
Anu Malik, the Bollywood music director, who ruled the 90s music scene shares his birthday with Shah Rukh Khan (November 2, 1960). Unfortunately for Anu, Shahrukh Khan gets most of the coverage in the media on Nov 2; however his contribution to Indian cinema has been noteworthy.
Anu Malik’s notable work includes films like Refugee, Border, Baazigar, Murder, Main Hoon Naa, Judwaa and more. He won the Filmafare Best Music Director Award for Main Hoon Naa and Baazigar. He has even won a National Award for Best Music Direction for the film Refugee. Anu Malik is now seen judging music reality TV shows.
Subhash Ghai once said that Anu Malik is the only composer in the country who can create tunes for a song in 40 seconds.
AAnu Malik (aka Anwar Malik) never denied plagiarism, but despite being criticised for picking tunes from various sources, Malik understood quite well the requirements of commercial mainstream music and has delivered several hits.
Although Anu Malik was known for his commercial (many called it ‘chalu type’) music, he composed several melodious, semi-classical type music as well. One of those songs even fetched him a national award. Anu Malik, son of music composer Sardar Malik, got his first break with the film Poonam in 1981.
Few of his very popular songs have been used in recent Bollywood films. One of them is ‘Neendh Churayi Meri’ from the movie ‘Ishq’, which was used in ‘Golmaal Again’, and the movie ‘Judwaa 2’ in which songs from the original Judwaa (Oonchi hai building and Tan Tana Tan) were used.
Anu Malik’s peppy music was first noticed in the movie ‘Jeete Hain Shaan Se’, especially the songs ‘Julie Julie’ and Salam Seth. Its said that Anu Malik was chasing Mithun Chakraborty for quite some time (before the movie released) to make him listen to his music. Finally, after much efforts, Anu was able to meet Mithun and requested him to listen to his songs. Mithun-da instantly like his tunes which were later used in the film Jeete Hain Shaan Se.
Although Anu Malik was known for his peppy songs initially, he even composed several melodious songs. His compositions like Tere Dar Par Sanam upset his peers like ‘Nadeem-Shravan’ who accused him of copying their style of music.
Here’s another extremely popular song of Anu Malik, one that is played on 15th August and 26th January every year.
Here’s another semi-classical type music composed by Anu Malik for a recent film.