Vishal Bhardwaj, who turned 61 on August 4, could have chosen to be a state-level cricketer if he so wished. It was always a toss-up between a career in cricket and music. Vishal chose music. His father, Ram Bhardwaj, was a lyricist who never got his dues from an industry that worships only the rising sun.
Thank God for Gulzar, who discovered Vishal’s talents as a musician. He needed a new music composer after the sudden demise of R.D. Burman. Vishal was God-sent. And to Vishal, the support of Gulzar seemed invaluable, precious, and extremely important.
The first film by Gulzar for which Vishal composed music was Maachis. It immediately ignited a fire in the charts. Lataji’s ‘Paani paani re’ was mesmerizing. Vishal also did a fine music score for Gulzar’s political parable Hu-Tu-Tu. But the best song in the film was sacrificed on the editing table.
That was the story of Vishal’s career as a music director. Whenever he has poured his heart and art into a score, it has been given a raw deal. How do we explain what happened to Vishal’s fabulous music in Vinay Shukla’s Godmother? The fine blend of Gujarati folk sounds and contemporary innovations should have been widely applauded. All it got was the National Award for best music. And then the music of Godmother was forgotten, even by the music company which marketed the music.
Even today, when I listen to Lataji singing ‘Maati re maati’ in Godmother, I get goosebumps over my goosebumps. How does Vishal pack so much beauty into his tunes?
Vishal laughs. “You know my very first song, ‘Ae hawaa’, was composed for Lata Didi for a film that never got made. I still remember how my hands shook, and my knees trembled when Didi came for the recording.”
When Vishal had introduced himself to the Nightingale as a new composer, she asked him to tape the tune and send it over. Vishal did just that. “The hours that I waited for her to make up her mind were sheer agony. She finally called and said she liked the tune, and she’d sing it.”
‘Ae hawa’ was finally included in the cassette of Maachis, though the song was never picturized. Then came Sunny Deol’s aborted production London, for which Vishal composed some of his finest songs ever. I have heard the songs in London, and they’re spellbinding. Tragically, neither the music nor the film ever got released.
Then came Subhash Ghai’s brother Ashok Ghai’s Sham Ghanshyam. Without his permission, they invited another composer to supplement Vishal’s output.
Back then, one musical misadventure after another! Perhaps Vishal was made for another career… Or a combination of two…
