Kalyanji Anand Ji

This piece is part of the Detours series. Detours are deep dives, because music deserves time and context. Listen, breathe deep, take the scenic route. In high school, I was obsessed with producer Dan the Automator. He was responsible for a number of albums that blew my mind and opened…

Tributes to legendary Hindi film music composer ‘Padma Shri’ Kalyanji Virji Shah on his 19th death anniversary. (24/08) His era with Anandji will always be remembered for their great contributions to the Hindi film music industry. What are your favorite songs of his?

“Na Kajre Ki Dhar” was originally composed by Kalyanji Anandji, for a 1960’s shelved film, the song had been sung by Mukesh and the lyrics had been penned by Indeevar. Kalyanji’s son Viju Shah (music director) used the unreleased song for Mohra, 30 years later.

Kalyanji teamed up with his musician brother Anandji to rule the hearts of Hindi film music lovers with haunting melodies for three decades. As a music director, his forte was melody, the perfect matching of tunes with the mood of the lyrics. Starting as an assistant to music director Hemant…