| Laxmikant-Pyarelal | |
|---|---|
Laxmikant (left)- Pyarelal (right) |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Laxmikant Shantaram Kudalkar, Pyarelal Ramprasad Sharma |
| Also known as | LP, Laxmi-Pyare |
| Born | 1937 Bombay Presidency (Laxmikant), 1940 Gorakhpur, United Provinces (Pyarelal) |
| Died | May 25, 1998 (Laxmikant) |
| Genres | Film score, Fusion music |
| Occupations | Composer, music director, orchestrator, conductor |
| Years active | 1963–present |
Laxmikant-Pyarelal (Hindi: लक्ष्मीकान्त-प्यारेलाल, also known as LP or Laxmi-Pyare) were a popular Indian composer duo, consisting of Laxmikant Shantaram Kudalkar (1937–1998) and Pyarelal Ramprasad Sharma (born 1940). They composed music for about 635 Hindi movies from 1963 to 1998, working for almost all notable filmmakers including Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Feroze Khan, B.R. Chopra, Shakti Samanta, Manmohan Desai, Yash Chopra, Subhash Ghai and Manoj Kumar.
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Laxmikant Shantaram Kudalkar, was born on the day of “Laxmi Pujan” (Diwali) in the year 1937. May be because of that his parent named him as Laxmikant. He spent his childhood amidst dire poverty in the slums of Vile-Parle (E) Mumbai which in those days was comparable to today's Dharavi slums. His father died when he was child. Because of the poor financial conditions of the family he also could not even complete his academic education. Laxmikant's father's friend, a musician himself advised him and his elder brother to learn music. Accordingly Laxmikant learnt to play the mandolin and his elder brother learnt to play the tabla. In spite of spending two full years in the company of known mandolin player Hussain Ali, Laxmikant was never really given an opportunity to operationally learn how to play the instrument. However he mastered this art on his own. He began organising and performing in Indian Classical Instrumental Music concerts in order to earn some money. Later Laxmi did get the opportunity to learn the mandolin from known player Bal Mukund Indorker and also to learn the violin from none other than Husnalal of from the popular duo of Music directors Husnalal Bhagatram, especially in the 1940s. All this occurred when Laxmikant was barely 10 years old!
Pyarelal Ramprasad Sharma, was born in Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh, on 3 September in 1940. Pyarelal was the son of a renowned trumpeter Pt. Ramprasad Sharma (popularly known as Babaji), who taught him the basics of music. He started learning violin at the age of 8 and practised it 8 to 12 hours daily. He learnt to play violin from a Goan musician named Anthony Gonsalves. The song My Name Is Anthony Gonsalves of the movie Amar Akbar Anthony is regarded as a tribute to Mr. Gonsalves (the movie had music by Laxmi-Pyarelal). By the age of 12, his family's financial condition had deteriorated, which in turn forced him to earn money by playing in studios. Pyarelal then used to frequent visiting and playing the violin in studios such as Ranjit Studios, to earn money for his family.
When Laxmikant was about 10 years old, he once played mandolin in a Lata Mangeshkar concert in Radio Club, Colaba. Lata was so impressed that she talked to him after the concert.
Laxmikant and Pyarelal met at Sureel Kala Kendra, a music academy for children, run by the Mangeshkar family. After she came to know about their financially poor backgrounds, Lata recommended their names to music directors like Naushad, Sachin Dev Burman and C. Ramchandra. Similar financial backgrounds and age made Laxmikant and Pyarelal very good friends. They used to spend long hours at the recording studios, sometimes getting work for each other and even playing together whenever they got the opportunity.
Pyarelal often used to frequent the Bombay Chamber Orchestra and the Paranjoti Academy, where he would perfect his skills in the company of Goody Seervai, Coomi Wadia, Mehli Mehta and his son, Zubin Mehta. Laxmi-Pyare were not content with the payments being made to them for their music, so they decided to go to Madras (now Chennai). But, it was the same story there. So, they returned back. Once Pyarelal decided to leave India and go to Venice to play for symphony orchestras, just like Zubin. However, he stayed back at Laxmikant's insistence. Some of Laxmi-Pyare's colleagues at this time included Pandit Shivkumar Sharma (Santoor) and Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia (flute). Later, Shivkumar and Hariprasad also ventured in Hindi Cinema as Shiv-Hari.
