The Shankar Jaikishan and Lekhraj Tandon association had to happen since they were indirectly involved with each other. While the composer duo were working at Prithvi Theater, the apprentice was an assistant at the theater company. Tandon had met the maestros several times before they came together with Professor which was a super duper hit movie.
Professor (1962): Produced by F. C. Mehra, the movie was directed by Lekh Tandon. It has Shammi Kapoor and debutante, Kalpana in the lead. There are six super hit songs in the album that fetched SJ a Filmfare Award. Shammi Kapoor, Hasrat, Rafi and Lalita Pawar received nominations for FF Awards in their respective categories. Shailendra and Hasrat wrote three songs each. Rafi sang two solos and two duets with Lata. Lata sang a solo with Asha and a multiple singers song with Asha, Usha and Manna Dey. The outstanding music helped the super success of the movie which was, later, made in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada.
Amrapali (1966): The biopic was produced by F. C. Mehra with Vyjayantimala playing the title role opposite Sunil Dutt. There are a total of five songs in the super hit album. Shailendra wrote four of the five songs while Hasrat wrote one. Lata sang four solos and the fifth is a chorus number. The movie had a moderate run at the box office, but has been considered as one of the all time classics. It was India’s entry in the thirty ninth Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category.
Jhuk Gaya Aasman. (1968): based on the Hollywood movie, And Here Comes Mr. Jordan, it has Rajendra Kumar and Saira Banu in the lead. It has eight super hit songs in the album. Hasrat four songs, Shailendra three and S. H. Bihari wrote one. Rafi sang four solos and one duet with Lata who sang two solos and Asha one. The title track was inspired by Elvis Presley’s Marguerita and is an extremely popular number to date. The movie was another blockbuster.
Prince (1969): F. C. Mehra produced the drama. It has Shammi Kapoor and Vyjayantimala cast in the lead roles. There are seven songs in the beautiful album. It was the fourth highest grossing movie of the year. Farooq Qaisar wrote four songs and Hasrat wrote three. Rafi sang four solos, one duet with Lata and a trio with Lata and Asha. Lata sang a solo.
Jahan Pyar Mile (1969): The movie has Shashi Kapoor and Hema Malini in the lead. There are six solos in the album with one of them being a tandem number. Hasrat and Farooq Qaisar wrote three songs each. Rafi sang three solos while Lata, Suman Kalyanpur and Sharda sang a solo each. The latter won a Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer Award.
Lekh Tandon said of SJ that he did not have any input in the music of the award winning Professor. SJ asked him about the song situations in his movie, recorded a few songs and requested him to pick the ones he would use in his movie. It was that simple and easy! Although he shared a very good association with SJ, it ended after just five movies.