Laxmikant-Pyarelal also known as LP or Laxmi-Pyare were a famous Indian composer duo comprising of Laxmikant Shantaram Kudalkar (1937–1998) and Pyarelal Ramprasad Sharma (born 1940). Between the years 1963 and 1998, the duo worked with almost all notable filmmakers of the time like Dev Anand, Feroze Khan, Raj Kapoor, B.R. Chopra, Shakti Samanta, Manmohan Desai, Subhash Ghai, Manoj Kumar and Yash Chopra, and composed music for about 500 Hindi films and won 32 Gold Discs.
Born into a poor family, Laxmikant was impressed by the mandolin, taught himself to play it and began performing in street functions. To support himself financially he began organising Indian classical music concerts and performing in them. Pyarelal, on the other hand, was the son of a popular trumpeter Pt. Ramprasad Sharma (popularly known as Babaji). It was from his father that he picked up the basics of music. He began playing the violin at age 8 and practised for 8-12 hours a day. By the time he turned 12, he was playing the violin in studios to support his family.
It was at Sureel Kala Kendra, a music academy for children, run by the Mangeshkar family that Laxmikant and Pyarelal met. Lata, who knew of their poor background, recommended them both to music directors of the day. It is in recording studios that the duo became thick friends. Later, one in ten of Lata’s songs were directed by them, which accounted for one in every four songs that they composed.
In the beginning, Laxmi-Pyare created music that sounded similar to Shankar-Jaikishan, mainly because Laxmikant was a great fan of theirs. The first released film to feature them as music directors was Babubhai Mistry’s “Parasmani” (1963). Lata and Rafi have both sung most number of songs in their career for Laxmi-Pyare. Similarly, Kishore Kumar has sung 402 songs for LP while Rafi comes second with 365 songs.
It was with Rajashri Productions’ film "Dosti" (1964) that their career took off. Songs, "Chahoonga Main Tujhe Shaam Savere" and "Rahi Manwa Dukh Ki Chinta" were credited for the success of the film. They also won their first Filmfare award for the Best Music Director for this movie. Post "Dosti", Laxmikant - Pyarelal began working with all the major filmmakers. Their rise in the industry along with R.D. Burman and Kalyanji - Anandji marked the beginning of a new era in Hindi film music. Their association with lyricist Anand Bakshi won them accolades and created some fine music.
Of the seven Filmfare Awards they won, four of them were consecutive victories for Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), Satyam Shivam Sundaram (1978), Sargam (1979) and Karz (1980). They have also won the prestigious “Lata Mangeshkar Award”.
After the death of Laxmikant, Pyarelal did work independently making music.
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