After I had covered the best songs of Kalyanji-Anandji for Mukesh and Rafi, I once browsed through their songs for ‘other’ male singers for a lark. I was amazed to find an enormous variety of singers they had chosen. Though all the songs were well-known it had not registered in my mind instantly. The result was a post on Kalyanji-Anandji’s best songs for ‘other’ male singers. That was, of course, KA1.0 (up to 1970).READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Kalyanji-Anandji
Kalyanji-Anandji 2.0 and Kishore Kumar: Made for each other
I had written my first post on Kalyanji-Anandji about ten years ago on their best songs for Mukesh and had titled it “Made for each other”. I used that phrase studiedly because that was my instinctive feeling. Nudging by a reader made me explore their more songs – for Rafi, Other male singers, and Lata Mangeshkar and other female singers in the current year. I now discover that he composed more than twice the songs for Rafi as he did for Mukesh. But I still hold on to “Made for each other” tag for KA-Mukesh. All this discussion was limited to the 50s and 60s.READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Kalyanji-Anandji’s best songs for Lata Mangeshkar and other female singers
Kalyanji-Anandji were extremely melodious composers. But in a crowded field at the top comprising Naushad, SD Burman, Shankar-Jaikishan, OP Nayyar, Roshan, Madan Mohan, etc. they were not among the elite at the High Table. But 70s onwards the gods were kind to them. Kalyanji-Anandji showed amazing talent to adapt themselves to the new voices (read Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhosle) and new kind of music. They were undisputedly part of the Big Troika with RD Burman and Laxmikant-Pyarelal.
Kalyanji-Anandji’s ‘other’ male singers
If you were to ask me which singer I associate most with Kalyanji-Anandji, my answer would be instantly Mukesh. It was natural I wrote a post on Mukesh-KA in the initial years of the blog with the title, Made for each other. When I started looking for their Rafi songs as a part of his centenary celebrations I was surprised to find that he composed about twice the number of songs for Rafi as he did for Mukesh, and some of them are absolutely gorgeous. That led to a post on Rafi-KA combination on the occasion of Kalyanji’s 96th birth anniversary (30 June 2024).READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Rafi’s best songs by Kalyanji-Anandji
Continuing the series on Rafi with a tribute to Kalyanji (30 June 1928-24 August 2000) and Anandji (2 March 1933-) on Kalyanji’s 96th birth anniversary.
When you think of Kalyanji-Anandji’s main playback singers, Mukesh comes to mind first. They seemed to be made for each other, and there is already a post on KA-Mukesh combination on this blog with this title. They composed the most songs for Mukesh, a little more than Shankar-Jaikishan. What was remarkable was that while SJ-Mukesh were generally regular for Raj Kapoor, KA had Raj Kapoor as the hero for only two films, their Mukesh songs were widely spread over many actors.READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Made for each other: Mukesh and Kalyanji-Anandji
A tribute to Mukesh on his death anniversary August 27, and a tribute to the music duo
In the surfeit of TV programmes associated with Centenary Celebrations of Indian Cinema last year, I closely followed the ones on film music. There was one presented by a young lady on Kalyanji-Anandji. After a quick reference to their early career in the 60s, she went in detail about their ‘music’. Her conclusion at the end of the half- an-hour programme was that KA were famous for their songs by Kishore Kumar for Amitabh Bachchan. This struck me as quite odd, as one singer I associated most prominently with the duo was Mukesh. For Mukesh too, if I make a list of his ‘quintessential’ songs, several KA songs would figure at the top. With about 100 songs they composed for him, they must be very close to SJ, if not outnumber them. This is remarkable, considering that Shankar Jaikishan, arguably the most successful composers in the history of film music, who had debuted a decade earlier, had made Mukesh a part of RK camp as the voice of Raj Kapoor. With such a handicap, it is to the credit of the genius of KA and their special bonding with Mukesh that they were able to create a special niche with his songs, no less in quality to SJ’s.