Shankar Singh Raghuvanshi

Shankar Singh Raghuvanshi Biography

Shankar Singh Raghuvanshi is a music director who has given significant contributions to the field of music along with Jaikishan Dayabhai Panchal during the golden era of Bollywood music and their association was known as Shankar Jaikishan or simply SJ. According to music critics, the most talented music directors of Indian film industry is none other than Shankar Jaikishan Pair and many of their wonderful tunes still make people wonder. All their works were Indian raga based and they have westernized their tunes by their own means by adding Indian spices and flavours. That’s the reason why they are considered as the most celebrated music directors of Indian cinema till now.

Shankar was born in Gadarwara of Madhya Pradesh and he moved to Hyderabad along with his family. Shankar formally learnt the art of tabla from Baba Nasir Khansahib and classical music from composer Khawaja Khurshid Anwar. Later he used to play tabla in Pritvi Theatres. He met Jaikishan in the office of Gujarati director Chandravadan Bhatt where he used to frequently visit in search of an opportunity and their respect to each other slowly developed to a great friendship. It was the beginning of a new era of music and their association started with Raj kapoor’s Barsaat. Earlier, Ram Ganguli used to be the composer of R.K.Banner and their personal indifferences prompted Raj Kapoor to give the assignment to Shankar. But due to personal bond with Jaikishen, Shankar insisted on giving him too an equal chance and thus they collaborate together with the name Shankar Jaikishen to give music to Raj Kapoor’s Barsaat.  Thus started the amazing journey of Shankar Jaikishen pair! All the RK movies later during 50’s and early 60’s were composed by Shankar Jaikishen where Mukesh’s voice was used as trade mark for Raj Kapoor. They experimented with the voice of Mohd.Rafi for other heroes while Mukesh’s voice was strictly used for Raj Kapoor. With later 50’s Shammi Kapoor also came into limelight and another magical trio was formed during 60’s – SJ-Shammi-Mohd.Rafi. All these songs are considered as the golden tunes of this amazing pair.

Now a list of movies where you can experience Shankar Jaikishen Music, belonging to different heroes – Barsaat, Aag, Professor, Prince, Amrapali, Brahmachari, An evening in Paris, Seema, Daag, Love marriage, Raj Kumar, Dil tera deewana, Arzoo, Chori chori, Boot polish and Love in Tokyo.     

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Updated: April 18, 2014