Noted music director Kalyanji Shah passes away

Noted music director Kalyanji Shah passes away
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

AUGUST 24: The last of the three great music duos that ruled Bollywood music for over three decades from the 1950s, ended today with the death of Kalyanji Veerji Shah. The two other duos were Shankar-Jaikishan and Laximikant-Pyarelal.

Kalyanji began as a solo music composer for Babubhai Mistry's Samrat Chandragupt in 1954. He then teamed up with his brother Anandji for the Balraj Sahni starrer Satta Bazaar. The duo created a history of hit music spanning three decades and over 250 Hindi and five Gujarati films in over 30 years.

Kalyanji, widely regarded as the driving force behind the duo, steered clear of the influence of Western music. Most of his tunes were original classical Indian melodies with a touch of folk music. His tunes in Saraswati Chandra like Chandan Ka badan were a rage and fetched him the national award.

Initially called the poor producer's music director, the duo soon became the most sought after by top film makers. And for good reason. They imprinted every film with a signature hit tune-- Khaike Paan Banaraswala sung by Amitabh Bachchan in Don, Mere Aangane Mein again sung by Bachchan in Laawaaris and the enormously popular Govinda Aala Re Aala.

Among Kalyanji-Anandji's other hits were MR Productions' Bairaag, Prakash Mehra's Zanjeer and Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, the Dev Anand starrer Johny Mera Naam besides Feroz Khan's Dharmaatma and Qurbani.

They also provided the music for possibly a record number of directorial debutants-- Manoj Kumar's Upkar, Prakash Mehra's Haseena Maan Jayegi, Anil Ganguly's Kora Kagaz, Subhash Ghai's Kalicharan, Feroz Khan's Apradh and Manmohan Desai's Chhalia. Their last film, which has since been shelved, was Dilip Kumar's directorial debut Kalinga.

Paying rich tributes to the departed musician, Mahesh Bhatt remembers him as a practical and down to earth man unfazed by the highs and lows of filmdom. Bhatt, who first met Kalyanji while directing Shatruta in the mid-80s reveals another side to his personality: ``I found Kalyanji to be a fount of jokes. I got new jokes everytime i met him.''

When Indian film music veered towards an emphasis on orchestra rather than melody a decade ago, the duo called it quits.

Their last released film, Rajiv Rai's Tridev, with its racy synthesizer music and Oye Oye theme song was a huge hit in 1989. But the baton had already been passed to Kalyanji's son Viju Shah who had in fact composed the music.

Music maestro Naushad adds: ``Like me he too was unhappy with the kind of melodyless music being churned out these days. Even when he stopped giving music Kalyanji continued introducing new singers.''

Busying themselves with shows in India and abroad, the duo established a school to train new singers and infuse a sense of music among the children. For ten long years Kalyanji devoted himself to stage shows for young singers called the Little Wonders. These shows gave a break to new singers including Sunidhi Chavan. Kalyanji was awarded the Padmashree in 1990.

He later started `Kalaveer' his own music school to train singers and gave breaks to several established singers like Sadhana Sargam, Sonali Bajpai, Alka Yagnik, Manhar Udhas and Hemalata. Laxmikant and Pyarelal worked as his assistants before their rise to fame in the 50s.

Kalyanji was the first music director to start the trend of film star shows held in India and abroad. He collected millions of rupees for charity by hosting music concerts not only for national causes like floods and famines but also for schools and colleges.