Shri Raajesh Johri
Accomplished lyricist Shri Raajesh Johri passed away on Wednesday, March 1st, 2017. He was 63.
Johri had come to Mumbai as a 20-year-old from Uttar Pradesh in 1950s. Today, most of us are familiar with his work from the 1990s, both in Indipop and advertising jingles. He had penned popular songs like Suneeta Rao’s ‘Pari Hoon Main’, ‘Sa Ni Dha Pa’ by Colonial Cousins and the album Tere Bina by Abhijeet.
Along with soulful songs, the gifted poet also wrote jingles for many memorable AD films. The famous Prestige pressure cooker jingle, ‘Jo Biwi Se Karein Pyaar, Woh Prestige Se Kaise Karein Inkaar!’ was written by Johri in the 80s. Interestingly, Johri also gave his voice to it, like he did to a lot of other jingles that he wrote over three decades. The Nirma bathing soap song, ‘Tum Husn Pari, Tum Jaan-e-Jahan, Tum Sabse Haseen, Tum Sabse Jawan; Saundarya sabun Nirma,’ was another popular jingle written by Shri Johri in the 90s. Recently, Johri had been working on an album with the ghazal duo Bhupinder and Mitali.
We at SWA, deeply mourn the demise of Shri Raajesh Johri and pray for his soul to rest in peace. We bid him a goodbye with the following lines:
“वो फूल ना अब तक चुन पाया, जो फूल चढ़ाने है तुझ पर!”