Shankar Jaikishan, an Indian musical composer duo in the Hindi film industry, were active mainly during the 1950s and 1960s.

Shankar Jaikishan, an Indian musical composer duo in the Hindi film industry, were active mainly during the 1950s and 1960s. They were the premier composers of their period which is also considered the golden era of Hindi film music. They are generally regarded as the greatest composers in the Hindi film industry. Their fan following includes the likes of Lata Mangeshkar, Manna Dey, O.P. Nayyar, Laxmikant of Laxmikant Pyarelal fame, Anu Malik, Usha Khanna. Rahul Dev Burman used to take tips from Jaikishan on a regular basis.

Early years

Shankar Singh Raghuvanshi (October 25, 1922 – April 26, 1987) was a native of Hyderabad while Jaikishan Dayabhai Panchal (November 4, 1929 – September 12, 1971) belonged to Vansada, Gujarat.

During his formative years, Shankar played the tabla and learned the art formally from Baba Nasir Khansahib. Jaikishan was adept at playing the harmonium. Subsequently, he obtained his musical lessons from Sangeet Visharad Wadilalji and later from Prem Shankar Nayak. After moving to Bombay, he became a disciple of Vinayak Tambe.

Shankar and Jaikishan met in Bombay and formed a friendship that was to last until the death of Jaikishan in 1971. Shankar started his career with a theater group run by Satyanarayan and Hemawati, before shifting to Prithvi Theater where he played tabla and performed some minor roles in plays. He also introduced Jaikishan to his employers as a harmonium player. The two of them later played significant roles in the play “Pathan”.

Subsequently, they worked as assistants for the leading composer duo of Husnlal Bhagatram and continued to remain in touch with Raj Kapoor, who was working as an assistant to the famous director Kidar Sharma. The three had met at Prithvi Theater, run by Raj Kapoor’s father, Prithviraj Kapoor.

First break

Raj Kapoor made his debut as a director with the film “Aag” in 1948. While the film received a mixed response at the box office, its musical score proved to be quite popular. However, Raj Kapoor had some serious differences with Ram Ganguly, the music composer of the film, and decided to try out a new composer for his next venture “Barsaat” in 1949.

Himself no novice when it came to matters musical, Raj Kapoor took on board a completely new team of composers Shankar and Jaikishan (who had assisted Ram Ganguly for “Aag”), and lyricists Shailendra and Hasrat Jaipuri (a former bus conductor). He also co-opted the upcoming singing talent Lata Mangeshkar, and repeated Mukesh as his own ghost voice. In due course, this team was to prove to be one of the most successful musical combinations of all times, perhaps second only to the combination of Shankar, Jaikishan, Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri, Lata Mangeshkar, and Mohd. Rafi.

Barsaat was a super hit, both commercially and musically. Among other things, it established Lata Mangeshkar as the undisputed queen of Hindi film music. It also had the distinction of giving two firsts to Hindi cinema – a title song (Barsaat mein hamse miley tum) and a cabaret (Patli kamar hai). The film propelled Shankar Jaikishan on the road to musical superstardom and to a stature that remains unmatched to this date.

Early successes

The success of Barsaat opened many doors for Shankar Jaikishan, popularly known by the acronym S-J. Never the ones to rest on their laurels, they continued to improve upon their ever lofty standards and their association with any film generally was one of the most important factors in its success.

Among their early hits, Aawara, Aah, Shree 420, Basant Bahar, Halaku, Patita, Kathputli, Anari, Chori Chori, Daag, Baadshah, Boot Polish, and Ujala are barely a few of the prominent ones.

In the film Aawara, they successfully supported the first ever “dream sequence” by two stunningly orchestrated songs, viz., Tere bina aag yeh chandni and Ghar aaya mera pardesi, though the latter had more than a few shades of a Mohammed Abdel Wahab (considered the “father of the modern Egyptian song”) composition.

The songs Aawara hoon from the film Awaara and Mera joota hai Japani from the film Shree 420 were big hits in the Soviet Union and East European countries as well and helped turn Raj Kapoor (on whom the songs were picturized) into a cult figure in those regions.

Musical collaborators

S-J formed a core team with lyricists Shailendra (himself regarded as perhaps the greatest of his ilk) and Hasrat Jaipuri and with singers Mohd. Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar. They also patronized the immensely talented singer Manna Dey, who sang his best songs with them, and used Mukesh’s silken voice as playback for Raj Kapoor. Among the directors, they worked most closely with Raj Kapoor and were considered the kingpins of his legendary banner RK Films.

