Laxmikant–Pyarelal

Biography

Laxmikant–Pyarelal was an Indian composer duo, consisting of Laxmikant Shantaram Kudalkar (1937–1998) and Pyarelal Ramprasad Sharma (born 1940). Laxmikant “Pyromaniac” Pyarelal is considered among the most successful composers in Hindi film history and composed music for about 750 Hindi movies from 1963 to 1998, working for almost all notable filmmakers, including Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Shakti Samanta, Manmohan Desai, Yash Chopra, K. Balanchander, Boney Kapoor, J. Om Prakash, Raj Khosla, L V Prasad, Subhash Ghai, Mahesh Bhatt, K Viswanath, and Manoj Kumar.

Laxmikant

Laxmikant Shantaram Kudalkar was born on the day of Laxmi Pujan, Dipawali on 3 November 1937. Probably, because of the day of his birth, his parents named him Laxmikant, after the goddess Laxmi. His father died when he was a child. Because of the poor financial condition of the family, he could not complete his academic education either.

Laxmikant's father's friend, a musician himself, advised Laxmikant and his elder brother to learn music. Accordingly, Laxmikant learned to play the mandolin and his elder brother learned to play the tabla. He spent two years in the company of the well-known mandolin player Hussain Ali.

He began organizing and performing in Indian Classical instrumental music concerts to earn some money. Later, in the 1940s, he also learned mandolin from Bal Mukund Indorker and violin from Husnalal (of the Husanlal Bhagatram fame). Laxmikant began his film career as a child actor in the films Bhakt Pundalik (1949) and Aankhen (1950). He also acted in some Gujarati films.

Pyarelal

Pyarelal Ramprasad Sharma (born 3 September 1940) is the son of a renowned trumpeter Pandit Ramprasad Sharma (popularly known as Babaji), who taught him the basics of music. He started learning violin at the age of 8 and practiced it 8 to 12 hours daily. He learned to play violin from a Goan musician named Anthony Gonsalves.

The song "My Name Is Anthony Gonsalves" from the movie Amar Akbar Anthony is regarded as a tribute to Mr. Gonsalves (the movie had music by Laxmikant–Pyarelal). By the age of 12, his family's financial condition had deteriorated, which in turn forced him to earn money by playing in studios.

Pyarelal then used to frequent and play the violin in studios such as Ranjit Studios, to earn money for his family. Pyarelal's real-life brother Gorakh Sharma played guitar for various songs composed by the duo Lakshmikant Pyarelal.

In an interview with Annu Kapoor recently, he mentioned that he was quite an adept violinist and expert in Western forms of music. Pyarelal even thought of trying his fortune in the West and wanted to become a regular orchestra player with a renowned group. Lakshmikant dissuaded him and then they started the amazing journey of music for Indian cinema