Jatin Pandit and Lalit Pandit, together known as Jatin-Lalit, were two of the top music composers in the 90s. The duo delivered several hit songs right from their first film ‘Yaara Dildara’ in 1992 to their last film together ‘Fanaa’ in 2006 (‘Fanaa’ was the last film they worked on; there were a couple of older films which released later). ‘Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar’, ‘Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge’, ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ and ‘Ghulam were some of the most prominent films they score the music for in the 90s.
A lot of people are probably not aware of the fact that before Jatin paired up with younger brother Lalit, he used to compose music with elder brother Mandheer and the two of them worked together for almost a decade. A few of their albums are available on the internet but a lot of the work they have done is not easily available on any public domain.
Note: The song being referred to in the article is ‘Ak Dil Mera Kanwara’, the fifth song on the album’s playlist.
In 1986, Mandheer-Jatin had scored the music for a small film called ‘Bhai Ka Dushman Bhai’ which starred Sujit Kumar, Puneet Issar, Rajeshwari and Amjad Khan. Interestingly, the tune of one of the songs from the film called ‘Ak Dil Mera Kanwara’, sung by Jatin and sister Vijeta Pandit, bears an uncanny resemblance to a Jatin-Lalit number called ‘Ek Dil Tha Paas Mere’ from ‘Jab Pyaar Kisi Se Hota Hai’. When you listen to both the songs carefully, you realise that the two songs indeed have the same tune.
While the ‘Bhai Ka Dushman Bhai’ track was penned by Anjaan, the song from the Salman Khan – Twinkle Khanna starrer was written by Anand Bakshi. Interestingly, the two films released twelve years apart from each other. In the 90s, Mandheer worked as an associate with his brothers under the name Vishwaraj Pandit and is one of the most revered tabla players in the world of Indian classical music. Though he is not active in mainstream Hindi film music today, his daughters Shraddha and Shweta have carried his legacy forward and are active as singers in the Hindi film industry. His son Yash has appeared in a few films and is a popular name on television. Jatin and Lalit, today, compose for films individually.