What I was highlighting was that the arrival of the younger breed of composers in no way lesenned the demand for S-J in the market and neither was the ‘S-J brand’ in any way imperilled by the onset of this trend. Till ’71, S-J remained as prolific and had as many of the big banner films as they did at any stage of their careers. At least that is what we felt during those days. Of course, I would be the first to admit (and this is what I have stated) that there was a decline in terms of quality when compared to their earlier efforts.

Regarding biography, I have never stated that they went out of favour of industry or even lost top position before Jaikishan’s death. If you see the page http://www.sjmusic.org/biopage.php?page=13, it is clearly written about their downturn compared to their previous standard, even you have also stated this.

I deeply admire that someone has made an effort at creating & maintaining this blog. Regarding the ‘Biography’ part, I have some reservations. I am of course, going on the assumption that you have written its contents.

I am not aware as to which generation you belong to but having lived through the 1960s myself, I can state without a shadow of doubt that at no stage did the Shanker-Jaikishan brand lose its credibility or market-value until the day Jaikishan died. All this canard that has been perpetrated in the press that the so-called decline in their music in the late 60s saw them lose ground to younger composers is plain hogwash. As for their flops, who doesn’t have them? In this industry, one major box-office hit can see you through half-a-dozen falures. Even otherwise, their music never ever failed. Yes, there was a comparative decline from their earlier lofty standards in terms of quality but in no way did it affect their popularity among the masses so long as Jai was around. They remained the topmost selling musical brand right upto 1971 and this I am saying not because I am a die-hard S-J fan but because it testifies to the facts as they were and is not based on a sedulous myth perpetuated over the years.

My salute to the maestro .. long live S-J

Regarding Manna, none of the others used him so well, we have devotional “Tu Pyar ka sagar hai” to classical “Lapak Jhapak tu aa” to funny “Meri bhains ko danda” to romantic “Ye Raat bheegi bheegi” …. many others can be added to the above mix

Thanks!!