Laxmi-Pyare worked with almost all reputed music directors (with the exception of O. P. Nayyar and Shankar-Jaikishan) of the 1950s. In 1953, they became assistants to Kalyanji-Anandji and worked with them as assistants till 1963. They worked as music arrangers for many music directors including Sachin Dev Burman (in Ziddi) and also for his son Rahul Dev Burman (in his first film Chhote Nawab). Laxmi-Pyare and R D Burman remained very good friends, even when Laxmi-Pyare started giving music independently. R D Burman played mouth organ for all songs of Dosti. Laxmikant once made a guest appearance playing role of himself as a Composer of Song "Dil Ki Baat" in Teri Kasam (1982), which had music by R D Burman.
In their early days, Laxmi-Pyare's music was very similar to Shankar-Jaikishan's music, as Laxmikant was a great fan of theirs. Once Shankar even changed his orchestration to make sure that his music did not sound like Laxmi-Pyare's. Laxmi-Pyare's first film as music directors was not released. The first released movie which featured them as music directors was Babubhai Mistry's Parasmani (1963), which was a mythological film. Throughout their tenure as music directors, Laxmi-Pyare only used A-grade singers. Their mentors, Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammad Rafi, agreed to sing for them in spite of low budgets, and Laxmi-Pyare always remained indebted to them. In fact, both Mohammad Rafi and Lata have sung the maximum number of songs in their career for Laxmi-Pyare.They continued to give patronage to Mohammed Rafi, sometimes against filmmakers' wishes. They had a great rapport with Kishore Kumar as well. Kishore Kumar sang maximum songs (402) for LP among all male singers, followed by Rafi(about 365 songs).
Laxmi-Pyare hit the big time with Rajshri Productions' 1964 film Dosti. The film had two newcomer heroes who never became popular, and the film was a success due to its music. Songs like Chahoonga main tujhe shaam savere and Rahi manava became very popular. At that time, many used to think that there was a single person by the name of Laxmikant Pyarelal. Laxmi-Pyare won their first Filmfare Best Music Director Award for the movie, ahead of stalwarts like Shankar-Jaikishan (for Sangam) and Madan Mohan (for Woh Kaun Thi?).
After Dosti's success, Laxmi-Pyare started getting work from all major filmmakers. The rise of Laxmi-Pyare, Rahul Dev Burman, and Kalyanji-Anandji marked the end of an old era of Bollywood music, which belonged to Shankar-Jaikishan, Sachin Dev Burman, Naushad(Mausicar-e-azam), C. Ramchandra, Khayyam, Madan Mohan, O. P. Nayyar, Roshan and others.
The team of Laxmi-Pyare and lyricist Anand Bakshi churned out some of the most popular songs in Hindi Cinemas history. The combo composed songs for more than 250 movies. Anand Bakshi was the lyricist who wrote the maximum number of texts Laxmi-Pyare gave music to. He was actually the lyricist for all the films for which Laxmi-Pyare won Filmfare Awards, except their very first award.
Laxmi-Pyare composed Indian classical music as well as Western music. But they were most popular for their folk tunes and semi-classical music. In Shagird, they created Rock-n-Roll-style foot-tapping melodies. The film Karz is worth specially mentioning here where LP successfully, gave disco-like music, in this film they had experimented with a ghazal "Dard-e-dil Dard-e- jigar" by westernizing it. The song is strongly remembered even now, and the duo the Filmfare Best Music Director Award for the year.
Although not as a rule, Laxmikant mostly looked after vocals and Pyarelal used to take care of orchestration. Both had vast knowledge of various music generes, musical instruments and orchestra management.
