forum a few years back, initiated by none other one of our moderators Kamaal Mustafa. During those discussions, we also discussed and voted on the most popular song of the movie - many people arguing for Yeh Mera Prem Patr (Kamaal bhai) or Dost Dost Na Raha (myself), but the final voting results in the group sprung a surprise at least on me. The top songs in the voting results also had O Mere Sanam and O Mehbooba apart from the above two songs. Of course this type of split vote among the songs of the movies will always be the case in any of the SJ movies you consider. The poll results are still available at

http://in.groups. yahoo.com/ group/sangeet_ ke_sitare/ surveys?id= 12238929

This shows that SJ as music director's catered to the needs of all types of songs - sad, romantic, pathos, comic, dance whatever be the type. They tried to give their best and it showed in the results of their creations.  This again shows that it does not make any difference to the listener on who the individual composer of the songs were. As long as the songs were good, which was the case with SJ, it always remains popular.

For me of course, the song Dost Dost Na Raha remains the top song of this movie. This song always moves me each time I hear it.  The anguish of a betrayed friend comes out naturally in this song through the excellent lyrics and the tune.  A small correction in what Devrajji has written regardign the song situation- This song does not come after Sundar knows that Radha was loved by somebody. Sundar hears this song sung by one of his colleagues in the mess at the air force - One of the close friends of this colleague gets married to his love during the absence of this colleague in the service of the country. The colleague bemoans his fate by singing the verses of this song. However, in the movie, this song comes when Sundar invites Gopal to come to Switzerland for Radha's birthday as a surprise. However, Radha is shocked on seeing Gopal in Switzerland and requests him to keep out their lives. After this, Sundar praises the friendship of Gopal and says that he is fortunate to have a true friend like Gopal, who was not like the friend of his colleague who betrayed him. However, he says that the song of his colleague made a deep impression on him - he says on listening to the song -  "Raungte khade ho jate hai" and sings the song. Little does he know that this song of course is going to reflect on his own situation. The song has some great filming with Raj Kapoor on the piano and shows the faces of Rajendra Kumar/Vyjayantimala while replaying the past scenes of their lives.

I think that I have rambling quite a lot and it is time for me to stop writing before people start realising what an Idiot I am. But what to do, sometimes the nasha of SJ's music is like that.

All in all, I would rate this score among one of the top 10 scores of SJ.

Regards

N. Sridhar

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12 September : The Day to pay homage to Jaikishan
              Dr Senani  pays homage to  Jaikishan on his death anniversary 


Dear fellow SJ fans,

On this day(12 Sept), let us pay our homages to the late Jaikishan, the `ladla' of the SJ-team, who-
`Aaye bahar ban ke
lubha kar chale gaye'.


Going down the memory lane, it can be easily said that one of his all-time classic-
'Teri pyari pyari surat ko
kisi ki nazar na lage, Chashm-e-baddur'

very aptly fitted on this `Prince-charming' himself.

 Jaikishan, a friend of friends (Yaaro ka yaar), always maintained-
   'Ehsaan mere dilpe tumhara hai dost
   ye dil tumhare pyaar ka mara hai doston.'

He woo-ed his beloved and life partner Pallavi with the creation of the musical gem- 
'Tu kamsin ho nadaan ho nazuk ho bholi ho'
Although Hasrat wrote a love letter to some girl as'
`Ye mera prem patra pdh kar
  ki tum naaraz nahona,
  ki tum meri zinndagi ho
  ki tum meri bandgai ho'

he could never muster the courage to deliver it to the girl concerned. Interestingly, it was Jaikishan who famously tuned the lines impromto into an all-time-classic song for Sangam.

Similarily, while Hasrat Jaipuri wrote the lines  'Baharon Phool Barsao, mera mehboob aya hai'
one day when his wife was serving him tea, the way it has been musically composed it also appears to be symbolising Pallavi's arrival in Jaikishan's life.

Jaikishan musically-expressed his feelings for his lady-love through his composition-
`Sau saal pehle mujhe tumse pyar tha
aaj bhi hai aur kal bhi rahega'.


Also, when he composed-
`Dekha hai teri aankhon mein
pyaar he pyaar beshumar'

or
`Ek tera sundar mukhda
ek tera pyar se bhara dil, milna mushkil'

it appeared he derived inspiration from his own beloved !

His song-
`Zindagi ek safar hai suhana,
yahaan kal kya ho kisne jana'

was almost prophetic of his sudden departure on September 12, 1971, at a very young age.

And lastly, how well he predicted, through his music, that-
`Tum mujhe yun bhula na paoge,
Jub bhi sunoge geet mere
sung-sung tum bhi gungunaoge'


Long live Jaikishan, long live the all-time-great `jodi' of `Shankar-Jaikishan' and their time-less, age-less and immortal melodies, which will be cherished years after years, generations after generations !

-Senani

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