Remembering Kalyanji of KA Duo

Kalyanji Virji Shah (30 June 1928 – 24 August 2000) was the Kalyanji of the Kalyanji-Anandji duo.

 Their father was a Kutchi businessman who had migrated from Kutch to Bombay to start a kirana (provision store). The two brothers began to learn music from a music teacher. One of their four grandparents was a folk musician of some eminence. They spent most of their formative years in the hamlet of Girgaum (a district in Bombay) in the Marathi and Gujarati areas.

Kalyanji–Anandji are an Indian composer duo from Gujarat: Kalyanji Virji Shah (30 June 1928 - 24 August 2000) and his brother Anandji Virji Shah (born 2 March 1933). The duo are known for their work on Hindi film soundtracks, particularly action potboilers in the 1970s.

Some of their best-known works are Don, Bairaag, Saraswatichandra, Qurbani, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Laawaris (film), Tridev and Safar. They won the 1975 Filmfare Award for Best Music Director for Kora Kagaz.

Kalyanji and Anandji were children of a businessman who migrated from Kutch to 'Bombay' (now Mumbai) to start a grocery and provision store. The brothers began to learn music from a music teacher, who taught them in lieu of paying his bills to their father. One of their great-grandparents was a folk musician of some eminence. They spent most of their formative years in the Mumbai locality of Girgaum amidst Marathi and Gujarati environs and among some eminent musical talent that resided in the vicinity.

Kalyanji started his career as a musician, with a new electronic instrument called the clavioline. which was used for the famous "Nagin Been," used in the film Nagin (1954) which had the music of Hemant Kumar. Kalyanji then, with his brother Anandji, started an orchestral group called Kalyanji Virji and Party which organised musical shows in Mumbai and outside. This was the first attempt made for holding live musical shows in India.

Kalyanji Anandji's arrival in the Bombay film industry as music composers was a turning point. When big music directors like S.D. Burman, Hemant Kumar, Madan Mohan, Naushad, Shankar Jaikishan and Ravi were ruling the Hindi film music world – and it was a golden period of film music – it was very tough to make a place amongst them. They still managed to attain success amongst the competition.

The Bharat Bhushan–Nirupa Roy hit Samrat Chandragupta (1959) was his first film as Kalyanji Virji Shah. Songs like "Chahe Paas Ho" (Lata–Rafi) that are remembered to this day were what made the movie a commercial success. This was followed by his composing music scores for more films like Post Box 999 before Anandji who was assisting him, joined him officially to form the Kalyanji Anandji duo in Satta Bazar and Madari (1959). Chalia (1961) was their earliest major hit. In 1965, two decisive scores, Himalay Ki God Mein and Jab Jab Phool Khile, established them as composers to reckon with.

Both Kalyanji and Anandji worked as music composers for over 250 films, 17 of which were golden jubilees and 39 silver. They organised many charitable concerts for NGOs and several charitable institutions in India and abroad with some of the biggest names in Bollywood, like Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Anil Kapoor, Vinod Khanna, Rekha and Sridevi.

Manhar Udhas, Kumar Sanu, Alka Yagnik, Sadhana Sargam, Sapna Mukherjee, Udit Narayan, Sunidhi Chauhan, now very popular names, were nurtured as singers and got their first breaks from Kalyanji Anandji. Laxmikant Pyarelal worked as music assistants to Kalyanji Anandji before composing Music independently for Hindi films. They helped introduce or gave career defining breaks to lyricists like Qamar Jalalabadi, Anand Bakshi, Gulshan Bawra, Anjaan, Verma Malik and M G Hashmat.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, their work was introduced to a young Western audience by three albums. Bombay the Hard Way: Guns, Cars and Sitars was a mix album put together by US DJ Dan The Automator; Bollywood Funk was an Outcaste compilation album put together by Sutrasonic DJs Harv and Sunni; while The Beginners Guide To Bollywood was compiled by John Lewis from Time Out magazine. All three of these records concentrated on Kalyanji Anandji tracks from 1970s films that featured funk breakbeats, wah-wah guitars and Motown-style orchestrations. In 2005, The Black Eyed Peas's "Don't Phunk with My Heart" used music pieces from two of their songs: "Ae Naujawan" from the 1972 film Apradh and "Yeh Mera Dil" from the 1978 film Don, which won the American hip-hop group a Grammy Award.

