One plus one is not two but eleven

Shankar Jaikishan or SJ as they were called were the first duo to set up a partnership and together composed hit music for Hindi movies, dominating the scene for more than two decades. Jaikishan died inn1971. Shankar continued to do work under SJ’s name and gave some hit music in movies like Sanyasi and Beimaan. But the lost glory was never regained.

Kalyanji Anandji were the next music director Jodi to hit big time. Real brothers, they had the penchant for creating popular music and duo also ruled the charts for more than two decades but the elder brother Kalyanji expired in 2000. Of course they had reduced their work and passed the baton to the next generation, Viju Shah, but death of Kalyanji was the end of musical journey for the duo.

The next pair to hit big time and surpass the senior duos in the volume and popularity of work was Laxmikant Pyarelal ( LP). They were soloists who played in SJ’s and KA’s orchestra, but later on formed team to churn out hit album after hit. Laxmikant’s demise in 1998 was the end of this pair’s work life.

Nadeem Shravan ruled the roost in 1990s and Nadeem, embroiled in Gulshan Kumar’s murder conspiracy, fled to London and that marked the end of the professional work by the duo.

There’s an interesting book by Raju Bhartan in which he has listed out songs composed by Shankar and those by Jaikishan. The duo were two distinct entities yet one. They never claimed superiority over one another or put their individualistic stamp on particular songs, though the world at large always tried to ascertain this fact. In case of KA, such stories are not heard though for LP, I think it’s an open fact that Laxmikant composed tunes while Pyarelal arranged the music.

The gist of the message that this blog wants to convey is that in any pair, it’s the teamwork and that one partner completes the team with another and not compete. The relationship is complementary in which the partners cover up each other and complement each other’s strength rather than outwitting or outsmarting other. In most of the Indian households, man is the earning member and woman is homemaker and they complete the union and not fall into useless discussion of superiority of any of the partners.

It’s incidental that Laxmikant, Kalyanji and Jaikishan expired ( Nadeem fled) and the surviving partners called it a day. The result wouldn’t have been different if different set had survived.

This applies to any team – from two to any number – from music duos to husband wife to cricket team to office team!