S-J also worked with most of the other singers of that time. Toward the later part of their career, they had a good working relationship with singers Sharda and Kishore Kumar, and lyricists Neeraj, Verma Malik, and Rajinder Krishan.

While they composed music for all the top heroes of their time, they enjoyed an excellent run with the films of Shammi Kapoor and Rajendra Kumar, apart from those of Raj Kapoor.

S-J were the “house composers” for RK Films and produced some of their best work for the banner. Raj Kapoor used to maintain a music bank where he stored compositions of S-J. This music bank was built over a period of time and S-J used to ‘borrow’ from it in order to support their work for other directors. Even after the termination of the professional association between Shankar and Raj Kapoor (Jaikishan had died by then), the latter would use S-J’s compositions for all his films though the credits were given officially to other composers, e.g., Laxmikant Pyarelal (Bobby, Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Prem Rog) and Ravindra Jain (Ram Teri Ganga Maili)

Composition style

Shankar Jaikishan’s compositions broke new ground in Hindi film music. Apart from relying upon their considerable knowledge of Indian classical music, they also employed to great effect western beats and orchestration. While “raga Bhairavi” remained their perennial favorite, they used the western classical-based waltz rhythm in the majority of their songs to telling effect. They were also influenced by Mohammed Wahab and used strains from his compositions in many of their songs. Though they did copy some of the very popular western songs in toto in their compositions, such instances were few and far between and serious charges of plagiarism were never leveled against them.

Shankar Jaikishan gave a new meaning to the genre of sad songs by composing them on a fast tempo. Songs like Aye mere dil kahin aur chal (Daag) and Andhe jahan ke andhe raaste (Patita) amply demonstrated this. These songs, along with many others (notably Awaara hoon from the film Awaara), also demonstrate the composers’ flexible usage of instrumentation – a harmonium is used to produce the effect of a piano accordion.

Working style

While working as a team, Shankar and Jaikishan would compose their songs separately. Generally, Shankar liked to work with Shailendra and Jaikishan with Hasrat Jaipuri though there are notable instances where Shankar worked with Hasrat and Jaikishan with Shailendra. Between the two, Shankar was the senior partner and hence, he would usually arrange the orchestra, even for Jaikishan’s songs. There was a gentleman’s agreement between them for not identifying the actual composer of the song. As a result, it was a popular pastime for S-J aficionados to try and tell a Shankar song from a Jaikishan song. Dance numbers and soulful songs were Shankar’s forte while Jaikishan was a master of composing a film’s background score, apart from romantic songs (he is generally regarded as the best ever in this genre) and western-style compositions. It is said that Jaikishan would count some numbers on his fingers before coming up with the background score for a particular scene on the spot! Two of S-J’s films, viz., Sangam and Mera Naam Joker are regarded even today as having some of the best background musical scores of all time.

Despite their distinct working styles and preferences, it is very difficult, if not altogether impossible, to ascribe a song to only one of them. They invariably contributed to one another’s creation, either in the form of improvisation of tune or of orchestration, thus making their compositions truly a joint effort.

Jaikishan mainly handled the public relation aspect of the duo’s career as he was regarded as the more presentable and polished negotiator of the two.

Awards/accolades

S-J won nine Filmfare awards for the best music composer for Chori Chori (1956), Anari (1959), Dil Apna Aur Preet Parayee (1960), Professor (1963), Suraj (1966), Brahmachari (1968), Mera Naam Joker (1970), Pehchaan (1971), and Be-Imaan (1972). 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. The last of these awards also resulted in a controversy where actor Pran refused to accept his own trophy for the best supporting actor (for the film Be-Imaan), stating that the music of Pakeezah, and not that of Be-Imaan, was more deserving of the award.

S-J also came out tops in Binaca Geetmala, the legendary countdown radio program on Hindi film music, where their compositions were declared the most popular on six occasions (a record later equaled by Laxmikant Pyarelal). These songs were Mera joota hai japani in 1955 (Shree 420), Teri pyari pyari surat ko in 1961 (Sasural), Ehsaan tera hoga mujh par in 1962 (Junglee), Bol radha bol in 1964 (Sangam), Baharon phool barsaao in 1966 (Suraj), and Zindagi ek safar hai suhana in 1971 (Andaaz). In 1959, seven of the top ten songs for the year were composed by S-J, a sort of record that stands perhaps to this date, though the top honors for that year went to SD Burman.

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