NADEEM : FIRE AND BRIMSTONE
He’s firing on all cylinders - very characteristically. The years spent in forced exile has mellowed the man, who once shot his mouth off at everyone, but the hurt is as transparent as the confidence in his music. We start on how he looks back at the long period of his enforced stay away from his country and Nadeem says, “I still feel cheated, disillusioned by the system that has let me down so badly. What do I say when respected organisations like the House of Lords as well as the courts in both U.K. and India found all charges against me baseless? On the other hand, there is open evidence of foul play, miscarriage of justice and manipulation of evidence. I do not think that any man has been wronged as much as I have been in the annals of history!”
Nadeem is also bitter about the silent spectators - the media - who went along with the injustice. “But they will all have to answer to God one day!” he thunders. “They have kept a musical man like me away from his country, his parents and his brother and all his friends. A musician is a pure soul. He cannot connive against anyone.I was the ghar ki bahu who was made out to be a prostitute. How could I have conspired to murder a man who was a mentor and an elder brother to me?”
But the composer is confident that things are improving. “Inshallah, my stained reputation will soon be cleared. There are intrepid and bold journalists, who are coming out in the open on television. They are not biased cowards but crusaders for truth and will take our country’s journalistic standards to new heights.” He even relates how his partner and friend of decades Shravan was pressurised “but had the courage to fight and speak out too.”
What about his splitting with Shravan for about two years? And what does he incidentally have to say that in the same phase three other music duos - Jatin-Lalit, Dilip Sen-Sameer Sen and Nikhil-Vinay - also split? “I am like Shravan’s elder brother and I was hurt when I heard that he had said a few things. But Shravan clarified all my doubts with many affidavits.So in 99 per cent of such cases, it is others who come in to contaminate the healthy relationship between partners and bring a rift between them.”
Rewinding to the past, Nadeem waited till he was vindicated by the British courts before beginning to compose music again in 2000, beginning with Dhadkan. But why did he once again go off music in 2005?
“I was cheesed off because even in my career, I never got justice. Awards are very important to me, and Dhadkan and Raaz were among my scores that did not get a single award, showing that there was bias even in music, which should be about harmony!”
But in these inactive four years, did he keep making music? “Of course! Music is my life, I can burst into a song even now. Allah has made all my nerve centres like the strings of sitars.” The sense of outrage returns and he requests me to hear a composition about his own feelings - Insaaf dena hoga, India.
He admits that he misses working with his partner Shravan and lyricist Sameer. “Ours was amazing teamwork. Sameer is the most prolific writer we will ever see, who writes equally beautifully on any situation. And now we are going to be Number One again!”
While Dharmesh Darshan’s Bhanwara was the first film they signed, it is Do Knot Disturb that has made it to the finishing line. “We will rock again. We are not saying we are coming back. We are back! And while we have given very ‘today’ music with our melody in Do Knot Disturb, this is an exception. The next time people want anything other than the deep melody we are known for, we will ourselves say, “Please Do Not Disturb!”
Nadeem regrets that no music today touches the heart. “Everyone is composing for below the belt! Only M.M.Kreem has been able to touch my heart with some songs recently. We are proving to the West that we do not respect our own culture. What we should actually do is tell them, “Hey! You listen to our music, man! We don’t want your stuff!”
While admitting that there are amazing new singing talents, including in his score, Nadeem stresses that the previous generations of singers are the real “voices of India”. “They will never be displaced. Lataji recorded for me in Bewafa - she was so down to earth when I taught her the song on the phone.”
So what next? “Inshallah, our film with Suneel Darshan will start soon and Bhanwara, which has fabulous music, will release shortly.”
In the 12 years he has been away, a record number of new filmmakers have made their marks. Would he like to score music for any of them? “Why not? But the media has created an aura of fear around me, so maybe they are afraid to approach me! Yes, I do choose my films and the people with whom I work, but that’s because the sensibilities need to match. I am sure that we will get along with all the good filmmakers if they approach us.”

SHRAVAN : LOYAL TOUCH
Your friendship with Nadeem dates back to your teens and your long struggle before the mammoth success you saw together. But even best friends can split and so did you in 2006.
I don’t think you can call it a split. At that time, Nadeem started some business and I thought that I should try my hand at film production. Hum logon ne ek gap le liya tha for two or three years to do things we wanted to do other than in music. But now we are back to what we do best!

How have you taken his long exile?
Nadeem is completely innocent, bhaiyya. He is such a sharif insaan and a good composer. For him as well as for us as a team, this phase has been like a test - God’s testing us. It’s been over 12 years. But then Lord Ram went through 14 years of banwas.

Nadeem has also spoken to the media about his being discriminated because he is from a minority community. Do you agree?
I understand his fear of a religious bias after everything he has been through. But we are trying to get justice. Hum log koshish kar rahe hai. We are pleading with the authorities to find and apprehend the real culprits so that his name is cleared and Nadeembhai can return not just to music but also to India.

As a working team, you had a hit streak again from 2000 to 2005.
Yes, in the 30-odd films we did with Nadeem operating from London, most were successful.

But Do Knot Disturb is different from classic N-S.
I would not say that it is different. In keeping with what’s happening in music today, which has changed in the last three years and becoming more visual, we have only changed the sound and orchestration, just like we had experimented in 1997 in Subhash Ghai’s Pardes. But songs like Don’t ever leave me and Zulfein khol khal ke are classic Govinda-N-S combinations in the Saajan Chale Sasural pattern. But yes, we do prefer our old style and we will be back with that soon, when the right script comes along. We have sufficient to indicate that all over the world, people of all ages are missing vintage Nadeem-Shravan.

Do you expect to see mega-success again?
Of course, bhaiyya. We promise you great music again.

SAMEER : TEAM SPIRIT
What are your feelings on the return of Nadeem-Shravan with Do Knot Disturb?
It is very heartening. Nadeem and Shravan still have the same fire they had when we began working together two decades ago. While they had signed Dharmesh Darshan’s Bhanwara about a year ago, the film is stuck for some technical reasons. But when Vashu (Bhagnani) had gone to Dubai to shoot for Kal Kissne Dekha, he met Nadeembhai, who is based there now and expressed his wish to work with him once again after Jeena Sirf Mere Liye. David Dhawan had also worked with us earlier in Saajan Chale Sasural. Vashu also wanted a fast composer who could finalise the score in one trip to Dubai.

Will your new innings work as well as their earlier ones?
The music of Do Knot Disturb has got a good response and the score sees a different colour from N-S because a contemporary touch bahut zaroori tha. From 1990 to 1997, our team had struck gold again and again. Nadeembhai is keen on coming back to music now as well to India. And there will be no stopping us!

In your 550-odd films, your team with N-S has been the most popular, though you also had multiple hit scores with Anand-Milind, Jatin-Lalit, Anu Malik and Himesh Reshammiya.
(Smiles) True, Nadeem-Shravan and I as a team smashed so many records and won so many awards in the ’90s. When Nadeembhai began working in 2000 with Dhadkan, it was the same story again. Yes, all the music directors you mention have been my support system for 20 years. But today things have changed - to maintain one’s standing is not easy because of a shift in generations. In my time, I had a good rapport with even senior composers like Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Bappi Lahiri. But today’s music makers prefer people of their ages.

Which are the other films you are doing now?
I have Kajraare, Love Isshtory and Ishq Unplugged with Himesh, six films with Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy including Nikhil Advani’s Jaane Kahaan Se Aayi Hai, Delhi Safari and Patiala House and some other assignments like Krantiveer 2. With Nadeem-Shravan, I am doing Suneel Darshan’s new film as well.