Shravan of dard bhare melodies!

Because singer Anuradha Paudwal had highly recommended composers NadeemShravan Noidabased Gulshan Kumar then rising musiclabel boss of TSeries heard the soundtrack of their film Baap Numbri Beta Dus Numbri 1990He was impressed enough to buy off music rights from the filmrsquos producers Samir Hingora and Hanif Kadawala of the then huge Magnum VideosFilms But Samir and Hanif flatly refused Gulshan perhaps took it to heart and swore to give NadeemShravan a separate break through his record labelOnly NadeemShravan insisted it shouldnrsquot be a film Over 16 years before that with hundreds of songs in their ldquobankrdquo theyrsquod scored music for 21 soundtracks None of which had done anything for their careersNadeem and Shravan composed its musicItrsquod have to be a ldquoprivate albumrdquo NadeemShravan proposed passing on to Gulshan the tracks lsquoNazar ke saamne jigar ke paasrsquo lsquoDil hai ki manta nahinrsquo lsquoMain duniya bhula doongarsquo and lsquoDheere dheere se meri zindagi mein aanarsquo Just relook at that playlist Evidently Gulshanrsquos gain was loss for shortsighted producers Samir and Hanifboth of whom featured later in the Sanjay Dutt illegal arms hoarding case related but later delinked to the 1993 Bombay blasts This transition phase of commercial Hindi cinema from late rsquo80s is generally perceived as a murky period with fundingfinancing obtained from darkdubious sources Actor Saurabh Shukla also cowriter of the ultimate Mumbai mafia movie Satya once theorised to me that the bizarreregressive aestheticssensibilities of a bulk of Bollywood then probably originated from their top patronsthe underworld itself Hard to draw a definite link That the mainstream rsquo80s spilling over substantially were a crappy decade is undeniable I guess Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak QSQT 1988 changed peoplersquos sampling tastes a bit Including its soundtrack of course As did Maine Pyar Kiya MPK 1989 Director Mahesh Bhatt it seems lapped up NadeemShravanrsquos bank that Gulshan had been sitting on He decided to use the songs in Aashiqui 1990barring the track lsquoDil hai ki manta nahinrsquo that he used in his film by the same name the following year Except Gulshan and NadeemShravan had a pact when they first shook handsthat their photographs would appear on the album cover Regardless This is how movie buffs have always known Nadeem Saifi and Shravan Rathod by their faces from soundtrack sleeves Which isnrsquot true for any composer from roughly the same time or any other say Uttam Singh Gadar Dil To Pagal Hai or for that matter AnandMilind QSQTRaamlaxman MPKDonrsquot know if this practice of placing the manufacturerrsquos mug on a product predates the MDH Masala man Dharampal Gulati But wersquove also always known the late Tseries founder Gulshan from album covers and now opening slates of films produced by his entertainment company This is obviously unlike any other music label I knowAashiqui at the time of release held the record for the highest selling desi soundtrack everaround 20 million cassettes sold never mind how many mixed tapes made NadeemShravan got associated with the word as if it was a genre called melody Howrsquos that different from tunecompositionHonestly I donrsquot knowmelody khao khud jaan jao In a Bollywood sense we know one when we hear one In my head itrsquos usually a slow moving song with a husky male and a highpitched female voice melodiously singing over flutedholakshehnaiviolinssantoor The melancholic lyrics are in praise of love or the loveror the lover lost and the love never foundIt reflects the default Indian male condition A reason rsquo90s melodies universally enthrall smalltown North India still As it did the lonely hearts in Bombayrsquos dance bars once As opposed to nightclubs that are all about getting it onA synthesised sound more suited to the latter especially became a mainstream counterpoint in the rsquo90swith satellite TV music videos a shortlived nonfilm music scenewith Alisha Chinai at one end although Altaf Raja at the otherand the introduction of AR Rahman in 1992NadeemShravan continued to score with their chocolatey melody still delivering superhits like Saajan Dhadkan Pardes Raja Hindustani Of the twoand theyrsquod been together since college years in Bombayit appears the relatively subdued Shravan was more rooted to music by viraasat inheritanceHis father Pt Chaturbhuj was an exponent of dhrupaddhamar his brothers Vinod Roopkumar are popular musicianssingers his sons SanjeevDarshan are composers As for their steep decline post a Himalayan rise Shravan said you get a 10year success periodthey can come and go at youth or old age Nazar evileye is also how both Nadeem and Shravan separately diagnosed their fadefall Nadeem was named prime accusedsuspect later acquitted in multiple UK courts in the 1997 murder of his mentor Gulshana terrifying daylight act of such underworld lsquotashanrsquo outside a Shiva temple in Andherithat it knocked the movieindustry off of its pants Nadeem said hersquod prayed at the Mecca for global success before Aashiqui which had come trueAdvised against it by his son Shravan visited Haridwarrsquos Kumbh Mela actively welcomedadvertised by the state jostling among maskless millions at the peak of Corona pandemic He contracted COVID19 and passed away Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper