Nov 04, 2012 11:00 PM
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I got into music back in 1993 with Baazigar and Darr(Was in deep love-lost her, but waiting till date), so I myself started being obsessed with MUSIC and POETRY and LYRICAL words. I kept keen track of music-Bollywood till 2000, when I bought cassette ANDAZ 1971.
During repeated listening, One song stood out as special and that was the song " MUJHE PYAS AISI PYAS LAGI HAI" sung by ASHA BHONSLE. From then I STARTED EXPLORING MY DADS CASSETTES of 50s, 60s & 70s.
One thing that startled was SHANKAR-JAIKISHEN(SJ) songs among the collection of 500 cassettes. I immediately left new songs and started exploring SJ songs.My journey till now has ended with 900 songs of the 1100 odd songs they composed. Thats around 80%, which I think is great and my open challenge to anyone who have such a huge possession of SJ songs.
I have explored so many details about SJ and their lyricists that I say I have read 90-99% articles that have been written on them be it on paper or on internet or TV programs.
WHAT IS UNIQUE ABOUT SJ?- Well to be in short, SJ actually understood better than any Indian music director till date(Exception -ILLAYARAJA-TAMIL & RAJAN-NAGENDRA-KANNADA).
In 1949 while recording BARSAAT music, SHANKAR was just 27 yrs and JAIKISHAN just 19 years. And they brought for the first time full fledged orchestra. Imagine at a such young age what achievement they did. From then till 1975, their songs had a exceptional charm.
During their journey between 1949 & 1991(Last released film GORI 1991), they gave music to 184 films. 60% were silver Jubliees, 20% Golden Jubilees & 10% Platinum Jubilees.
They made great some well known artists like-LATA MANGESHKAR, MUKESH, RAFI SAAB, TALAT MOHD, SHAMMI KAPOOR, RAJ KAPOOR, ASHA BHONSLE, SHAILENDRA, HASRAT JAIPURI, NEERAJ, VARMA MALIK, RAJENDRA KUMAR, VYJAYANTHI MALA, HEME MALINI, ETC .HOW?
Through their hard work, they made beautiful melodies and singers, lyricists along with acting artists reaped huge rewards monetarily and fame wise.
They set unique trend of music, which consisted of preludes and interludes and they generally referred music from international standard where full fledged ORCHESTRA was required. Thats why their music is still hummable. Equally they referred folk and Raag based songs and modified to suit cinematic music. In 1968, they brought out the album RAAG with JAZZ, If you be on youtube you will be able to listen the songs.
If let be compared the Background music of SJ vs say-Naushad, Madan Mohan, O P Nayyar, S D Burman, R D Burman, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Kalyanji Anandji, Husnlal-Bhagatram, C Ramachandra, Chitragupt etc, you will right away find huge difference(except where other music diractors have copied SJ).
Their songs were a craze then and seeing the banner or hero, nobody went to theatre, but when MD were SJ, people used to flock to theatres in 50s & 60s. With Appx 6-8 films a year as average the quality was maintained very high and that is why they earned 9 FILMFARE awards between 1956-1972, a record only broken in 2011.
But still so, SJ competed with high class MD like-Naushad, Madan Mohan, O P Nayyar, S D Burman, R D Burman, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Kalyanji Anandji, Husnlal-Bhagatram, C Ramachandra, Chitragupt etc, So you clearly see why they were so faaaaaaaaaaar ahead of time.
In 1968, SJ got PADMASHREE, One year ahead of DADA Burman. Naushad was very happy listening this. Guess who were jealous, of course LAXMIKANT PYARELAL. LP always took the films which SJ left and copied SJ style of music and got fame.how cheap. Same was also done by KALYANJI-ANANDJI in 60s and R D Burman during his initial struggling days, which is why SHANKAR composed the song on R D Burman as " KAWWA CHALA HANS KI CHAAL, AAKHIR BHOOLA APNI CHAAL".
Nobody believes, but when you analyze keenly, you will find that it was fact that some artists-LATA MANGESHKAR, ASHA BHONSLE, SHARADA, MKESH, MOHD RAFI, KISHORE KUMAR, SUMAN KALYANPUR all from singing industry, RAJ KAPOOR, SHAMMI KAPOOR, RAJENDRA KUMAR, SUNIL DUTT, VYJAYANTHIMALA, HEMA MALINI from acting side all were heavily lucky to have had SJ music during their initial struggling days which made them hugely successful and they forgot them when they acheieved fame-exception KISHORE KUMAR AND MOHD RAFI.
Even Illayaraja, LP, Kalyanji-Aanandji, Nadeem Shravan, Anu Malik, SHANKAR of SHANKAR-EHSAAN-LOY team, have all confessed that SJ were numero Uno MD of Bollywood then till date. Nobody could beat what they created and nobody will be born to beat them.
Today when awards are being sold like cloths on the street, some MD like ARR get awards every year and with hardly any competition, even a dog can get a award provided its music is popular, but it certainly lacks the elements of ingenuity somewhere and merely being hummable does not get any positive vote in the long run. Such songs are hummed for a year and forgotten, being replaced by the new songs and only melody gets counted no lyrical value.
WHAT DESTROYED THE ERA CREATED BY SJ? Do you know or want to refer my comments below.
First 1970s, brought new generation and they were fascinated by the music created then by LP and RDB. And what who was common lyricist?-ANAND BAKSHI. This man might be popular now, but compare his lyrics with the then legends like SAHIR, SHAILENDRA, HASRAT JAIPURI, MAJROOH etc. Bakshi s lyrics were pathetic then with no meaningful words but mere rhyms which later in 90s and 00s was followed in similar fashion by lyricist SAMEER. Lata Mangeshkar in an interview in 80s said SJ kind of music era was destroyed literally by 70s MD like LP, K-A, R D B and that era will never come again.
So who lost? We lost and at loss were all the ears across the globe. Be it in US, UK, RUSSIA, CARRIBIAN, AFRICA, JAPAN, MALAYSIA, SRI LANKA, PAKISTAN, SINGAPORE, AUSTRALIA OR EUROPE, everywhere people hummed and enjoyed international grade music given by SJ and when their time was over, the music was dead in the ears of the foreigners for almost 20 years till ASHIQUI and like movies came in.
Today Media drives everything like remixs of yesteryear songs, especially of R D Burman. But they can effectively twist music of SJ so SJ numbers have not been remixed in huge numbers. Todays generation except a few say 10%, rest are all fickle minded and dont like listening old songs. They are at loss and not SJ or we, who always worship SJ.
I myself have heard say I take a single song of SJ and hear it till I get bored(by then I might have heard the song around 500-1000 times in a week or so). Likewise I have been doing justice listening and enjoying every song SJ have composed. I dont get same pleasure listening songs from other MDs(Exception ARE SONGS OF 90S, Songs composed by ILLAYARAJA, RAJAN-NAGENDRA and a few).
I am happy for 12 years of my love to SJ have been written in around 7324 words here. Hope you will enjoy and please mail me if you want to know anything about SJ. I may in my lifetime write a book on them for the new generation. So Please keep alive the tradition of SJ music to every music lover.
Pls contact me on my mail id-tjwagle@hotmail.com. I welcome everyone who want to know about SJ and many thing of bollywood from 1935-2000.
BYE AND TAKE CARE.THANKS SO MUCH FOR READING THIS. I LOVE YOU FOR THIS.
