I will roar back with Border 2 - Anu Malik

Bet on the peerless Anu Malik to enchant you while he is on stage. He is rhetoric, poetic and mellifluous, all at the same time. Top management students from K J Somaiya College in Mumbai, experienced this at a function where he was invited as a guest speaker. Kick-starting the event with interesting anecdotes from his early life, Anu soon displayed his musical prowess. He asked the students to provide him with a random sentence. ‘Kuch toh hum kahenge, Kuch toh tum sunogi,’ replied a student in response to Anu’s question. Anu shut his eyes, jogged the lines in his mind trying to create an apt melody and within a minute rendered it in a beautiful manner that had the entire audience erupt into a rapturous applause. That’s Anu Malik for you – spontaneous to the core. Give him a line, and he will have a tune ready for you in seconds. And mind you, he does this all in front of you, far away from the cushy confines of his studio. For a man who is so insanely talented and literally ruled the music industry in the 90s to keep a low-profile these days is a bit puzzling. But yes, the saving grace for him of late has been the peppy Babli Badmaash from Shootout at Wadala. Quiz Anu Malik about his long absence and he says, “I have been working on a lot of new constructive ideas which I will share when they bear fruits.” What’s even more baffling is that filmmakers with whom he has had a super - successful association like the Bhatts, Rajkumar Hirani and Shah Rukh Khan haven’t repeated him in their subsequent projects instead settling in for other music directors. Reacting to this, the ace music director avers, “I feel when things go wrong, people move away. I have had a successful collaboration with all these people. Be it Bhatt saab, Rajkumar Hirani or Shah Rukh, all these are great people and God-willing, we should come back together. I leave it to God.” As they say, patience bears sweet fruit; we can only hope that Anu’s long awaited return will bring back sweet memories of an era gone by. The good news for music aficionados is that he has been signed on by veteran filmmaker J P Dutta for Border 2. “Dutta saab was the one who made me what I am today. He called me up and said I making Border 2 and I want you to compose music for it. I am thankful to him for that as it is Border that gave me world-wide recognition and the coveted National Award. Wait and watch, I will roar back with my music again this time,” says a confident Malik. Anu’s absence from Sony Entertainment Television’s current ongoing show Indian idol Junior has also not gone unnoticed. “See I had given six years of my life to the show and I guess it was time to move on. But I am sure the new judges are doing a great job,” reflects Anu, when asked about his absence from the current season, also admitting to the fact that he has been inundated with fan-mails saying that they miss his honest and blunt comments on the series. For the frank and honest person that he is Anu graciously accepts that some of his compositions have been inspired. “Yes, I have been inspired but show me one music composer who is original. No one except God is original. Even the great R D Burman’s Chura Liya Hain Tumne was inspired from the movie This Must Be Belgium. But that doesn’t take away any credit from him. Even today, you won’t find a great composer like him,” he quips. We agree…Anu!!!