With younger brother Anandji, Kalyanji Virji Shah, who passed away on August 24, 2000, was one of the legendary music duos of Hindi cinema. With over 250 films in Hindi (and a few in Gujarati), to their credit, the brothers Kalyanji-Anandji were one of the successful composers.
Some of their well-known compositions are for films such as Himalay Ki God Mein, Jab Jab Phool Khile, Upkar, Saraswatichandra, Saccha Jhutha, Safar, Johny Mera Naam, Victora No. 203, Zanjeer, Kora Kagaz, Don, Muqaddar Ka Sikander, Qurbani, Laawaris, and finally, Tridev.
Kalyanji was an iconic figure known as much for humour as for his spirituality. A disciple of Osho (Acharya Rajneesh), Kalyanji also edited Osho Times for a long while.
Anandji looked after rhythms, orchestration and business affairs. He says, “In theory, it was crazy to consider a partnership between us as Kalyanji-bhai was five years older. And our filmmakers had a choice of two individuals and could choose our compositions according to their tastes!”
When filmmaker Prakash Mehra became busy with multiple assignments, it was Kalyanji, who suggested that he should have two sets of composers, which opened the doors for Bappi Lahiri. Also, it was because of Kalyanji, that Amitabh Bachchan was cast in Prakash Mehra’s Zanjeer, which became a major turning point in Amitabh’s career.
Music grooming
He later groomed him to sing as well! A lesser-known fact is that Kalyanji also trained Anil Kapoor and made him sing in Chameli Ki Shaadi.
The duo was honoured with the Padma Shri in 1992, in recognition of their contribution to music and society.
Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bhaduri, in Zanjeer.
Kalyanji along with his brother have groomed many singers including his son Viju Shah, Udit Narayan, Kumar Sanu, Sudesh Bhosle, Javed Ali, Alka Yagnik, Ila Arun, Sunidhi Chauhan, Shreya Ghoshal and Akriti Kakar, and even artistes Tabassum and Johny Lever, besides introducing Manhar, Kanchan, Aziz Nazan, Anuradha Paudwal, Sadhana Sargam and Sapna Mukherjee.
The brothers also introduced lyricist Gulshan Bawra and gave major breaks to Anand Bakshi, Anjaan and Verma Malik besides giving veteran Qamar Jalalabadi a second innings with Chhalia.
Today, a village in Gujarat has been named after them since their shows helped rebuild the hamlet after floods ravaged it.
Even before they turned composers with Samrat Chandragupta that released in 1958, the brothers, who were musicians and later assistants to Hemant Kumar, had begun live stage shows in India.
Amitabh Bachchan remembers how Kalyanji would carry his little digital piano and make them practice on flights and his comic sense.
The brothers remain the only Indian composers to get a unique honour: Kalyanji (posthumously) and Anandji were honoured by the US-based Broadcasting Media Inc (BMI) for inspiring the Black-Eyed Peas, the rapper group, to use the duo’s songs Yeh mera dil from Don and Ae naujawan from Apradh for their Grammy-winning song Don’t phunk with my heart in 2005! This shows the global appeal of Kalyanji’s compositions that remain fresh and timeless.
The Mumbai-based writer is an independent journalist.
