Kalyanji Virji Shah (30 June 1928 – 24 August 2000) was the Kalyanji of the Kalyanji-Anandji duo. He and his brother Anandji Virji Shah have been famous Indian film musicians, and won the 1975 Filmfare Award for Best Music Director, for Kora Kagaz.[1][2] He is a recipient of the civilian honour of Padma Shri (1992),[3] India's fourth-highest civilian honour.

Kalyanji Virji Shah
Born(1928-06-30)30 June 1928
Kundrodi, Cutch State, British India
Died24 August 2000(2000-08-24) (aged 72)
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
GenresFilm score
Occupation(s)music director, orchestrator, conductor
Years active1954–2000
LabelsSaregama HMV
Universal Music
Formerly ofKalyanji-Anandji

Birth and early life

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Kalyanji was born to Virji Shah, a Kutchi businessman in Kundrodi, Kutch, Gujarat, who migrated from Kutch to Mumbai to start a Kirana (provision store). His younger brother and his wife are the husband and wife duo Babla & Kanchan.

He and his brothers began to learn music from a music teacher, who actually knew no music but taught them in lieu of paying his bills to their father. One of their four grand parents was a folk musician of some eminence. They spent most of their formative years in the hamlet of Girgaum (a district in Mumbai) amidst Marathi and Gujarati environs — some eminent musical talent resided in the vicinity.[citation needed]

Kalyanji's breakthrough was with the theme entitled Been music from the film Nagin (1954).[4]

Career

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Solo Filmography

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  • Samrat Chandragupt (1958)
  • Post Box No.999 (1958)
  • Bedard Zamana Kya Jaane (1959)
  • Oh Tera Kya Kehna (1959)

Family

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Kalyanji's son, Viju Shah, is also a music director based in India.[citation needed]

References

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  1. ^ Awards
  2. ^ "Viju Shah On Kalyanjibhai". Screen. 27 August 2004.[dead link]
  3. ^ "Padma Awards" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 October 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  4. ^ Carlo Nardi (July 2011). "The Cultural Economy of Sound: Reinventing Technology in Indian Popular Cinema". Journal on the Art of Record Production, Issue 5 Archived 15 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine, ISSN 1754-9892.
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