On 24 August 2000, Kalyanji breathed his last.

The composers composed some popular songs rendered by Kishore Kumar such as "Jeevan se bhari teri aankhe", "Zindagi ka safar hai ye kaisa Safar", "Pal Pal dilke paas", "Neele Neele Ambar Par". Their composition called "Pal bharke liye" was used in an episode of The Simpsons. Remixed version of the song "Apni Toh Jaise Taise," originally from the 1981 film Laawaris was used in 2010 Bollywood film Housefull. The Calcutta High Court restrained producer Sajid Nadiadwala from the cinematic use of the song. They used playback of Kishorekumar for Dilipkumar in "Bairaag " and for shamii kapur in "Vidhata "

The duo composed 297 songs for Lata in their career, the 3rd highest songs composed by any composer for Lata's career. The superhit song include "Jiska Mujhe Tha Intezaar" from Don (1978), "Kabhi Raat Din Hum Door The" from Aamne Saamne (1967), "Yeh Saman" from Jab Jab Phool Khile (1965), "Humare Siva Tumhare Aur Kitne deewane" from Apradh (1978]], "Main Pyaasa Tum
' from Faraar (1975) etc.

The duo composed 297 songs for Asha, the same number they composed for Lata, indicating that they emphasized Asha and Lata almost equally. Their superhit songs with Asha is led by all time hit "Yeh Mera Dil" from Don (1978). It earned Asha's 7th and last Filmfare Award as best singer. It was copied by world's leading band Black Eyed Peas in 1990 and their song earned Grammy Award. BEP's song included another K-A Bhosle number, "Aye Naujawan". Their other hits with Asha includes "Kya Dekhte Ho" from Qurbani (1978), "O Saathi Re" from Muqaddar Ka Siqandar (1978)

The duo composed 270 songs for Legendary singer Kishore Kumar. Their superhit songs with Kishore Kumar included all time hit "Zindagi ka safar" from Safar (1970), "O Saathi Re" from Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (1978), "mera jeevan kora kagaz" from Kora Kagaz (1974), Jeevan se bhari teri aankhe " from Safar (1970), "pal pal dil ke paas" from Blackmail (1974), "neele neele ambar par " from Kalakaar (1985), "samzauta gamon se kar lo" from Samjhauta (1973), "apne jeevan ki ulzan ko" from Ulzan (1975).

The duo composed the great number "kasme vaade pyar wafa ke " in Manna deys voice in "Upkar" ( 1968) and the chart buster Kawwali "yyari hai imman Mera" from Zanzeer ( 1973)

Tthe duo composed many heart touching melodies in voice of Mukesh like " chandsi mehboba ho meri aia mainesocha tha ha tum bilkul wais ho jaisa maine socha tha ", , " hum chodel hai mehfil ko yaad aa ye kisi ko mat rona ", "koi jab tumhara hriday tod de " , " kya khoob lagthi ho , badi sundar dikhthi ho ",

They also composed memorable song for Mahendra Kaapoor , " Mere desh ki dharti sona ugle ugle heere moti " in Upkaar, and the unique song " ik tara bole to tum kya kahe" , and made rafi sing the great bhajan " sukh ke sab saathi dukh me na koi " in Gopi(1971)

Awards
Cine Music Directors Award – 1965 – Himalay Ki God Mein
First National Award – 1968 – Saraswatichandra
Filmfare Award – 1974 – Kora Kagaz
First Platinum Disc by HMV – Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (1978)
1st Platinum Disc by Polydor – Qurbani (1980)
IMPPA Award – 1992 – For Contribution to Films
Padmashree by the Government of India – For Outstanding Contribution
IIFA Award (South Africa) – 2003 – Lifetime Achievement Award
Sahara Parivar Award (United Kingdom) – 2004 – Lifetime Achievement Award
BMI Award (United States) – 2006 – For Grammy Award-winning rap song "Don't Phunk with My Heart"
GIMA (Great Indian Music Awards) - 2015 - Lifetime Achievement Award