Golden Era of Bollywood: Jaiksihan ‘s forte was romantic and western tunes

Wednesday, 12 September 2018

Jaiksihan ‘s forte was romantic and western tunes

The association of Raj Kapoor, Shankar Jaikishen, Shailendra and Hasrat Jaipuri which started with Barsaat continued till the end. The Shankar Jaikishan were among the top music directors of Golden Era of Bollywood. They created the music appealing both to the common man (rickshaw puller) as well as purists. The eight-minute Awaara song “ Ghar Aaya Mera Pardesi” is a milestone in Hindi Film music. A lovely duet by Lata Rafi and chorus.
Shankar was elder to Jaikishan but he always respected Jaikishan. Shankar was master of instruments. He would play at ease Harmonium, Sitar or Tabla and normally conducted orchestra irrespective of who composed the song. Shankar used to decide on the theme Raag for each movie well in advance. Most of the dance based and classical based tunes were by Shankar. Jaikishan's forte was romantic and western tunes.SJ composed their best not only for Raj Kapoor home productions but also in all the movies in which Raj Kapoor had starred
Jaikishan was one of the most stylishly dressed, handsome personalities. His wardrobe was the best in the world. His personal letter to his wife Pallavi Jaikishen became the lyrics of another romantic evergreen song sung by Rafi Saab in Sangam. This song also was responsible for the breakup of the duo, as Jaikishen told the media for the first time, that the song was his own creation.
Jaikishan introduced the music of all countries in their compositions. From the Jazz to Arabian music, from Rock to Indian classical and romantic as well as Ghazals. They were good in every type of song. Till then Bollywood music was classical for the purists
70% of Shailendra songs were composed by Shankar. Similarly, most of the songs of Hasrat Jaipuri was composed by Jaikishen. Until the split, it is difficult to find out who composed what as they worked together as a team.
Jaikishan was also the best in giving Background Music. 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 over-simplification 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.
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.
Jaikishan died in 1971 due to cirrhosis of liver, a disease caused by excessive consumption of alcohol. At the time of his death, the duo enjoyed an unparalleled popularity which was underlined by a massive turnout at his funeral procession.

Here are some of the great Romantic Songs of Shankar Jaikishan