In 1962, noted film maker Mr. Babubhai Mistry gave a chance to Laxmikant and Pyarelal to score the music independently for the film “Parasmani” which released in 1963. They started the music director’s name as Laxmikant-Pyarelal…. (LP in short). The LP era has now started. All the songs of the film became immensely popular. Songs like Hasata Hua Nurani Chehara, Wo Jab Yaad Aaye, Mere Dil Main Halki Si etc. are still being hummed by the people even these are more than 43 years old. After that LP got the “B Grade” films, to score the music. Films like “Sati Sawitri”.(Songs:-.Tum Gagan Ke Chandram Ho,... Jeevan Dor Tumhi Sang Bandhi,..Kabhi To Miloge )… “Sant Gyaneshwar” (Songs:- Jyot Se Jyot Jagate Chalo,... Khabar More Na Line)… “Hum Sab Ustaad Hai”…(Songs:- Pyar Batate Chalo,… Ajanabi Tum Jane Pehachane Se,)…”Mr. X In Bombay”..(Songs:- Mere Mehaboob Quayamat Hogi,... Chali Re Chali Re Gori,…Khoobsurat Haseena..) .. “Shriman Fantush”..(Songs:- Sultana Sultana Tu Na Ghabarana,…Yeh Dard Bhara Afasana). All these sweet and melodious songs became immensely popular and are still in demand even after 48 years.
Laxmikant-Pyarelal got their major breakthrough in Rajashree Films “Dosti” in 1964. (Songs:- Chahunga Main Tuze,... Janewalo Zara,..Meri Dosti Tera Pyar,..Mera To Jo Bhi Kadam,..Rahi Manawa Dukhti Chinta,... Gudiaya Hama Se Ruthi Rahogi..). All the songs became hit. Music of “Dosti” kept LP in top position in the Hindi Film Music. This position of Laxmi-Pyare remain unaffected and continued till 35 more years. The LP era had now begun even when other older and established music directors of the golden era were still very much active. “Dosti” film music gave LP their first ever Filmfare Award. Then came “Lootera” a super hit musical non star cast film which is remembered only because of Lata Manageshkar’s super hit songs with Laxmikant-Pyarelal. After this victorious feat LP and success went together without a break or loss of continuity. In 1966 LP started cementing their place in Hindi Film Music. LP’s first musical hit film, with big star cast, “Aaye Din Bahar Ke” was released, followed by “Pyar Kiye Ja”.
Truly speaking 1967 belongs to Laxmikant-Pyarelal, they not only confirmed the No 1 position in Hindi Film Music, but also consolidated it with series of hits by one after another. Non star cast film “Farz” was LP’s first ‘golden jubilee’ musical hit followed by big star cast films like “Anita”, “Shagird”, yet another ‘Golden Jubilee’ hit, “Patthar Ke Sanam”, “Night In London”, “Jaal” and another evergreen musical hit “Milan”. LP received their second Filmfare Trophy for “Milan” without any stiff competition.
Now this was the time that Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s music became an essential component of the every successful film and it continued till 1998. Big film producing names, like Prasad Productions, Rajashri Productions, J. Om Prakash, Raj Khosla, Manoj Kumar, Ramamand Sagar, Madan Mohla, Mohan Sahagal, V.Shantaram, Raj Kapoor, Yash Chopra, Manmohan Desai, Subhash Ghai and many more, started replacing their regular music directors and preferred Laxmikant-Pyarelal on regular basis and in return LP have given an outstanding music to justify the replacement with big names.
LP have completely dominated the Weekly Countdown programme called “Binca Geet Mala”, the most popular and famous musical radio programme of its time. It's first broadcast was in 1953 by Radio Ceylon and it's host was the inimitable Ameen Sayani. The Binaca Geet Mala ranked the most popular Bollywood film songs according to sales in select shops in select cities.
In the third quarter of 1963, LP’s first ever songs Hasta Hua Nurani Chehara form Parasmani hit the “Binaca Geet Mala”. After that LP’s songs were regularly and prominently aired on “Binaca Geet Mala”. There used to be sixteen songs in each of the weekly “Binaca Geet Mala” programme, more than half the numbers of the songs were of LP. There are certain weekly Binaca Geet Mala programmes in which more than 13 out of 16 songs of LP were broadcast when LP were on right on top of their carrier. BGM used to broadcast annual (Vasrshik ) programme giving the orders of the top 32 songs of every year. In this programme also LP were having upper hand. Not only that, on an average, there used to be at least more than 15 songs used to be of LP, that too about 50 % of the songs in between top to first ten positions. The Binaca Geet Mala records shows that Laxmikant-Pyarelal have completely dominated this musical programme.
