Bollywood Retrospect: The best of Shankar-Jaikishan in 10 songs - Part 2

As discussed in Part 1, if Shankar–Jaikishan’s music in the 1950s centred on Raj Kapoor, their music in the 1960s was defined by their film scores for his brother, Shammi Kapoor. The contrast between their music for the two decades was stark. While critics frowned upon the new direction Shankar-Jaikishan’s music took, a new generation of moviegoers couldn’t have enough of it.

Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai (1960)

Shankar–Jaikishan’s Filmfare Award for Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai notwithstanding, the score for the film would have been unremarkable except for one outstanding song that remains just as fresh and contemporary today as it was in 1960— ‘Ajeeb Dastan Hai Yeh’. The song remains one of the best Hindi film songs to sing along to. Shankar–Jaikishan’s conjured up an infectious tune that was impossible to resist and Shailendra’s lyrics were simple but meaningful. The tune’s simplicity meant that Lata Mangeshkar sang it without breaking a sweat and the sense of peace she imparted in the song was palpable. The highlight of the song for me was Shankar–Jaikishan’s luscious arrangement that included an electric guitar, an accordion, a saxophone and a haunting chorus.

Junglee (1961)

Junglee was a watershed film in the careers of both Shammi Kapoor and Shankar–Jaikishan. Shammi Kapoor’s rakish playboy image from ‘Tumsa Nahin Dekha’ and ‘Dil Deke Dekho’ took on an edge that was a little darker and more human. Shankar–Jaikishan’s music adapted to this new persona and the result was a louder, more boisterous sound. Of course, they continued to make wonderful songs, like ‘Ehsan Tera Hoga Mujh Par’ in Junglee, but songs like ‘Yahoo! Chahe Koi Mujhe Junglee Kahe’ became an important part of their repertoire. Mohammed Rafi let himself loose in this song but the famous ‘Yahoo’ call was by the multi-talented film artist, Prayag Raj. With four hugely popular songs in the film, Rafi established himself as Shammi Kapoor’s singing voice for the rest of his career.

Professor (1962)

Professor had Shammi Kapoor in a mellower role than usual, partly because he played an elderly man for a large part of the film. He excelled in the film and showed terrific range in his acting.  This shift reflected in Shankar-Jaikishan’s music for the film, which was as restrained as Shammi Kapoor’s acting was. Their songs in the film had verve without being over the top. Other than everything else that’s going for it, the highlight of my pick from the film, ‘Awaz Deke Humein Tum Bulao’, is its wistful saxophone interlude.

Asli Naqli (1962)

One wonders if Shankar–Jaikishan channelled their inner SD Burman while composing the music for Asli Naqli, or if Dev Anand in a black and white film had the ability to make any music sound like SD Burman’s. Possibly a little bit of both! As good as the music is, Dev Anand’s charm and Sadhana’s radiance make this film score a little more interesting to watch than it is to listen to. My pick from the film, ‘Tujhe Jeevan Ki Dor Se Baand Liya Hai’, has Dev Anand sporting a hat and Sadhana sporting a hairstyle that preceded her famed Sadhana cut.

Dil Ek Mandir (1963)

Remakes of successful films can go either way. To director CV Sridhar’s credit, Dil Ek Mandir turned out to be just as successful as the original Tamil film, Nenjil Or Aalayam. Even Shankar–Jaikishan’s music measured up admirably to the popularity and acclaim won by the Tamil film score by MS Viswanathan–TK Ramamoorthy. The film had two brilliant solos by Lata Mangeshkar— ‘Ruk Ja Raat Thahar Ja Re Chanda’ and ‘Hum Tere Pyar Mein Saara Aalam’— that made picking the Mohammed Rafi number ‘Yaad Na Jaye Beete Dinon Ki’ a tough call. What clinched the deal was Rafi’s masterfully restrained rendition and Shailendra’s lyrical brilliance.

Janwar (1965)

Shankar–Jaikishan’s Janwar was replete with frothy, upbeat songs. Rafi’s three solos in the film were showcases for the swashbuckling Shammi Kapoor and completely overwhelmed some of the mellower songs in the film, including Suman Kalyanpur’s solo ‘Mere Sang Ga Gunguna’. This isn’t Shankar–Jaikishan’s best but the score played its part in building Shammi Kapoor’s legend. My pick from the film is ‘Tumse Achha Kaun Hai’.

