“I Have Come Back Like A Tsunami With My Latest Music Video Single Monday”- Anu Malik

Jyothi Venkatesh

Anu Malik is all set to stage a comeback as a music director cum singer cum lyricist cum reality show judge after a period of what he admits was inertia when he was hauled in to a traumatic hiatus of almost ten months after he was pronounced a perpetrator of MeToo movement. Recently after making all of us wait for nearly two hours at the office of Tips at Khar, Anu Malik sauntered in to talk to us about his latest musical rap album called Monday, written, composed and sung by him. What’s more Anu has also faced the camera for the music video titled ironically as Monday.

At the outset, Anu said that the single album Monday was being released on a Monday. Talking about how he gave the nod to the album, he said, “For the last 10 months, I went in to pain when accusations were hurled at me. I do not want to go into those accusations. Though I had a lot of films on hand and was busy with reality shows, I who had won 3 national awards had to sit at home all of a sudden and phone calls also had stopped. I felt that I was all alone since no one was talking to me. As it is, I was never a social media guy or a marketing person.”

Anu continues, “I had grown up in poverty and also seen a lot of ups and downs and hence I always make it a point to connect to the common man and always take success as a gift bestowed on my by God. Anyone else in my place could have slipped into depression or started taking alcohol to get over it. I had always considered my work as worship and I had no work. It was an alarming situation for me. The word depression is always dangerous and the only solace to me was my wife Anju, besides my daughters Anmol and Ada. I told myself that I was the same Anu Malik whose three songs had been sung by the great Mohammad Rafi”.

Anu adds that he also told himself that singers like Ashaji, Kishore Kumar etc earlier and Arijit and Sonu Nigam these days had also sung for him and he had sung from actors like Amitabh Bachchan to Ayush to Varun Dhawan for all. “I did not let anger take over me but adopted a Zen like attitude and became very calm. I became very quiet. I have always believed that it is work along that gets you work and you can’t get work by asking for work. I started composing a lot of songs at home for my music bank. I did not want to compose sad songs, because I did not want anyone to pity me. I decided to compose songs keeping in mind the youth today and started writing the lyrics Na Kaam Na Koyi Paisa Na Mere Life Mein Chehra Katrina Jaisa.”

Anu says that he made his work his beloved. “My song is a rap song but it has nothing at all to do with the rap song in the film Gully Boys. People used to scoff at me and tell me that since I have turned 60, I should retire but I refused. For me, it is not just about money and bank balance or awards now. I decided to come back as a Tsunami and made Rameshji and Kumarji of Tips Music listen to my track and they decided to come up with the video Monday.”

Anu is of the opinion that bad times do not take away something away from you but surely gives you something. “I was never arrogant though I did have an attitude of my own. You can say that I was brash as well as truthfully blunt. I felt very wanted all of a sudden after a long period of hibernation. To tell you the truth, I have not changed at all. The period of inertia that I went through taught me that nothing is bigger than God. The media is very smart and they can easily make out whether I am speaking with my tongue or from my heart. As a judge, I was always transparent and never diplomatic because I always used to say black is black and white is white. After I started receiving several phone calls after my face was shown in the ads of the singing reality show Super Star Singer as a judge, I felt very wanted.”

Anu says that he felt very vindicated when a young girl came to him with her husband and told him that  though she did not like him when he had told her that she should take her education seriously and leave singing, because she did her graduation after that. Anu added that though as particular music director had yelled at him and told him to get out of the recording room where he had gone to see him because he did not like his face, he did not start hating the composer but instead honed his talent and waited for the right time. Recently Anu Malik recorded songs for a Marathi film called Aasood which was on the plight of the farmers in Maharashtra today and did not charge for it from the producers and gifted a tractor worth 5 lakhs to the farmers.

Anu, who is not against remixes but says that it is request to music directors who go in for remixes to credit the name of the music directors whom had worked on the original score, says that he is happy that now there are different platforms for music directors and also there are filmmakers who know that he wants to create good music. “The world is changing now and I am glad that web series are also emerging in a big way.

Anu confesses that when he looks back at his career of 42 years, he feels that he has not done any work at all. “Whether it was J P Dutta or Rajkumar Hirani, I do not think any director has really tapped or exploited to the hilt my potential. I made my debut as a music director in the 80’s with producer-director Mohan Chhoti’s film Dhoti Lota Chowpatty and have composed for over 400 films till date. Music direct ors like Rajkumar Hirani, Sharad Kataria and Maneesh Sharma have helped me a lot among the new directors by having confidence in me”.

Anu unabashedly confesses that his music has changed over the years. “There is a lot of difference between what I composed in the film Dhoti Lota Chowpatty and what I have composed in my latest single Monday. People tell me that my song is cool and out of the box. I am happy. I have done my best in films like Viraasat. Judwa, Umrao Jaaan etc. I feel that the industry should tap more of me. I am not just a composer who sits on his console and belts out music. I carry my harmonium even today and I am hungry for work and waiting for producers to knock at my doors with work.

“I feel that original creative work should come back. I am waiting for great work to come to me. I am proud of my composition for Rajkumar Hirani in Munnabhai MBBS. When Vidhu and Raju told me to compose a sensual item number set in the hospital, though the situation confuse me, I took up the challenge and set out with my creative juices and composed Dekh Le Aankhon Mein Aankhen Daal. When I sang the mukda, Raju said that he got the song that he actually wanted for the situation. That was my triumph as a music director,” Anu Malik signs off, with a flourish of his own in his own in inimitable style.

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Tags: Bollywood, Bollywood News, Bollywood Updates, Television, Telly News, Anu Malik, Tsunami, Singer