Shanker's birthday on 15th October 2011

composing some tunes and playing them to the delight of the theatre artistes, as they relaxed after the days work was over. Premnath was among such prominent and enchanted ones and was always pestering, Raj for a break for Shankar along with Jaikishan, into movies, The year was1947-1948, S&J were on the rolls of Prithvi theatres as a Tabla and Harmonium player respectively and also were as by then Raj had already made Aag which had some tunes by S&J as reflected in those 78 rpm records as per the norms then, tune by Shankar or Jaikishan as the case may be, though the music credits were shown as Ram Ganguly.

Something strange happenned as Vishwa Mehra and Raj got the feedback from HMV, that some of the tunes of Barsaat were being re-hashed and being sold by Ram Ganguly, and enraged as Raj was, nonplussed looked at Vishwa Mehra in askance, on what his next course of action should be and prompt came the reply "Replace Ram Ganguly with SJ as these songs were anyway composed by them". Raj did give instructions to HMV but was filled with a nagging fear and anxiety as he was found vacillating "Perhaps it may be better to let things be as before...put Ram Ganguly's name back in"

For his next venture Barsaat, Ram Ganguly. had already two songs recorded with tunes by S &J. and at the most critical and vital moment,Mehra put his foot down as fair play seized him, admonishing Raj firmly for replacement then and there.

Thus a new pair of Music Directors by the name of Shankar Jaikishan were ushered under the umbrella of RK Films, for Barsaat,

as its now well known musical compositions, then, lay like dormant clouds, burst forth into a Rainbow of Melodies, the like of which was, not heard till then, fresh in its fragrance, distinctly novel orchestra, at once electrifying, euphonious to the ear and a connossiers delight, that did not look back.

Some moments have their destiny, latently stored all over, shrouded till the opportunity opens up, in its own inscrutable way and historic, as viewed in retrospect, bestowing a splendid spectacle forthwith, for the next two decades of an uninterrupted feast of spell binding music.

springing joyously from this ecstatic musical fountain of bountiful bliss, as the SJ caravan surfed along, sailing majestically, setting its sails from one canvas to another until the whole of their musical spectrum got absorbed and eneveloped into a facade of brilliant shades of the rainbow, split from a single ray of the SJ light, as reflected by the coveted white Impalla's, they once sported, for collecting their many prestigeous FF awards.

Shankar ji, you have braved many a storm in the battle of life, a pyschosis beyond one's comprehension confronted in the wake of your mentor deserting you at a very vulnerable phase, already bereft of Lata, and so many factors that started weighing you down, our fond remembrances of you as the architect of the phenomenon called SJ, as we also get a glimpse of your turmoil on Jai's demise in an interaction to Amin Sayani....

"Kya kahun, Amin Bhai, Mera Zindagi ka Saathi Chala Gaya mere paas reh hi kya gaya kehne keliye....Pehle kabhi soch hi nahintha itni choti umar me humsabko chodke chala jayega ...khair jo uske baten jo achhi baten sari duniya ko yaad rahegi,.....kaise pyar dena, kaise pyar lena, kitna milansar se rehna usi ko aata tha hame bhi nahin aata. Hamesha mujhse kehta tha,.... Are yar tum hamesha gusse me rehthe ho, kisi na kisi ko daanthe rehthe ho........"

while you never really had the need for such a situation while Jai was there, it became conspicous after he left so suddenly, as the made for each other, stared starkly now at you, with the strange and awkward feeling knawing you "What if I had gone first ......." remains unanswered with wishful thinking taking the reins of unbridled imagination and I do subscribe to the subtle and subconscious feeling looming large among pragmatic SJians

that your foursome were the four wheels of the Divine Chariot that got embellished consciously as SJ and invisibly as the invincible SJSH.

It was Destiny that snatched away Shailendra from this foursome in 1966 and one wheel went rolling off, making vaccum in one half of the jodi and

with Jai the second diagnol wheel also gone, Destiny truck its most vital blow leaving you to brave a storm unprecedented and totally taken unawares.

However we celebrate your birth anniversary with nostalgic remembrances of a soul who coined his love for music as a "Deewanapan.."

and rejoice in them as life bmaecomes worthwhile but for a few things and dominant among them being the SJ thread running throughout

our subconscious life perpetually ever and consciously surfacing as the occasion warrants.

If there was a trendsetting

"Mohabbat ki dastaan hai yeh sno......in Mayurpankh there was an equally beautiful number

by Lata "Kushiyon ki chand muskuraaye re..."

If there was the dream evoking number by Lata

"Koyi mere sapnon me aaya....." from New Delhi

which ultimately got shelved due to strange reasons there was another classical in the form of "Murali bairan bhayee..."

which was very much there filmed on Vyjayantimala rated as a Lata classic to this day.