Here is the list of the songs of LP which were on top position in that particular year.
1967 Milan:- Sawan Ka Mahina Mukesh & Lata Mangeshkar
1968 Shagird:- Dil Bil Pyar Vyar Lata Mangeshkar
1969 Intquam:- Kaise Rahu Chup Lata Manageshkar
1970 Do Raste:- Bindiya Chamake Gi Lata Mangeshkar
1975 Roti Kapada Aur Makarn:- Mehangai Mar Gai Jani Babu Quwal & Lata Mukesh, Chanchal
1980 Sargam:- Dafali Wale Mohammad Rafi & Lata
1984 Hero:- Tu Mera Hero Hai Anuradha Paudwal & Manhar
1986 Sanjog:- Yashoda Ka Nandlala Lata Mangeshkar
1987 Naam:- Chitthi Aayi Hai Pankaj Udhas
1989 Ram Lakhan:- My Name Is Lakhan Mohammed Aziz
1993 Khalnayak:- Choli Ke Peeche Alka Ygnik & Ila Arun
Total 174 songs of LP appeared in Binaca Geetmala Finals..
Lata Mangeshkar played a major role in shaping up the careers of LP. She sang the maximum numbers of songs for them. She sounded extremely melodious under LP. Lata Mangeshkar and Laxmikant-Pyarelal shared a long, close and rewarding association. From 1963, to the next 35 years, Lata Mangeshkar and Laxmikant-Pyarelal were to chalk up around 700 songs together, which accounted for one in every 10 Hindi film songs recorded by the Melody Queen, and one of every four songs composed by the duo. Their work includes a variety and range; there were chart-slammers and classics, and chaalu numbers as well as connoisseur choices.
LP also produced some memorable songs rendered by Kishore Kumar namely "Mere Mehboob Quayamat hogi", "Ye Dard Bhara Afsana", "Ye Jeevan Hai", "mere Diwane Pan Ki", "Aap Ke Anurodh Pe", "Ik Ritu Aaye", "Gadi bula rahi hai", "Ruk jana Nahi" and "Om Shanti Om" amongst many others.
LP worked with Mohammad Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, Asha Bhosle, Manna Dey, Mahendra Kapoor, Amit Kumar, Alka Yagnik, Udit Narayan, Shailender Singh, S.P.Balasubrahmanyam, Anuradha Paudwal. However, they also gave big breaks to many newcomers like, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Mohammed Aziz, Suresh Wadkar and Shabbir Kumar, Sukhwinder Singh, Vinod Rathod, Roop Kumar Rathod etc. LP failed to use one of the great Indian Singer K.J Yesudass was a huge short coming in their contribution to Indian cinema songs.
After Laxmikant's death, Pyarelal has done some work independently. When the playback singer Kumar Sanu turned music director, he approached Pyarelal to arrange music for him. Pyarelal was approached to assist in the music of Farah Khan's Om Shanti Om song "Dhoom Tana", but no credit was given to him on the album, as per Pyareji's insistence. In 2009 Pyarelal won the Sachin Dev Burman International Award for Creative Sound and Music at the Pune Film Festival.[1]
Laxmi-Pyare gave music for almost 635 films in their 35-year career, winning 32 Gold Discs. They won seven Filmfare Awards, including four times in a row. They also won the Lata Mangeshkar Award. Some of their successful scores include:
For a complete filmography, please see Pyarelal's IMDB entry and Laxmikant's IMDB entry.
After Laxmikant-Pyarelal made debut as a music director duo in 1963, they were nominated for the Filmfare Awards (Best Music Director) almost every year. Many times, they were nominated for three or more numbers of films in a particular year. At the same time LP narrowly missed the awards for musical hits like Aaye Din Bahar Ke, Intquam, Do Raste, Mera Gaon Mera Desh, Shor, Daag, Bobby, Ek Duje Ke Liye, Utsav and Sur Sangam, Farz, Shagird, Tejab, Hero and Mr. India.
LP got 7 Filmfare Trophies, for the following films: