their compositions which had started exhibiting a decline (which is clearly noticeable in the movies released during the last phases of Jaikishan's lifetime and those released just after his demise). On the other hand, Jaikishan, Hasrat and Shankar all had denied, whenever quizzed on this topic, that there ever was any rift between them. In fact, according to Hasrat, the division of work was by mutual agreement to cope up with the heavy work load so that Shankar and Shailendra looked after one part of the work while Jaikishan and Hasrat on the other part but this division was not rigid; there was a lot of give and take between them even during this phase. Towards the end (just before Jaikishan's untimely demise), in several of their last movies such as Jane Anjane (1971), Andaaz (1971), Ankhon Ankhon Mein, Shankar and Jaikishan were known to be working together. In retrospect, it appears that the so-called rift between Shankar and Jaikishan was blown out of proportion by the media and vested interests and was used later to downgrade Shankar in his post-Jaikishan years. Since Shankar continued to support Sharda (post Sangam era) and even ghost-composed music for her film and non-film albums, it is said that Lata Mangeshkar became angry with him and discontinued singing for him. Whereas there may be some truth in this assertion, the other fact is that Lata Mangeshkar had stopped working with him after Sangam due to her anger against both Raj Kapoor and Shankar in making her sing "Budhha Mil Gaya" from Sangam which she was not keen as she did not feel comfortable with the lyrics of the song. Later on she sang in Sanyasi, Duniyadari and Atmaram. Nevertheless, she continued singing for Jaikishan even after Sangam and till the end. Standing in the industry S-J enjoyed an unrivalled position in the Hindi film industry. During their heyday and even toward the later part of their career, they were the highest paid music directors in the industry. Barring stray exceptions, they were paid more than the leading actors and the promotional material of their films would give them more prominence than anyone else. Jaikishan's death and SJ's post-Jaikishan era Jaikishan died on 12 September 1971 due to cirrhosis of liver, a disease caused by excessive consumption of alcohol. At the time of his death, the duo enjoyed an unparalleled popularity which was underlined by