Shivkumar Sharma’s melodious contribution to Bollywood

He was one part of Shiv-Hari, who tuned several Hindi melodies despite working only in eight films

P.K. Ajith Kumar

Hindi cinema has, over the decades, witnessed several melodious collaborations between two musicians. Duos such as Shankar-Jaikishen, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Kalyanji-Anandji, Nadeem-Shravan, Jatin-Lalit, Anand-Milind and Vishal-Shekhar have tuned several melodies to enrich our popular music.

Shiv-Hari may not have been as prolific, but, then, they have been focusing more on their stellar careers as two of India’s finest instrumental musicians. One half of it, the santoor maestro Shivkumar Sharma, died in Mumbai on Tuesday of cardiac arrest aged 84.

Sharma and flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia came together to compose for only eight Bollywood films. But their songs continue to delight the fans of sheer melody.

Shiv-Hari had made a stunning debut with Silsila, the 1981 romance directed by Yash Chopra featuring Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha and Jaya Bhaduri.

The film featured some gorgeous melodies. Take for instance Yeh kahaan aa gaye hum..., sung by Lata Mangeshkar with Bachchan reciting the poetry part. It is one of the finest songs of Lata in the 80’s. She traversed through the not-so-easy notes only the way she could have. And yes, the way Bachchan, who played a poet in the film, recited was magical as well. On screen too, he cast a spell with the stunning Rekha.

Another lovely song from Silsila is Dekh ek khwab..., rendered by Lata and Kishore Kumar. Perhaps the most popular song from the film is Rang barse bhige chunar wali... It was sung by Bachchan and written by his father Hari Vans Rai Bachchan, one of the great poets in Hindi. The song went on to become almost synonymous with the Holi celebrations.