Missing the kings of melody

LAHORE: Although the Indian film industry has produced numerous music directors whose names remain enriched in memory, but there is one duo, which rightly deserves the title, ‘Kings of Melody’, and they are Nadeem Akhtar Saifi and Shravan Rathod, popularly known as Nadeem-Shravan.
In the 1990s and some years of the 2000s, Nadeem-Shravan was the most bankable brand name concerning film music. Although, they had started working in the 1980s, it was Mahesh Bhatt’s ‘Aashiqui’ in 1990, which brought them into the limelight. And then there was no looking back for them. Hit after hit.
Award after award and recognition after recognition. But what we need to sort out is that what was in their music, which has still kept their work enriched in the minds of the listeners. Their skillful use of melodies, their use of soulful playback singers and keeping true to their style were the reasons which made Nadeem-Shravan the most popular music directors of their time.
These two were responsible for taking the careers of great playback singers such as Kumar Sanu and Alka Yagnik to greater heights. Just like RD Burman was the force behind making Kishore Kumar a household name, it was the team of Nadeem-Shravan and Kumar Sanu, which created such music that is timeless and classic. These two have sold more music albums than any of their contemporaries. CDs and cassettes of films such as Aashiqui, Saajan, Phool Aur Kaante, Sadak, Deewana, Dilwale, Hum Hain Rahi Pyaar Ke, Dil Hai Ke Maanta Nahi, Raja, Raja Hindustani, Jeet, Pardes, Sirf Tum, Dhadkan, Kasoor, Raaz, Andaaz and Bewafaa have sold copies in millions, making Nadeem-Shravan the highest selling music directors of their time.
These record sales brought huge revenues to music companies whose owners used to line up in front of the houses of these two for getting their music. During the peak of their careers, film producers used to finalise Nadeem-Shravan for giving them music for their films even before finalising the scripts because they were sure that the music of their films would sell so much that they would be able to recover their budgets just from the music sales.
Around 24 producers at a time used to request the duo for composing the films of their music but Nadeem-Shravan only liked working with those filmmakers who would give them the freedom to compose music according to their own way and style. But in August 1997, a huge controversy did dent the brand name of Nadeem-Shravan when owner of T-Series, the largest music company of India, Gulshan Kumar was assassinated in Mumbai in broad daylight. Gulshan was the one responsible for giving Nadeem-Shravan their big break in Bollywood by giving them the opportunity to compose music for ‘Aashiqui’ and various other hits.
His murder sent shock waves across the film fraternity and relations between Mumbai’s notorious underworld and the film industry also came to surface. Some weeks after Gulshan’s murder, Mumbai Police announced that Nadeem Saifi was the prime suspect in the assassination. Nadeem at that time was on vacations with his family in the UK. According to police, Nadeem had a fallout with Gulshan because T-Series had not promoted his solo music album in 1997 properly, due to which he collaborated with underworld kingpin Abu Salem in Dubai and hired a private assassin to kill Gulshan.
Arrest warrants were issued for the ace music director and an extradition appeal was made to the British government for sending Nadeem back to Mumbai so that he could be arrested and put on trial. Fearing victimisation and arrest, Nadeem decided to remain in the UK and filed an asylum application with the British government. This episode dented the status of the music duo but producers continued signing both of them without any hiatus. Nadeem-Shravan used to collaborate with each other on telephone and internet for producing music that kept their brand intact.
Residing in London, Nadeem did not lose his Midas touch and composed soulful music, which made his enemies full of envy. In 2001, the High Court of England and Wales and the House of Lords rejected India’s extradition plea and declared Nadeem innocent. It also ordered the Indian government to pay 0.9 million pounds as compensation to Nadeem. Despite being cleared of all charges, the famed music director continued to live in London until 2006 when he relocated to Dubai and started his perfume business.
He has no plans to return to India because he still fears for his life and wants the Indian government, which lost all cases against him, to formally invite him to return to his homeland. What happened to such a talented musician such as Nadeem was quite unfair because Sanjay Dutt was accused of a bigger crime, treason with India and involvement in terrorist attacks, but Dutt was never haunted as Nadeem was. But the will and determination with which Nadeem stood his ground and continued churning out quality music is highly commendable and an inspiration for others.
In today’s world when we hear music of Indian films, we don’t find those soulful melodies associated with the Nadeem-Shravan brand name. Today’s music fails to make its long lasting impact on the hearts and minds of the listener because they lack melody. Such music is forgotten after one or two months and you don’t feel listening to such songs again and again.
Songs such as ‘hush hush hush…papa sleeping’ represent the degraded quality which Indian music directors are churning out nowadays. Most of the Indian films nowadays have only one or two hit songs which are forgotten in sometime but Nadeem-Shravan had the trademark of creating music albums, which had six to seven songs with all of them being chartbusters. Their music had such quality that you can go on listening to it time and time again.
Film producers used to be so happy with the music Nadeem-Shravan gave for their films that they used to gift luxurious cars to both of them. During their music careers, both were gifted 11 cars by producers minus their fees for composing timeless music. When they had completed the music of Subhash Ghai’s ‘Pardes’, which was a masterpiece, Ghai gifted them two luxurious cars even before listening to the music himself.
Ghai was so sure of his film’s music success that he gifted cars to his music directors even before the music had hit the shelves. What better example can we get of someone’s work quality. At the moment Nadeem continues to live in Dubai to oversee his business interests. He also gives some solo performances and still has producers lined up at his Jumeriah beach residence.
Shravan turned film producer and helped his sons Sanjeev-Darshan with their music careers. It is hoped that both of them would make a comeback and enthrall the listeners with their soulful melodies once again.