If there was the feelingly sung

"Chandrama madhbara kyun jhoome badar mein.."from Patrani

there was an equally impressive "Kabhi tho aaa kabhi tho aaa kabhi tho aaa....

and what a score SJ did for Patrani as Lata's vocals are really tested as she raises her pitch into " Pawan Ganga....."

and the classical music that follows is just euphonious as it sends you into raptures.

One should heare Patrani's album to understand the classical depth of Shankar in dance music which is legendary.

My humble salutations to you Sir Shankar Singh Raghuvansi

rgds

murthy

Shanker Jaikishen - The Trend Setters, Experimenters and Innovators

Shri Subhash Tiwari writer

of this article

I think it would be proper to dwell a little on the contribution of Shanker Jaikishen as “Trend Setters”, “Experimenters”, and “Innovators”. Actually the cue for this article lies in a discussion on SJ Forum, where one of the participants questioned the Capabilities of SJ vis-à-vis other MDs. With due regards to the abilities of those other MDs and without any offence to them, I insist that SJ were the most important Thing which happened to Hindi Film Music. Let us take a Look at these 3 words, “Trend Setter” “Experimenter”, and “Innovator” Trend Setter is the One who sets the Ball Rolling and others to follow suit. As I stated in my previous post, the 1st era of Hindi Film Music had a Typical Theatrical Composition with a Monotonous Style of singing whether it was KLS, Punkuj Mullick or KC Dey. But the people who created that type of music, did start in Mid 30’s by people like RC Boral who were the Trend setters for that Era. Then came Naushad, who composed “Hum Jeeke Kya Karenge Jab Dil Hi Toot Gaya, from “Shahjahan” in 1946, a song which Joined the 1st and 2nd Era. It was Naushad who introduced multi piece Orchestra to Hindi Film Music. He changed the “Single Octave” compositions to “One and Half Octave” compositions just because he got a Great Voice with immense range, “The Phenomenon called Mohd Rafi”. Remember the Orchestration and Chorus of “Udan Khatola” song “O Door Ke Musafir” in 1955. Till then even SJ were not using that type of Orchestra. Their songs comprised highlights of individual instruments, like Mandolin and Accordion in Awara songs, (Even the great dream song had only a few instruments, with a special crescendo effect in the end). So the credit for Setting the Trend of High Octave songs and Orchestration in the 2nd Era goes to Naushad Ali.It was the 3rd ling Era of nearly 25 years which saw all the things together from Shanker Jaikishen, called Experimentation, Trend Settings and Innovations.Trend Setting is “Doing something, which makes others to follow suit. About their Trend Setting, as I wrote in earlier post, the songs before them generally started directly with the voice of the singer without any prelude or with a couplet and the main song followed. Even SJ made use of a couplet, though only once or twice, like “Dil ko tujhase bedili hai” in Yahudi.Before their appearance on the scene whatever Prelude was heard, it was a short 4-5 second musical play of some instrument without a definite structure.

It was SJ who introduced the melodious Preludes, in Barsaat, Awara, Shree 420, Chori Chori. They compelled everyone to come along. Their Interludes were having a Distinct Structure in themselves, which one could Whistle, Hum or Play on instruments. Moreover the 1st and 2nd Interludes were nearly always different from each other. That is what is called Trend setting.

An Experiment is “Doing something, the result of which is not known, even to the performer”. By that definition, each Music Director offering New Tunes to his Producers and Audience, is an Experimenter, without knowing what is going to happen to his creation. But a True Experimenter is confident of his actions that these are going to be successful and not the disasters. By that guideline, Shanker Jaikishen experimented with Classical Music, Western Music, Fusion of these 2 Streams, Solo Musical Compositions without any Vocal Component, and surprisingly, each of their Experiment was a huge success. Remember the Sadhana’Shammi dance Dilruba Dil Pe Tu, purely on strings and percussions in “Rajkumar”, Waheeda’s dance in “Roop Ki Raani”, Vyjayantimal’s “Bakad Bam Bam” in Kathputali. They experimented with 2 distinct songs in continuity like “Tere Bina Aag Ye Zindagi’ and “ Ghar Aaya Mera Pardesi”, The list goes on.. The best Experiment from SJ was the Creation of “Raga –The Jazz Style”.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Raga-Jazz-Style/106428702780785?sk=wall

Regarding Innovation, it is Doing something for the 1st time which No one Else has done before them. Now that is a long list. As someone on this forum called innovation as “making use of some thing for some other thing to produce music”, I do not agree. That may be labeled as “Special Effect” but not Innovation. Using Sand Papers and Combs, Spoons and Glasses is no innovation in my opinion. Of course each of us is free to have his viewpoint, but majority of Hindi Film Music Fans would agree that Shanker Jaikishen did so many things which no one had attempted before them and hence they were the Real Innovators in Music. Their Persistent memory with Millions of Fans across the Globe is the Proof of above postulations.