Shankar Jaikishan

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Shankar Jaikishan (also credited as Shankar - Jaikishan, Shanker Jaikishan or Shankar - Jaikishen) was a duo of prolific music composers who worked in the Indian film industry. The team composed music for over 150 Bollywood movies. They were the highest paid music directors in their time.^{[citation needed]}

1 Biography
2 Impact
3 Filmfare Awards
4 Selected Filmography
5 External links

[edit] Biography

The team of Shankar Jaikishan consisted of Shankarsingh Raghuwanshi and Jaikishan Dayabhai Panchal. Shankar (October 15, 1922 - 1987) was born in Punjab and trained under the famous Husnlal Bhagatram. He later settled down in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. Jaikishan (1929 - 1971) hails from Panchal, Gujarat, India. Before the duo met, Jaikishan worked as a carpenter. Their career started as music directors for Raj Kapoor's 1949 film Barsaat. Songs like "Jiya beqaraar hai" and "Barsaat mein humse mile tum" became a rage. Barsaat was also the starting point of the pair’s long and successful association with the R.K. Banner. Hit music in films like Aah and Awaara followed in the early 1950s. The song "Ghar aaya mera pardesi" went on to become a benchmark for dream-sequence songs. Their music for most R.K. films was considered a huge success, but two films stand out, Shree 420 and Sangam. The songs "Pyaar hua ikraar hua" and "Ramaiyyaa vasta vaiyya" from Shree 420 and "Dost dost na raha" and "Har dil jo pyaar karega" from Sangam were popular favorites. However, according to Raj Kapoor, the pair's most notable score came in the film "Mera Naam Joker" in 1970 which has landmark songs like "Jaane kahan gaye woh din", "Jeena yahan marna yahan", and "Ae bhai zara dekh ke chalo". Arguably, the background musical scores of "Sangam" and "Mera Naam Joker" are considered to be among the best ever in the history of Hindi film music. Of the two, Shankar's speciality was dance-based compositions, whereas Jaikishan's forte was the background musical score. Both of them preferred Raaga Bhairavi over other strains of classical music.

Although many of Shankar Jaikishan's hit songs were composed for R.K. films, their work was by no means limited to that studio. Notable examples of their scores for non-R.K. films include New Delhi in 1956, Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai in 1960, Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai in 1961, and Professor in 1964. Their musical score in the film Junglee is considered among the greatest all-time trend setters.

Shankar Jaikishen recorded with almost all the popular singers of the golden era including Mohd Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mahendra Kapoor, Manna Dey, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Suman Kalyanpur and Mukesh. Of these, Mohd. Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar, Manna Dey, Suman Kalyanpur, and Mukesh had most of their popular songs recorded with Shankar Jaikishan as compared to other music composers.

Besides the above mentioned Established singers,Shankar Jaikishan also worked with other notable singers like Geeta Dutt,Mahendra Kapoor,Begum Akhtar,Mubarak Begum,Subir Sen,Sharda,Sulakshana Pandit,Anuradha Paudwal,Aarti Mukherji,Preeti Sagar,Krishna Kalle,Suresh Wadkar,Chandrani Mukherji and Hemlata.They also recorded English songs for the film "Bombay Talkies" in Usha Uthup's voice.

Shankar usually teamed up with lyricist Shailendra while Jaikishan preferred to work with Hasrat Jaipuri. They used to compose their songs independently but would come together for the recordings. They had an unwritten agreement between them by which they would not disclose which song was composed by whom. This understanding was violated by Jaikishan when in a signed article in the magazine Filmfare, he identified the song "Yeh mera prem patra" from the film Sangam as his own composition. This infuriated Shankar and was one of the main reasons of serious differences between them. They even considered parting ways professionally until the sane advice of Mohd. Rafi persuaded them to continue staying together.

[edit] Impact

From Barsaat on, Shankar and Jaikishan have composed over 150 films together. They were honored with the maximum number (nine) of Filmfare awards in the Indian film industry. In 1968, Shankar Jaikishan released an album, "Raga Jazz Style : Shankar Jaikishan with Rais Khan." Shankar Jaikishan made a great impact on film music from the start. Their tunes range from pure classical Indian themes to more westernised tunes.They had a distinct style, which was adaptable to different stars and films.

In the West, they are best known for the song "Jaan Pehchaan Ho", which originally appeared in the 1965 film Gumnaam. The musical number was replayed in the American film Ghost World and helped to catapult the popularity of Indian film music in America.