My Screen tribute to the giant composer Shankar

The SUPREMO

Rajiv Vijayakar Posted: May 28, 2010 at 1452 hrs IST

Shankar-Jaikishan, rightly termed the Gangotri (origin) of contemporary Hindi film music
, not only moulded public taste but also raised the bar repeatedly in compositions, orchestration and even innovations. However, possibly because Jaikishan Panchal was the flamboyant half who passed away early, Shankar remained in the shadows. Here’s highlighting the man and his role in the S-J glory

The last note
After Jaikishan passed away in 1971, Shankar’s career was never the same again. He passed away, tragically unsung, on April 26, 1987, the year in which Intequam Ki Aag was released. However, the last film he had worked on, Gori, hit the screen in 1992.
The director-lyricist of this film, Sudhakar Sharma, recalls the composer with affection. “For many years, I was the boy who took coffee in the studios to Shankarji,” says Sudhakar. “Later I was assistant director to Kishore Kumar. My dream was that whenever I turned director, I would have Shankarji score my film. I recall going to him in 1982 with Rs 21,000 as signing amount. He remembered me, took only a token rupee as payment and said with a smile, “So the boy who worked for me is now giving me work!”
But Sudhakar drops a bomb: “The first song that we recorded became controversial and showed how his luck had turned for the worse. It was Gori hai kalaiyan sung by Kavita Krishnamurthi. However, since my film was terribly delayed, somehow that song with the same tune appeared in Aaj Ki Arjun, credited to someone else, and even topped an annual countdown show that year!”

Points to ponder
Sharma recalls how Shankar would want to understand the thought in the verse and compose a tune only after the lyrics were written. “He would compose while standing. When I asked Shankarji about this, he said, “This is why our songs always keep standing tall aur hamare gaane kabhi baith-te nahin (Our songs never sink into oblivion)!”
Says Sharma, “Shankarji’s tunes were based on raags, but unlike today’s composers, he understood words and their importance. He would never distort them by stretching or shortening syllables and would be very fastidious about the bindis and maatras, like hai could never be hain just to suit a metre. In fact, the last of his ‘live’ rehearsals was exclusively to check this and so the lyricist had to be present.”
“Another lesser-known fact about him was that he would fix the raags for a film’s story in advance,” Sharma goes on. “For my film, he had decided on Pahadi and Bhairavi. He said that repetition of a raag in the same film would imprint the association of a film and its music in the listener’s memory. But it made his work more difficult as the songs had to be within the ambit of the raag and yet sound different and diverse from each other.”

The musical mentor
Sharda, the singer Shankar groomed, introduced (with the cult Titli udi in Suraj) and made popular with over 20 hit songs, recalls how Shankar carefully groomed her after Raj Kapoor discovered the singer in Teheran. “He was like an ace johri (jeweller) who could recognize an artiste instantly,” says the singer. “Rajji took me to him and Shankarji heard me on the microphone and knew exactly how I should be prepared for a playback career.
“He took me to Pandit Jagannath Prasad, who had taught both Rajji himself and Mukeshji and ensured that special techniques were used as time was short,” says the singer. “My grooming started directly with the Vilambit Taal and then learning elements of thumri from Laxman Prasad Jaipurwale. Nirmala Arun, Govinda’s mother, then trained my vocal expression. But most important of all was Shankarji’s special training in playback.”
Sharda reminisces how Shankar would tell her that every song needed to be infused with soul. “He would call me to his music room twice or thrice a week and make me sing the new songs that he was making for Lataji, Rafisaab, Mukeshji and so on. The idea was that I would never mimic any artiste because I had never heard them sing the song! I remember singing Ehsaan tera hoga (Junglee) and the songs of Teesri Kasam. It was this phase that benefitted me the most! When Titli udi finally came out, it thus had that quality that makes the public love it over 40 years later.”

