Rapid
Fire
SAMEER
Light at tunnel's end
The celebrated lyricist of the early 90s may
well have outlived his glorious heydays, gone through some trying times and
even been at the receiving end of brickbats, but he insists his skills and
determination are still intact. So do we see him return to form, soon? Read
on...
You’ve been the leading lyricist
in the early 90s. Every big film mentioned your name in its credits. The
music directors changed but you went from success to more success. Alas,
not any longer...
You’re right, I was the leading lyricist in the 90s. I wrote the songs
for all the leading music directors, for all the big films. The market was
flooded with my lyrics and I was on top of the world. For quite some time,
human nature got the better of me and I started believing I was second to
none. I thought it was part of showbiz to show off but I realised I was wrong.
Soon, a number of problems came my way. The real problem started with the
arrest of music director Nadeem. We were the most successful team, Nadeem,
Shravan and I. The arrest of Nadeem and all the controversies gave us a blow
from which it was not easy to recover at all. For several months there was
no work and we, Shravan and I, didn’t know what to do. Then we seriously
started work with RK Films’ Aa Ab Laut Chale, Rishi Kapoor’s first
film as a director. Rishi could have replaced all three of us. He had only
recorded two songs. But he had faith enough in us. We continued working for
the films that were left incomplete but that was not enough to be saleable,
to be known as a success. It was the kind of crisis we had least expected.
And even as we struggled, other music directors and lyricists sprang up from
nowhere. There was music everywhere but little of our kind of music.
It was one of the most painful periods in my life, more painful than when
I was a jobless lyricist. You know it hurts very badly when the same people
who salaamed and saluted you when you were a success, refuse to look at you
when you are in a soup.
Your other favourite music directors, Anand-Milind,
with whom you began your career, with Ab Aayega Mazaa, also faced a slump
at the same time. Didn’t it affect you?
Naturally, it did, very badly. We have always worked together. We were somewhere
on the top of the world, when suddenly there was a slump and Anand-Milind
didn’t get work or didn’t get the kind of work they deserved. To
a certain extent I think they too were to be blamed. They didn’t take
the intense competition seriously enough and did nothing to fight back. The
result was they lost a lot of work and I did, too, as a result. They are
very talented composers. They have all the qualities needed to make good
music directors but they will have to fight back and not sit back and watch
all the other music directors far less talented than them walking away with
all the films. The rat race has hotted up, and only the fittest will survive.
You’d once vowed never to work with music director
Anu Malik again. You were in your heydays, then, and Anu was down in the
dumps. But you have patched up with Anu now. What happened then? What happened
now?
Blame it all on the human mind. There’s no predicting what it will do,
sometimes. Yes, we had some misunderstandings and I had said that I would
not work with Anu ever. But then what’s wrong in patching up? How long
can you go on cursing one another and praying for one another to go to hell?
It was something that my late father Anjaanji taught me and inspired me to
follow.
He said the most important thing to survive in this world of cut-throat
competition is to try and be good to everyone. You never know which man will
be of help to you or when. It took me some time to learn but I did. We were
hot-headed youngsters then. Now we have matured and realised these small
misunderstandings and quarrels do us no good. So we did the reasonable thing
— we patched up. We have already worked on some good films lik Soldier
and Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain. We are working on some more. We have a
perfect understanding, so there should be no problems. We hope to collaborate
on some good music together.
How do you react when some of your rivals and critics
call your lyrics pedestrian, tukbandi, just a jumble of words strung to
order?
I used to react to critics at one time. Now I don’t. I just do my work
the way I know best. Let people say what they want. How can I stop them from
talking? It hurts, no doubt, when you are criticised just because you are
successful. But I think taking criticism as it comes in your stride is better
than reacting, which will only make my critics and rivals feel more important.
Others say you copy some of your father, Anjaan’s
poems for the songs you write now...
My father was my guide, no doubt. I would not be here without him. He
didn’t want me to be a lyricist because he knew the struggle we had
to go through to keep going, to make a living. But once he knew I was not
going to give up he asked me to go ahead and make it in my own way. That’s
just what I do.
Do you feel insecure when work’s hard to come
by?
But naturally. I was a great success, now I am not. I do feel insecure but
then isn’t everyone in the industry insecure? Especially we creative
people are prone to feeling insecure because we have still to get the right
sort of treatment when it comes to the good things in life, money for instance. |
