Shankar Jaikishan’s westernised compositions.

Shankar Jaikishan’s western compositions.

Shankar Jaikishan were one of the greatest assets of bollywood music in the 50s, 60s and 70s. Other than their classical and folk compositions they were sublime in their westernized compositions. In the film Dil Apna Au Peet Parayi, their composition for Lata titled “ajeeb dastan hai yeh”, picturised on Meena Kumari had Hawaiian flavor.

In the film Jhuk Gaya Aasman, the songs “sacha hai ghar” and “kaun hai jo sapno me aya” had very melodious beat where Rafi’s brilliance balanced the screen presence of Rajender Kumar. The song “ai sanam jisne tujhe chand sa surat di hai”, sung by Mukesh in Raj Kapoor’s Diwana had a brilliant use of sexaphone.

Shammi Kapoor’s An Evening Parishad hit songs and SJ weer brilliant in almost all the songs including “akele akele”, “raat ke humsafar”, “mera dil hai tera”, etc. Rafi replicated the rock and roll andaz of Shammi Kapoor. Similarly Lata’s song in Love In Tokyo, titled “hume tum mil gaye humdum”, had a very balanced use of the organs bv SJ.

Gumnaam was a crime thriller, but SJ’s tunes including “jaan pehchaan ho” sung by Rafi and “is duniya me jena ho to” had very unique orchestration. Also in the film Andaz, the song “dil use do jo jaan de de” sung by Rafi and picturised on Shami Kapoor was brilliant by every musical standard.

SJ was sublime in all the songs of the film Brahmchari, including “dil ke jharoke me”, “mai gayun tum so jayo”, “chakke pe chakka”. Rafi was as brilliant as Shammi Kapoor. Besides SJ’s chorus effect was evident in the song “aa ab laut chale”, sung by Mukesh and Lata in the film Jis Desh Me Ganga Behti Hai. It is not possible to highlight the westernized compositions of SJ in a small article as they ad unique compositions even in the films of Biswajeet, Dev Anand, Manoj Kumar, Sunil Dutt.

The songs are masterpieces and should be restored along with the films.