On Jaidev's 104th birth anniversary, here are some anecdotes on one of Hindi Cinema's greatest composers

Here is the most illustrative anecdote on Jaidev , one of the greatest music composers of Hindi cinema, who never  got his due, no one knows this, but it was Jaidev’s immortal devotional Allah tero naam that Lata Mangeshkar was  supposed to sing on January 27, 1963, in front of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru .

Composer Hemant Kumar visited Lata Ji and said that in the wake of the Indo-China war, she must go to Delhi for a show on the occasion of the Republic Day. The singer was hesitant. Her sister Meena was getting married after fifteen days. Lata Ji herself was going through ill health.

Recalled Lataji, “Every composer was after me to sing his composition at the function. I said no to everyone and decided to take four musicians with me to Delhi and sing Allah tero naam Jaidevj’s song in Hum Dono.”

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[caption id=“attachment_11003541” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  Jaidev with Lata Mangeshkar[/caption]

At the last minute, composer C Ramachandra popped up with Ae mere watan ke logon and Jaidev lost the chance. This was the story of his life. Jaidev was  always there at the forefront, but never counted among the greatest or most successful in spite of a soundtrack like Hum Dono early in his career, where every song from Asha Bhosle-Mohammed Rafi’s Abhi na jao chhor kar to Rafi’s Main zindagi ka saath nibhaata chala gaya to Lata Mangeshkar’s Prabhu tero naam, was a chartbuster.

And to think Jaidev nearly missed doing the music in Hum Dono! At that point in time, Lata Ji had stopped singing for Jaidev. There was a rift between Lata Ji and Sachin Dev Burman (whom Jaidev assisted) for which Lata Ji blamed Jaidev. Apparently, he miscommunicated a message to Sachin Da, a charge that he stoutly denied. It was  Hum Dono’s producer Dev Anand , who intervened.

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[caption id=“attachment_11003521” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  Dev Anand with Jaidev[/caption]

Said Dev Saab, “I had promised Hum Dono to Jaidev. But Lata was not ready to sing for Jaidev. There could be no Hum Dono without Lata. So I took Jaidev personally to Lata’s home to clear the misunderstanding. They were discussing the songs within ten minutes.”

Although Jaidev did some very fine work with other female singers, Asha Bhosle (Jaa ri  pawaniya in Do Boond Pani , Mujhko bhi radha banale nandlal in Ankahee and More naina jaage saari raina in the album Suranjali), Usha Mangeshkar (listen to her sing Jaidev’s Hariyali mohe rasta jaane de in the  film Jumbish and Morey kab se taras gaye naina in Tumhare Liye), Runa Laila (Tumhe ho  na  ho and Do diwane shaher mein in Gharoanda) and  Chhaya Ganguly (Aaapki yaad aati rahi from Gaman and the Bhajan album Bhakti Sudha that she did with  Jaidev), it was Lata Mangeshkar, who sang Jaidev to immortality with songs as staggeringly sublime as Jaane kitni baar hriday se maine usse pukara (Sapna),  Kiskis ko Deepak pyar kare (Anjali), Sulag uthi dil ki lagi (Kinare Kinare), Aaj achanak toot gaye kyun mann beena  ke taar (Kinare Kinare), Tere bachpan ko jawani ki dua deti hoon (Mujhe Jeene Do),  Tumhe dekhi  hoon (Tumhare Liye) and of course, the two immortal masterpieces in Reshma aur Shera, Tu chanda main chandni and Ek meethi si chubhan.

Sunil Dutt’s Mujhe Jeene Do went to Jaidev on Sunil Dutt’s insistence. This was a massive epic project and Sunil Dutt was advised not to take a “small” composer like Jaidev. But Dutt was adamant. After Mujhe Jeene Do, he was sure Jaidev was his music man.

Once Lata Ji spoke to me about working with Jaidev. “Jaidevi Ji was the most challenging among the composers. He had a sound knowledge of classical music. He would say, ‘I’ve told Lata Mangeshkar  what to do. Now I don’t need to worry.’ Once he composed a song, he left it to me to worry about it. It became my responsibility. And I’d be endlessly worried. I remember he had composed a Nepali song for me written by the King Of Nepal King Birendra (Jun Mato Na Mero in the Nepali film Maatighar). It was one of the toughest songs of my career.”

Muzaffar Ali’s Gaman would not have been the film it was, were it not for Jaidev’s soul-stirring music.

Says Muzaffar Ali, “The music by Jaidev Saab added immensely to Gaman. I am a poetry-driven artiste. I looked at the whole film as a poem. In fact, Faiz Ahmed Faiz said that Gaman was a poem in visual form. I was trying to use two kinds of poetry, one was the poetry of tradition as represented by the Thumris and ragas like Bhairavi. The other is the poetry of the city as penned by Shahrayar, which have an insinuated connectivity with the village.”

After Gaman, Jaidev was supposed to compose for Muzaffar Ali’s Umrao Jaan. But then, Jaidev’s renowned  obstinacy got in the way.

Recalls Muzaffar Ali, “Jaidev had done some songs for Umrao Jaan. But he wanted to use the voice of his protégée Madhurani. …also, I thought I had got the best out of Jaidev in Gaman. I was fascinated by Jaidev’s music from the time I heard his composition Abhi na jao chhod ke in Hum Dono. He could create a haunting quality I needed in the songs. It took me about a year to work on the music. It had to be music that gets into the listeners’ bloodstream. For that, you have to think deeply and think hard and not be in a hurry to get the tunes.”

This image of the genius sitting in the pavilion waiting for his turn, never left Jaidev.

In Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Alaap, Jaidev created some of his best tunes. But the film flopped. Hrishikesh Mukherjee had regretfully said to me, “You know, it is my misfortune that I worked only once with two of the best music composers of the film industry, Madan Mohan in Bawarchi and Jaidev in Alaap. I wish I had worked more often with them. Lekin kya ho jata hai na…ek comfort zone bann jata hai. One keeps working with the same artistes. This  is wrong.”

Jaidev was never pushy. He was happy to get what he did. And he excelled in every genre of film music, the Bhajan (Jaise suraj ki garmi se in Parinay), the love duet (Main kisse apna kahoon in Ek Thi Rita ), the Ghazal (Ajeeb sa niha mujhpar ghuzar gaya yaaron in Gaman), the Mujra (Raat bhi hai kuch bheegi bheegi in Mujhe Jeene Do)  …But he couldn’t cope with the rat race. He didn’t want to.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.