

Kalyanji-Anandji’s music had a distinct flavor of its own. It stayed away from the so-called “inspired” takeoffs on western hits, and lent a delectable folk flavor to the songs.
Tribute: Kalyanji Veerji Shah
When singer-music director Hemant Kumar was composing music for Nagin, which had 16 songs in 1952, he encountered a strange problem.
The music had to have a lot of snake dances and a liberal dose of the “been“, a piper type of wind instrument played by the snake charmers. But none of the saperas (snake charmers) called into the studio, could play the “been” in tune with the music composed by Hemant Kumar.
The story goes that finally it was his young assistant Kalyanji who helped out by playing the “been” in all those songs. He used a clavioline (an electronic keyboard instrument, which was a forerunner to the analog synthesizer) to create the effect of the “been”. Could we ever forget the “been” in “man dole mera tan dole” and “mera dil yeh pukaare aaja” by Lata Mangeshkar in Nagin?
Nor can we forget the music of Kalyanji Veerji Shah who started off as Hemant Kumar’s assistant and debuted solo with the music of the film Samrat Chandra Gupta in 1954. Two years later he formed a musical duo with brother Anandji. Though he is not with us now, he has left a treasure trove of melodies for music lovers.
Kalyanji-Anandji’s music had a distinct flavor of its own. It stayed away from the so-called “inspired” takeoffs on western hits, and lent a delectable folk flavor to the songs.
“Chandan sa badan chanchal chitvan” and “main to bhool chali babul ka des, piya ka ghar pyaara lage” from Saraswati Chandra had the folk music of the duo’s home state Gujarat since the story was based there.
For Safar, which had a story based in Bengal, “Nadiya chale chale re dhaara” had a tinge of the Bengal’s Bhatiali folk. The soulful “Zindagi ka safar hai yeh kaisa safar” (Safar) or “Yeh jeevan hai, is jeevan ka yahi hai rang roop” (Basu Chatterji‘s Piya Ka Ghar) never fail to tug at your heartstrings even now.
The amiable Kalyanji bhai, as he was fondly called, always had a smile and a joke on his lips to liven up people. The duo’s heydays were in the seventies when they came up with evergreen numbers such as “oh saathi re, tere bina bhi kya jeena” (Muqaddar Ka Sikandar), “ek pyaar ka naghma hai, maujon ki rawaani hai” (Shor) and the memorable friendship ballad in the Afghani folk style “Yaari hai imaan mera, yaar meri zindagi” (Zanjeer).
Ek pyar ka nagma hai (Shor)
As Bollywood film music moved from lilting melodies to mindless copying of western pop, and music directors fought bitterly in public over film projects, the duo quietly retreated, concentrating on holding shows abroad and grooming young talent under the “Little Wonders” stage program.
Alka Yagnik, Sadhna Sargam and tiny tot Aditya Narayan owe much of their success and training to Kalyanji-Anandji. Viju Shah, Kalyanji bhai’s son is today a music composer in this own right.
Hindi film music is in constant transition with the use of acoustics getting replaced with digital sounds, items songs and fast beats pushing out soft melodious compositions and “inspired tunes” becoming more the norm rather than original compositions. But Kalyanji, along with Anandji have left behind a rich legacy of evergreen music and Hindi film music buffs will always remember the man who composed the ever memorable Kishore Kumar number, “Mera jeevan kora kaagaz, kora hi reh gaya”.
Mera jeevan kora kagaz (Kora Kaagaz)
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Lovely song!!!
‘Ek Pyaar Ka Naghma’ has the beautiful wordings……………..!
Song has created the bonding….and when you face any problem it talks about that it is a temporary phase and soon you will come out of it.
Finally the motivates you over all.
It is right sayings that “Old is Gold”.
“तूफ़ान तो आना है, आ कर चले जाना हैं
बादल हैं ये कुछ पल का, छा कर ढल जाना हैं
परछईयाँ रह जाती, रह जाती निशानी हैं”
Thanks