Titanic reign
“Shankar was a master at so many instruments,” recalls the singer. “He was unequalled on the harmonium, where his notes flowed like a river, and played the tabla and so many other instruments. Duniya ki sair kar lo, for Around The World, saw Shankarji bringing in the keyboard to Hindi film music for the first time. There are so many vocal and instrumental aspects that Jaikishanji and he pioneered, from using the obligato and counterpoint in orchestra to high-pitched male mukhdas like Dil tera diwana (Dil Tera Diwana) and Aiyiya suku suku (Junglee). S-J brought so many Western aspects and Indianized their use, giving a richness to their songs. And there was so much variation – from so many of their music pieces you could actually fashion dozens of new hits!”
Says Sharda, “Jaikishanji was very talented too, but Shankarji had a greater range according to me! He gave Manna Dey a new dimension with his song for Rajsaab in Awara and used Subir Sen for Rajendra Kumar in Aas Ka Panchhi. He fought for Mukesh when Dilip Kumar wanted Rafi, his regular voice in Yeh mera diwanapan hai (Yahudi). Both of them were very fast at work and when a tune hit him, he would tell his notation man Sebastian D’Souza, “Chalo likho” and just hum it out. Shankarji had this habit of going to his music room and making songs, with all his musicians, whether he was working on a film or not.”
Sharda feels that the standout quality of Shankar’s songs was their scientific correctness. “There was nothing kinky or utt-pataang in their songs. The raags and their notes and even time-frames as well as the Western grammar were followed immaculately and with precision.”
At their peak, recalls the singer, the stars of a film never mattered. “All territories for the film would be sold on the announcement that the music was by Shankar Jaikishan! When Indira Gandhi first launched the National Savings Certificate scheme, they gave an incentive of concessional tickets for a Shankar-Jaikishan show. And people bought the certificates just to attend the concert
! At their shows, top names like Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor would not be allowed to stand on stage for more than a couple of minutes – the audiences just wanted the music to resume!”
Shankar-Jaikishan, she remembers, had an uncanny telepathic understanding. “Why Shankarji lost ground after Jaikishanji passed away was because mediocrity had gained ground in the early ’70s and people wanted to pull him down, using Jaikishanji’s death as a handle.” But the singer admits that Shankar’s blunt nature and his quick temper did affect his career. “He was short on diplomacy and strong on discipline,” she says. “And he was a soft man by nature, who was broken by lyricist Shailendra’s death.”

The inside story
The singer also debunks some popular myths about the duo. “People make much about my singing only for Shankar,” says Sharda. “But Jaikishanji would always be there for most of the recordings. It also suited people to magnify their rift, which was like a quarrel among best friends. Shankarji was there for Jaikishan’s songs till the end, and was by his side when Jaikishanji was in hospital.”
Sharda also reveals that, contrary to popular belief, Shankar did not ghost-compose the 1967 film Street Singer as Suraj. “He might have given inputs and was there to help and overview, which Shankarji would also do with Dattaramji’s solo films,” says Sharda. “But Suraj was a real person who was a musician with S-J. Later, he even did a Marathi film.”

The all-rounder
Dinesh Shailendra, son of Shankar’s inseparable friend and favourite lyricist Shailendra, recalls that the legend was a part-time wrestler who also was an ace dancer.
“No one came close to Shankar and Jaikishan,” says the writer. “They pioneered the title-song with Barsaat and later each would compose a title-song in some films. It is also true that almost 70 per cent of my father’s songs were composed by Shankarji.”
An amusing side of the composer is highlighted by Dinesh. “Shankarji was a short-tempered man prone to being abusive. In fact, my father would tell me that Shankarji would often use expletives and cusswords even to provide the metre to the lyricist, which in most cases was my father!”
Lekh Tandon, the octogenarian who worked with S-J in most of his films (Amrapali, Professor, Jhuk Gaya Aasmaan, Prince, Jahan Pyar Miley) recalls their old association in Prithvi Theatre. “All of us there – the set man, musicians, make-up man and actors – were equals and often had to fill in. I recall Shankarji dancing on stage with instruments around his neck in Prithviraj Kapoor’s play Pathan.”
The filmmaker recalls the softer side of the giant and says, “Once two lakh rupees – a huge sum in the ’60s – was stolen by Jaikishan’s relative from his house. Shankar never flinched, comforted Jai and that evening, gave him back the amount because he had gone and signed three films!”
Terming Shankar “quiet but mischievous, a Ganesh devotee and a born romantic”, the veteran recalls, “No composer ever got the kind of money S-J commanded – they were paid more than the topmost stars and got a lakh even in the ’50s. When I signed my first film Professor, they refused to accept money. And yes, most of the songs in Amrapali were done by Shankar. They would never have ego issues between them and would decide mutually which song each one would compose!”

