Though my awareness about Hindi film music enriched a lot after the popularity of ‘Aradhana’, even before that I was a great fan of the famous duo Shankar-Jaikishan because of the popularity of Raj Kapoor’s famous movie songs. When I happened to read the development of the duo’s friendship, the pinnacle of their career, their falling apart, and the death of Jaikishan and later Shankar’s attempt to rejuvenate his career with the name intact was, indeed, an interesting example of the twists and turns of destiny.

Shankar (Raghuvanshi) and Jaikishan (Panchal) had met in Prithivi Theater and later their striking music debut was made with Raj Kapoor’s ‘Barsaat’ (1949) where all songs became extremely popular. Their association with Raj Kapoor continued for a long but terminated with Jaikishan’s death in 1971.

It looks like a small bickering on a statement by Jaikishan that he only composed the music for the song ‘Yeh mera prema patra’ in ‘Sangam’ led to a great divide between the two as Jaikishan said to have broken the promise not to reveal such info to the media. But once a crack has happened it only gets widened on its own and with the help of others. Shankar was said to be promoting Sharda neglecting Lata which was not liked by Jaikishen.

Nevertheless, the duo continued to rule and after the demise of Jaikishan, Shankar continued with films like ‘Sanyasi’ and a few other movies, but to no avail. In fact. Shankar died rather unceremoniously (1987).

Once considered the highest-paid music directors in the Hindi film industry and also for their evergreen songs, the end turned out to be dismal.

A prominent crossroad junction at Churchgate, Mumbai has been named after Shankar-Jaikishan.

Here, I share my ten all-time favorite songs of the duo.  

• Barsaat (1949)                         Lata “Mujhe kisi se pyaar’
• Awaara (1951)                         Lata, Mukhesh ‘Dambhar jo udhar’
• Shree 420 (1955)                    Lata, Manna Dey “Pyaar hua ekraar’  
• Chori Chori (1959)                  Lata, Mannadey ‘Aaja sanam’
• Dil Ek Mandir (1964)               Md. Rafi ‘Yaad na jayen’
• Sangam (1965)                        Lata, Mukesh, Mahendra Kapoor ‘Har dil jo’
• Mera Naam Joker (1971)        Mukesh ‘Jaane kahan’
• Seema (1972)                          Suman Kalyanpur ‘Ek thi nindya’  
• Andaz (1972)                          ‘Zindagi ek safar’  
• Sanyasi (1975)                        ‘Chal sanyasi  

This list doesn’t mean that I don’t like other songs of SJ. But their peak period was definitely with Raj Kapoor’s films in the 1960s.

This is, indeed, a tragic tale of the Rise and Fall of a famous music duo.