Anu Malik
Anwar Malik, better known as Anu Malik (Hindi: अनु मलिक) is a music director in the Hindi (or Bollywood) film industry. He has won the National Award for his work in Refugee. His song "Chamma Chamma" from China Gate was used in the English movie Moulin Rouge, starring Nicole Kidman, and "Chunari Chunari" from Biwi No.1 was used in Monsoon Wedding. With his work in crossover films like Bride and Prejudice, he is among the few with international projects to his credit.
Early years
The son of veteran composer Sardar Malik, Anu Malik (Anwar Malik) made his debut in 1981 with Poonam. He composed for various films like Sohni Mahiwal and Ganga Jamuna Saraswathi, but he did not get the required attention, or recognition. One of the only producers that always returned to him were FC Mehra's Eagle Films. Other early films were:
- Mard
- Maa
- Maalamaal
- Love Marriage
- Aasman
- Jaal
- Allah Rakha
- Mujrim
It is said that his first film was Hunterwali 77.[1]
The rise
Anu Malik's time came in 1993. With Phir Teri Kahani Yaad Ayee, Jaanam, Sir, and Baazigar, Anu Malik had arrived. The next year, he won the FilmFare Award for Baazigar.
Recognition
In 2001, he exhibited his versatility, when his work was used in movies like Aks, Fiza, Filhal and Mujhe Kuch Kehena hai (among others).
Style of music
He is known to be the most versatile among the Indian music directors,[2][3] giving music to almost all kinds of films, without being repetitive, which is said to be the reason for his success.
Another specialty of Anu Malik is his choice of singers and lyricists. Unlike his peers, such as Nadeem Shravan, who tend to prefer mainstream singers like Kumar Sanu and popular lyricist Sameer in all their films, Anu Malik has always tried different singers and lyricists. He was the first to use singers like Kay Kay and Sonu Niigaam as lead singers in his films, thus adding variety. Many of his hit albums do not have one single lead lyricist, but instead a host of individual lyricists. Anu Malik sometimes uses singers such as S. P. Balasubramaniam and Chitra.
Plagiarism
Anu Malik, like many Bollywood music directors, is criticized for taking inspiration from other composers.[4] However, Anu Malik has sometimes paid the required credits on the album cover to the original composer. He has been criticized for plagiarizing The Godfather's theme, Titanic's theme, Summer of '42's theme, Laura Allen's "Slipe and Slide", Wham!'s "Last Christmas", The Beatles's "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)", Dean Martin's "The Man who Plays the Mandalino", Modern Talking's "Cheri Cheri Lady", Michael Jackson's "Thriller", Amr Diab's Tamally Maa'k, Mark Morrison's "Return of the Mack" and Deep Purple's "Child in Time" to name a few. He is one of the few Music directors have copied and Modified famous line-dance song Macarena, the song from Spanish background, twice in 2 different movies and both renditions are unique and worth listening to. Surprisingly, he did not have that many songs in 2007, although 2007 is the best year for Disco Dance type Hindi Music.
Alisha Chinai and Anu Malik
Anu's association with Alisha Chinai has also been very successful, delivering major hits such as "Sexy Sexy" from Khuddar; "Ruk Ruk Ruk" from Vijaypath; and the recent songs from No Entry. For some time, they did not work for each other, following Alisha's claim that Anu Malik mistreated her. But given Anu Malik's style of music, he needed a singer of Alisha's class and style. For Alisha, without Anu Malik, work was hard to come by, barring a few private albums, which in India pale in comparison to the film music popularity. Thus, their coming together was inevitable. Presently, they are together in the panel of judges on Indian Idol 3.
Indian Idol
Anu Malik was one of the 4 judges in the TV show with Alisha Chinai, Udit Narayan and Javed Akhtar. He was a judge in the first Asian Idol held in Indonesia, representing Indian Idol.
Love
In 2004, Anu Malik composed songs for a Kannada film entitled Love. The film has been dubbed in Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam after the success of the Kannada version.
Singer
Anu Malik also does playback singing for his compositions. Although he is not a mainstream singer, he has a unique style. For a person who was written off as a singer in his early days ("Julie Julie," for instance), he has evolved well, with songs like "Ek Garam Chaye ki Pyali" (Salman Khan), "Gori Gori" in Main Hoon Na or the recent "Meri Jane Jigar" in the film Deewane Huye Pagal.
While he sings entire songs for some movies, especially those starring Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar and even Shahid Kapoor (in Deewane Huye pagal he sang almost every song), very often one can hear him in the chorus, like in "Mehbooba Mehebooba" in the film Ajnabi, or "Tumse milke dilka ka..." for the film Main Hoon na, or even in his latest release, "Rockstar" in the film Humko Deewana Kargaye.
He is also known for his singing for his private albums popular among the masses like Dekho baarish ho rahi hai, Tera chehra, Dhua dhua and an English album, Eyes.
Awards
Anu Malik has won The National Film Award for Best Music Direction for the film Refugee in 2001, and won the Filmfare Best Music Director Award twice for Main Hoon Na (2004) and Baazigar (1993). He also got Special Jury Award (Filmfare) in 2000 for his outstanding contribution in music.
Discography
During the past two decades, he has created music for the following chart buster films:
- Sohni Mahiwal (1984) (This was not a chartbuster film but helped Anupama Deshpande win the Filmfare award)
- Ganga Jamuna Saraswati (1988)
- Jeete Hain Shaan Se (1988)
- Chamatkar (1992)
- Baazigar (1993)
- Main Khiladi Tu Anari (1994)
- Akele Hum Akele Tum (1995)
- Ram Jaane (1995)
- Diljale (1996)
- Virasat (1997)
- Border (1997)
- Ishq (1997)
- Kareeb (1998)
- Duplicate (1998)
- China Gate (1998)
- Baadshah (1999)
- Josh(1999)
- Refugee (2000)
- Badal (2000)
- Fiza (2000)
- Asoka (2001)
- Mujhe Kuch Kehna Hai (2001)
- Chori Chori Chupke Chupke (2001)
- Yaadein (2001)
- Aks (2001)
- Filhaal (2002)
- Ab Ke Baras (2002)
- LOC Kargil (2003)
- Saaya (2003)
- Main Hoon Na (2004)
- Murder (2004)
- Fida (2004)
- No Entry (2005)
- Humko Deewana Kar Gaye (2006)
- Zindaggi Rocks(2006)
- Jaan-E-Mann (2006)
- Umrao Jaan(2006)
- Undertrail (2007)
- Woodstock Villa (2008)(post production)
- Love Story 2050 (2008)(post production)
- Ugly and Pagli (2008)(filming)
- Maan Gaye Mughal-E-Azam (2008)(filming)
References
- ^ "Why can't we be original?". The Rediff Interview. 2003-06-02.
- ^ "Waqt". BBC Shropshire. 2005.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ "My Fundays". The Telegraph. 2006-12-27.
- ^ "Inspiration or Plagiarism?". Unacknowledged Inspirations of Anu Malik.