The first chapter
The saga of S-J reads like the biography of any great king in history. And in the itihaas of film music, S-J were no less than monarchs.
But Shankar’s role in the annals of S-J is far larger than known. Shankarsingh Ramsingh Raghuvanshi was born on October 25, 1922 in Punjab. His father soon moved to Andhra Pradesh, and Shanker trained as a dancer, played the tabla (in a local temple there), pakhawaj and other instruments.
After moving to Mumbai, Shankar learnt the tabla formally from Baba Nasir Khansahib. He was a disciple of composer Khurshid Anwar, worked as assistant to leading composer-duo of Husnlal Bhagatram and started with a theater group run by Satyanarayan and Hemawati before shifting to Prithvi Theatre.

Shankar and Jaikishan met in the office of director Chandravadan Bhatt, who had promised both separate breaks. It was Shankar who took that hugely historic initiative of starting a conversation with Jaikishan and discovered that he was a harmonium player. Shankar assured Jaikishan of the job at Prithvi Theatre, Prithviraj Kapoor honoured his promise and the two boys, who were soon to strike a rare depth in deep friendship, began working in the music department, and continued assisting music director Ram Ganguly when Prithviraj’s son Raj Kapoor turned filmmaker with Aag. With the blockbuster musical Barsaat, Raj introduced them as independent composers.
And the rest, as they say, is history.

Kites below par

The writing on the wall just got bigger, in bold and italicized font with Control U to boot.
Kites’ collections and word-of-mouth are disappointing for a Rakesh Roshan-Hrithik Roshan film after successive whoppers like Kaho Naa…Pyaar Hai, Koi…Mil Gaya and Krrish.
According to trade sources, the film might entail losses for the buyers!
Having said that, the overturning of Kites and ..Khan shows that the audience lays stress on good music and content and unlike …Khan this film was not a critics’ favourite.
Kites is low on Emotional Quotient, Entertainment Quotient and Intelligence Quotient, all three of which should be in balance in a good film.
Hrithik Roshan is going the Karan Johar way of seeking international fame at the expense of the Indian audience. Now it is best that both accept the verdict and start making the kind of films that have made them the superstars they are in their fields.
If the international audience has to be won over (as against NRIs and Asian Diaspora) it should be with our kind of culture and sensibility flaunted with chest-thumping pride and self-respect. Remember that at a time when there was no distribution sector worth its name, Raj Kapoor’s Awara (1951) was a sensation in Russia along with its music, a Rajendra Kumar film was running to capacity houses in Paris in the ’60s without promotion, and Lata Mangeshkar fans who could sing her songs were discovered by Kalyanji-Anandji deep in the jungles of South Africa in 1964!

Restore old music's glory

Over the last two decades or maybe more, the oldest music company is doing a serious disservice to Hindi film buffs by restricting their reissues of film music to a few pet composers - like Madan Mohan and now in an even greater overdose R.D.Burman.

Not only are these people killing their own business (every subsequent generation ultimately matures enough to latch onto pre-'90s music!) but they are also killing the unparalleled contributions of all other composers big and small and especially the rarer songs of all INCLUDING MM and RD.

Today, an unprecedented stage has come where even old music is not selling in solo scores, ENTIRELY because the same old stock is being recycled in different compilations. Why should anyone invest in such CDs. And then they blame piracy, MP3, blah-blah!.... They are not even exploring more than 10% of their repertoire and running after mirages.

Just to stick to rigid mindsets (or is it lobbies as well?) they are killing magnificent music that needs to be preserved and perpetuated in a generation of minimum attention span, lack of information, abundance of ('Net) misinformation and misconceptions. This generation has no time to find/research/analyse/discover and must be served all the choices and not told, "Here, this one's great, only this one's great, the rest can be only savoured in bits."

Nowhere was the need to save music so urgent. It is heartening to know that the truest music buffs are not taken in by this orchestrated mischief and the success of Facebook groups on different music people (like Rajesh Roshan, O.P.Nayyar, LP, KA, Amit Kumar) and Rare Hindi Film Songs proves it. All the same, action is needed, missionaries as an army are the need of the hour. Film music is more than about Kishore, RD, Madan Mohan, ARR, Sahir, Kaifi Azmi et al. Even names like Kamaal Makhdoom, Vasant Desai, Mumbarak Begum, Prem Dhawan and Subir Sen matter!!

Raaven's music score irks diehard ARR fans

It's the same old story: good music always spirals interest in a forthcoming film, regardless of the final box-office outcome of the movie. Mani Ratnam and A.R.Rahman except for the over-experimental Yuva, has always been a good combo, and Rahman-Gulzar, Jai ho notwithstanding, had a foolproof record too. But Raavan has majorly put off all except the most fanatic ARR fans. Forget finding the music bad, atrocious, okay,good or brilliant, the most common reaction is that they cannot UNDERSTAND it! The weird lyrics only make matters worse.

The Raavan vibe has been very cold after the release of the music, before which it was reasonably hot!

This time coming after a hat-trick of disappointments (Slumdog..., Blue, almost all songs of Ada) the warning bells are ringing even for ARR.

Clearly it is only Subhash Ghai and Ashutosh Gowariker who seem to Hindi-ize Rahman into giving largely wholesome melodies. Even R.O.Mehra's music results are more esoteric and erratic than exotic. And let us not forget that Genda phool is a traditional number credited on the Delhi-6 inlay to another composer who recorded it, as also the Bade Ghulam Ali Khan track.

And speaking of Southern composers, isn't it sad that Hindi cinema sidelines Rahman's genius guru Ilaiyaraja, as well as other giants like M.M.Kreem and Vidyasagar simply because their films have not been from hyped banners?

Of course music in general is almost extinct in its truest sense today, with too few exceptions. But happily, the time has come back when people are responding to the song and its quality and not to the NAME behind it!

How vital are lip-synched songs for stars

http://www.screenindia.com/news/music-for-the-stars/612021/

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Music for the STARS

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Rajiv Vijayakar Posted: Apr 30, 2010 at 1714 hrs IST

Hindi cinema’s current “wannabe global” stance is sidelining the lip-sync songs

that have created – and sustained – so many stars and films. Instead of opting for rooted, original content, it is not seeing the writing on the wall and is, to mix metaphors, barking up the wrong tree
Hindi cinema’s current “wannabe global” stance is sidelining the lip-sync songs that have created – and sustained – so many stars and films. Instead of opting for rooted, original content, it is not seeing the writing on the wall and is, to mix metaphors, barking up the wrong tree
As early as in the ‘90s, the first experiment with multi-music director films began, but to date, the best or most saleable music scores have always had single composers, save for rare cases when a guest composer came in just for one song (Devdas, Jab We Met). The only real exceptions - that proved this rule -remain Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham… (2001) and Zeher (2005).

But they never learn. Hindi film music is being increasingly attacked by a whole bevy of brat-pack filmmakers, corporate honchos and others – including, sadly, some newbie actors. The lack of a proper music score is one of the prime reasons for the low percentage of hit films today, a fact corroborated by the dispassionate and business-like trade analysts. It is also one of the most vital factors why the topmost stars of today remain in the 40-plus age bracket, because they are rooted in Hindi films and their music and believe in a connect with the audience.

A big-time filmmaker of one-time song-studded blockbusters and like-minded filmmakers arguing that “characters who are not singers cannot sing to each other” are in one stroke, negating the far more realistic, substantial and enduring cinema of V. Shantaram, Raj Kapoor, Guru Dutt, Bimal Roy and Hrishikesh Mukherjee and have gone into a long state of denial about audience-connect and Hindi cinema.
If their intention is to become ‘real’, they would do well to dwell on the fact that the greatest global grossing films remain Hollywood’s unreal fantasies like animation features, VFX-oriented action dramas and sci-fi sagas. So why this undue obsession with reality when cinema is about creativity of the imagination and primarily about great entertainment, with the medicinal message optional and “equally but not less important than the sugar-coating”, as Hrishikesh Mukherjee once said?

And so, since the overseas films they want to compete with suspend reality for their entire running times and show macabre creatures and aliens generated by VFX, why cannot we suspend reality pleasantly for 20 minutes to enhance the storytelling impact with lip-sync songs, generating wholesome music, lyrics and entertainment in the bargain? Were masters at filming songs all the way to Vijay Anand, Raj Khosla, Manmohan Desai and Subhash Ghai and today’s Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Rajkumar Hirani and Farah Khan intellectually wanting because they made this choice and respected the audiences? And just for the record, wasn’t it Hum Aapke Hain Koun!... and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge that first opened overseas business, consolidated later by the music-rich Dil To Pagal Hai, Pardes, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam?

