Tribute to Sanjeev Kumar on his 83rd birth anniversary
Today is the 83rd birthday anniversary of a great actor Sanjeev Kumar, a winner of two National Film Awards and 14 Filmfare Award nominations, winning 3 of them as the Best actor and Best Supporting Actor, for his brilliant performances. His 8 films have got Shankar Jaikishan's scores with majority of them having been largely neglected, in spite of some genuinely beautiful songs. They are Shikar, Sacchai, Chanda Aur Bijli, Rivaaj, Door Nahin Manzil, Archana, Dhho Chhaon and Kaanch Ki Diwaar.
As a tribute, I am sharing this excellent Rafi-Manna Day duet from the social drama “Rivaaj”, released in 1972 and directed by T Prakash Rao with Sanjeev Kumar and Mala Sinha as the leads. The impressive lyrics “Jala do jala do.. Duniya yehi duniya hai to aag laga do...” is written by Kaifi Azmi.
It’s a beautiful, unique and situational male duet. As per the situation, Sanjeev Kumar turns into badly hatred and abhorrent person (his mind), because of devastating life tragedy and wants to burn and destroy everything in the world, including the God. On the other hand, his calm and optimistic soul confronts him in his own image, to simmer him down and show him some positivity in his life. The violent mind is represented by Rafi’s voice and the serene soul by Manna day’s voice. And to convey the whole musical dialogue between them, SJ brilliantly composed two different compositions in a single song, each having a separate mukhda, antra and interlude. Not only that, we can feel the two different emotions in both the counter compositions. Orchestration, Chorus and rhythm are excellent in SJ’s signature style throughout the song and both the singers did a fantastic job for the song.
Many might have skipped the song just by listening “Jala do jala do....”, thinking that it’s just a sad situational song, but if we listen and watch it thoroughly, we can realize how much detailed work has been done by the maestros Shankar Jaikishan for the song.
For me, the way it starts with stressful violin sections, and flows through different vocal, choral and orchestral portions, it gives a feel of some operatic scene...!
Enjoy a remarkable work by SJ...!