Anu Malik
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Anu Malik is one of the most well known & successful music directors in the Hindi Film industry or Bollywood. He has created lovely music for the last two decade which include chart buster films like Baazigar (1993), Main Khiladi Tu Anari (1994), Akele Hum Akele Tum (1995), Border (1997), Kareeb (1998) China Gate (1998) Refugee (2000), Fiza (2000), Asoka (2001), Aks (2001), Filhaal (2002), LOC-Kargil (2003), Main Hoon Na (2004), Murder (2004), Fida (2004) No Entry (2005) Humko Deewana kargaye (2006) and the latest releases, Jaaneman & Umrao Jaan.
He has won the National Award for his work in Refugee. His songs have also been used in other movies, His song Chamma Chamma from China Gate was used in the English movie Moulin Rouge starring Nicole Kidman. Chunari Chunari from Biwi No 1 was used in Monsoon Wedding Also, with his work in crossover films like Bride and Prejudice, he is among the few with international projects to his credit.
Zindaggi Rocks & Jaan-E-mann have released and been given good reviews. One of his most challenging projects Umrao Jaan is out and getting good reviews
Music
Early Years
The son of veteran composer Sardar Malik, Anu Malik made his debut in 1981 with Poonam. He composed for various films like Sohni Mahiwal and Ganga Jamuna Saraswathi which were a hits, but he didnt get the required attention, or recognition. One of the only producers who returned to him always were FC Mehra's Eagle Films. Other early films were Mard, Maa, Love Marriage, Aasman, Jaal, Allah Rakha, and Mujrim, where were all flops.
It is said that his first film was Hunterwali 77, but there isn't much evidence about that.
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. From then on, he has been among the top tier of Hindi Film music composers, delivering hits continuosly.
Recognition
Despite the success, he was not taken seriously, and often accused of being a copy cat. This changed with Border,and Refugee(for which he won the National Award).
In 2001 he exhibited his versitality, when he gave movies like Aks, Fiza, Filhal & Mujhe Kuch Kehena hai (among others), all loved by their respective audience, yet being exclusive in their kind.
Style of Music
He is known to be the most versatile among the Indian music directors, giving music to almost all kinds of films, without being repetitive, which is said to be the reason for his success.
Another speciality of Anu Malik is his choice of singers & lyricists. Unlike his peers like Nadeem Shravan, who tend to prefer main stream singers like Kumar Sanu & popular lyricist Sameer in all their films, Anu Malik has always tried different singers & lyricist. He was the first to use singers like KK, and Sonu Nigam as lead singers in his films, thus adding variety. Many of his hit albumns don't have one single lead lyrisict, instead a host of individual lyricist. Though only A. R. Rahman uses South Indian singers, Anu Malik still once in a while uses singers such as SPB and Chitra.
Plagiarism
Anu Malik, like most Indian music directors, is criticized for taking inspiration from other composers. But, Anu Malik pays the required credits on the album cover to the original composer most often.
For someone constantly being accused of plagiarism its his sheer natural talent that has carried him along for more than 25 years and still going strong working with "A-List" directors and producers while others like him have fell by the wayside.
Alisha Chinoy and Anu Malik
His association with Alisha Chinai has also been very successful, delivering major hits, such as Sexy Sexy from Khuddar, or 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, like Sunita Rao and Sumitra, which didn't help much. For Alisha, without Anu Malik, work was hard to come by, barring a few private albuns, which in India, pale in comparison to the film music popularity. Thus, their coming togather was inevitable.
Indian Idol
Anu Malik is one of the 3 judges in the TV show Indian Idol.
Love
In 2004, Anu Malik composed songs for a Kannada film entitled Love. The film has been dubbed in Tamil, Telegu, and Malayalam after the success of the Kannada version.
Singer
Anu Malik also does play back singing for his compositions. Though he is not a main stream singer, he has his unique style.
For a person who was written off as a singer in his early days, he has evolved well, with hit 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 Hue Pagal.
While he sings entire songs for some movies, especially those staring Salman, 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 dila ka... for the film Main Hoon na, or even in his latest release, Humko Deewana Kargaye in the song Rockstar.
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 (Main Hoon Na 2004 and Baazigar 1993).