Teesri Kasam (1966)

Lyricist Shailendra turned producer with Teesri Kasam, which was based on Phanishwarnath Renu’s story ‘Maare Gaye Gulfam’. It wasn’t surprising that Shailendra got Raj Kapoor to play the lead role in the film and Shankar–Jaikishan to compose the film’s music. With Mukesh singing for Raj Kapoor, the dream team of the 1950s came together again. The result was Shankar–Jaikishan’s best score in the 1960s. Keeping in line with the film’s rural theme, they scored simple, folk melodies that were reminiscent of their early years. My pick from the film, ‘Sajanwa Bairi Ho Gaye Hamaar’ had Shailendra using pithy, rustic lyrics and Shankar-Jaikishan weaving a lovely, folk tune around them. Sadly, this was the last time Shankar–Jaikishan worked with Shailendra. The film’s failure at the box-office ruined him financially and broke his heart. He died before seeing his film win a National Film Award. Shailendra’s death was the beginning of Shankar–Jaikishan’s end.

An Evening In Paris (1967)

An Evening In Paris was a big hit powered by Shammi Kapoor’s antics, Sharmila Tagore’s beauty (and bikini!) and some fantastic music by Shankar–Jaikishan. Rafi’s ability to emote like Shammi Kapoor in songs he sang for him is well known. The story behind ‘Aasman Se Aaya Farishta’ does a great job of illustrating this ability. It was the norm for Shammi Kapoor to be present for the recordings of his songs. When ‘Aasman Se Aaya Farishta’ was recorded while he was out of town, he was livid since he couldn’t give his inputs to Rafi before the recording. However, when he listened to the song, he acknowledged that Rafi had sung the song exactly as he had wanted him to. My pick from the film is the soul-stirring duet by Rafi and Asha, ‘Raat Ke Humsafar'.

Raat Aur Din (1967)

Raat Aur Din is another underrated Shankar–Jaikishan score. The film’s title song is heard widely enough but not so the two other Lata Mangeshkar stunners that make this score a superlative one, the waltz-based ‘Dil Ki Girah Khol Do’, and two versions of ‘Awara Ae Mere Dil’. Shankar–Jaikishan composed many noisy, rock n’ roll influenced songs in their career but these two songs proved that they could also do a great job of producing melodies with Western arrangements. I particularly like  ‘Awara Ae Mere Dil’ because of the cleverness with which Shankar–Jaikishan produced the fast and slow versions. With essentially a change in arrangement and meter, they created a fast version that was a dance song and a slow version that had the vibes of a hymn. It is worth noting how well Lata Mangeshkar modulated her voice to suit these Western tunes.

Brahmachari (1968)

Shankar–Jaikishan were such prolific composers that in addition to scoring several films a year, they had tunes left over to build a song bank. It was this song bank that they tapped into to record songs written by Shailendra years after his demise. It is said that even Raj Kapoor maintained a repository of Shankar–Jaikishan tunes. Even after he stopped working with them in 1971, Raj Kapoor continued to ask other music directors to repurpose these tunes for his films. It was this prolificacy that won Shailendra a Filmfare Award for Best Lyrics posthumously. The film also won Shankar–Jaikishan their sixth Filmfare Award (of a total of nine). My pick from the film is the faster version of ‘Main Gaoon Tum So Jao’. Although, Shankar–Jaikishan used an unusually heavy arrangement for a lullaby, Rafi’s sensitive rendition and Shailendra’s award-winning lyrics more than compensated for it.

Andaz (1971) was effectively Shankar–Jaikishan’s last film, as Jaikishan passed away before the film’s release. Shankar continued making film music as Shankar–Jaikishan but the loss of his partner meant that he was never able to recreate their old magic. Of course, there are many more Shankar – Jaikshan songs worth listening to that two columns can’t even begin to cover.

It would be a travesty to talk about Shankar–Jaikishan and not mention their landmark non-film album Raga Jazz Style (1968). The album was the by-product of a strike by Indian Film Musicians’ Association. With spare time on their hands, Shankar–Jaikishan got together with a number of session musicians— Manohari Singh on saxophone and sitar-player Ustad Rais Khan, prominent among them—to record what was one of the earliest fusion albums. Considering that The Beatles were still experimenting with raga rock and that it was very early days for Indian fusion music (Hariprasad Chaurasia, Shivkumar Sharma and Brij Bhushan Kabra recorded the iconic ‘Call Of The Valley’ in 1967), Shankar–Jaikishan were ahead of their times in conceptualising an album like Raga Jazz Style. Here’s Raag Shivranjani from the album: