Shankar Jaikishan & Mohd. Rafi, A Golden Era Options

[princeali]

Friends,

I am starting this thread to share gems from the Shankar Jaikishan - Mohd. Rafi combo which was truly one of the most outstanding and special combinations ever in the history of HFM. Along with the songs, I will also upload bits and pieces of info from interviews, articles etc. about this great partnership.

If any of you have any SJ-Rafi gems that you would like to share, or any other info, thoughts, opinions, requests etc. on SJ-Rafi, please feel free to share them here as well.

Rafi saab and SJ both started their careers around the same time and both reached the greatest heights of success together. The combination produced so many wonderful melodies and a mind boggling variety for over two decades.

First gem is one of the earliest Lata-Rafi duets composed by SJ. There is another version sung separately by Lata.

Nai Zindagi Se Pyar - (with Lata Mangeshkar)
Film: Shikast
Year: 1953
Lyrics: Shailendra

[princeali]

Before SJ arrived on the scene, Background Music in our films was not that great, and alot of composers did not spend alot of time on it. The only composer who took it seriously was Naushad and he was a great BM composer.

Jaikishan was given the job of composing SJ's BM because he was the junior partner and he totally took BM to a whole new level, that people began to take notice about the importance of BM towards the success of a film. Jaikishan set high standards for composers and became the Numero Uno of BM. There is a tight limit in time and film frames for a composer to compose BM and this was something that Jaikishan did so well.

An interesting aspect of Jaikishan's BM was that tunes that would turn into future songs would be played as a part of the BM, which later became an SJ trademark. This does not mean all the tunes used in the SJ's BM were Jai's. It was a collaborated effort, sometimes Jai would hear Shankar play a tune and use it, or they would both work on a tune, or sometimes the tune would be entirely Jai's. So the two would join hands in creating these tunes for the background that would ultimately turn into songs, and the rest of the BM would be handled by Jai.

The following is a mind-blowing piece of art, just listening to it draws you back into a different time frame. If you want to learn about background music, I would suggest keeping SJ as a model, since their BM is an institution by itself.

There was a record released for this particular piece after the film came out. I now present you to a beautiful 34 minute presentation of:

The Background Music Of Mera Naam Joker



I know this may not have anything to do with Rafi saab but as this is also an SJ thread and I thought it would be best to upload it here since it would receive much more exposure.

For all those members who love SJ's music, DO NOT MISS downloading this, you will cherish it !

Enjoy

[mmuk2004]

Before SJ arrived on the scene, Background Music in our films was not that great, and alot of composers did not spend alot of time on it. The only composer who took it seriously was Naushad and he was a great BM composer.

Jaikishan was given the job of composing SJ's BM because he was the junior partner and he totally took BM to a whole new level, that people began to take notice about the importance of BM towards the success of a film. Jaikishan set high standards for composers and became the Numero Uno of BM. There is a tight limit in time and film frames for a composer to compose BM and this was something that Jaikishan did so well.

An interesting aspect of Jaikishan's BM was that tunes that would turn into future songs would be played as a part of the BM, which later became an SJ trademark. This does not mean all the tunes used in the SJ's BM were Jai's. It was a collaborated effort, sometimes Jai would hear Shankar play a tune and use it, or they would both work on a tune, or sometimes the tune would be entirely Jai's. So the two would join hands in creating these tunes for the background that would ultimately turn into songs, and the rest of the BM would be handled by Jai.

The following is a mind-blowing piece of art, just listening to it draws you back into a different time frame. If you want to learn about background music, I would suggest keeping SJ as a model, since their BM is an institution by itself.

There was a record released for this particular piece after the film came out. I now present you to a beautiful 34 minute presentation of:

The Background Music Of Mera Naam Joker



I know this may not have anything to do with Rafi saab but as this is also an SJ thread and I thought it would be best to upload it here since it would receive much more exposure.

For all those members who love SJ's music, DO NOT MISS downloading this, you will cherish it !

Enjoy

Thank you for pointing out this aspect of SJ's music, and providing the details thereof. Excellent write-up and a great concerted effort, Princeali.