And if the rationale of such filmmakers is ‘reaching a global audience’, we want to know two things: first and most important, has the Indian audience (outside the so-called metro intelligentsia that is just a dot on the Indian human map) suddenly become completely unimportant for them? And two, do these filmmakers seriously think that the people are morons because they are rejecting their ‘with-it’ worse-ions of international cinema? Won’t we be better off reflecting our own cultural ethos and cinematic grammar? Just imagine how atrocious the music of 3 Idiots and Om Shanti Om would have sounded minus lip-sync!

In a moment of pique at a recent industry meeting on Intellectual Property Rights, writer-lyricist Javed Akhtar asked Aamir Khan whether it was the chartbuster Papa kehte hain from Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak that made him a star or the other way around? Akhtar was only, though in a different context, showing a mirror to the actor who otherwise has a deep respect for music, as seen by the major role songs played in his best films like Sarfarosh, Lagaan, Dil Chahta Hai and the very different Taare Zameen Par.

Sadly, this mirror should also be shown to stars like Ranbir Kapoor, Neil Nitin Mukesh and Abhay Deol who want changes for the sake of change. Or are they actually being trapped in the unholy nexus of corporate honchos and filmmakers who have scant connect with the ‘real’ India paradoxically to the realism they ironically want to present?
While stars definitely add value to a song and enhance it with their talent and charisma, the fact remains that songs – and their creators (composers and lyricists), their inspirations (filmmakers) and couriers (singers) do more for a star than the other way round. Hindi cinema has a tradition of star debuts backed by hit songs, all the way to the songs Shahid Kapoor got in Ishq Vishq and even Ranbir Kapoor in the commercial flop that was Saawariya.

So just imagine where Rishi Kapoor, Kamal Haasan in Hindi films, Sunny Deol, Jackie Shroff, Shah Rukh Khan, Sharmila Tagore, Saira Banu, Zeenat Aman, Dimple Kapadia, Jaya Prada, Sridevi, Mandakini, Manisha Koirala and many, many more would have been without that mega-push from their debut films’ hit music and - yes - lip-sync songs?

If the argument is that these artistes would have made it on talent anyway, pause to think where Shammi Kapoor was before O.P.Nayyar’s Tumsa Nahin Dekha, moving on to what S.D.Burman’s Aradhana did for the four-flop Rajesh Khanna backed, as luck would have it, by Do Raaste, The Train and Bandhan in less than six months.

Ponder also on where Raj Kapoor’s career was before Shankar-Jaikishan’s Barsaat, Shashi Kapoor’s before Kalyanji-Anandji’s Jab Jab Phool Khile, Jeetendra’s before Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s Farz and Zeenat Aman’s before R.D.Burman’s Hare Rama Hare Krishna.

Reflect then on the humungous contribution of music to the careers of these stars and others - Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor, Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar, Rajendra Kumar, Manoj Kumar, Rishi Kapoor, Jeetendra and Rajesh Khanna again, Govinda, Shah Rukh Khan, Mehmood, Johnny Walker, Pran in his “good man” phase, Vyjayanthimala, Asha Parekh, Nutan, Waheeda Rehman, Hema Malini, Zeenat Aman, Madhuri Dixit and even Urmila and even Kareena Kapoor, not forgetting Helen. Anbd we are only mentioning the cream.

The stars, being in a position of power, must now start putting their foot down in this matter – for where will they also be on their stage shows and other public appearances without dancing to and sometimes belting out songs associated with them? Arguably the most successful Hindi film star of all time – Amitabh Bachchan – has publicly and on record acknowledged the monumental contribution of his composers, lyricists and playback singers as much as his filmmakers, writers and co-stars in his unparalleled success. In fact Bachchan’s Jumma Chumma Live Tonite album with Sridevi and Kalyanji-Anandji remains a Platinum Disc winner!

Dev Anand rewinds to no one more than Kishore Kumar and S.D.Burman, Dilip Kumar and Shammi Kapoor are ever-willing to speak volumes about Mohammed Rafi, Naushad and Shankar-Jaikishan, and Raj Kapoor called Mukesh his soul and got devastated when first Shailendra and then Jaikishan passed away.
When these titans could understand the all-pervading role lip-sync songs played in making them living legends or immortal figures, why are the current newbies not learning this primary school level lesson about Hindi cinema?