MAINE KAHIN DEEWAANO KO DEKHA HAI , LEKIN ANU MALIK JAISA DEEWAANA DEKHA NAHI

In all my fifty years in my profession, I have come across any number of young men and women who have come to me before they could go anywhere else , and I still am trying to find out out why - Ali Peter John

Some of them were brilliant and I saw them rising and taking their places in high positions .

Some continued to struggle , but were happy with the way they were going and with the hope that they would make it big some day .

And there were some who were passionate and absolutely mad about their passion to make it and Anu Malik , the son of Sardar Malik and a nephew of the veteran lyricist , Dr Hasrat Jaipuri , was certainly one of them .

I first saw Anu Malik in the apartment of the well-known PRO Gopal Pandey and his elder brother , lyricist Anjaan who lived in the same apartment .

I saw how the two brothers were treating the young Anu like a nuisance and were looking for the easiest way to ask him to leave as they had their own work to do .

I knew that Anu was a deewaana and could do anything and bear any insults and any humiliation if he saw that it was going to help him .

I was a guest of the Pandey brothers and I was introduced to Anu by Anjaan just to see that Anu didn't waste any more of his time and Anu latched on to me . I gave him my address and forgot all about him .

The next morning at 9 30 in the morning , the bell rang and I saw Anu Malik carrying his harmoniam , with two other young man carrying tablas.

I was too stunned for words , but he just walked into my drawing room and started playing on his harmoniam with his friends giving him support on their tablas.

I told him not to make a lot of noise or he would be asked to leave by my own wife who was the Chairman of the Society which had formed a rule which said that no film activities would be allowed in the society .

But , instead of making less noise , Anu also started singing loud and I knew that was asking for trouble .

My wife requested me to ask Anu to leave as it didn't look good for the Chairman herself to break a rule of the society which she was basically formed by her.

It was a sad scene to see Anu and his men walking out of my gate , but I saw Anu smiling all the way . And if I thought I had seen the last of Anu Malik , I was being too optimistic .

The next morning when I reached my office at Express Towers at Nariman Point , I literally panicked when I saw Anu Malik sitting in front of my editor , Mr B K Karanjia and trying to play his harmoniam with the same two men sitting with him .

I rushed into my editor's cabin and saw him turning from pink to red and he finally spoke and told me , " why do you ask such mad people to come to my office ? He is absolutely mad .

I was just going to call the security or the police to see that he was thrown out ." I didn't want Anu Malik to face any more insults .

My editor who was a Parsi and knew very little or nothing about Hindi film music , asked me to write a paragraph about him in my column , but Anu Malik was not satisfied .

He wanted me to listen to some tunes he had composed . I took him to my canteen and made him sit and asked him to play but as soon as he started moving.

his fingers on his harmoniam , the manager , Mr Shetty came to me and said , "Aapne inko laaya isliye humne bitaaya , lekin ye band baaja yahan nahi chalega, inko aur kahin leke jaao."

It was the second time in two days that Anu Malik was being humiliated but he was still smiling and told me , " Ali Bhai , I am prepared for all this , but I will not give up till I succeed " .

I saluted his spirit to fight his way to success . And wondered how many more insults he must have faced .

I had an appointment with the renowned filmmaker J Om Prakash I his office at Santa Cruz . And I saw Anu standing with his harmoniam outside the entrance to Omji's office.

I told Anu that I had an appointment with Omji at 6 pm and what followed was something I couldn't imagine .

He kept pleading with me to allow him inside for only ten minutes and said , " main unko sirf ek dhun sunaaonga aur unki chutti kardoonga, aap mujhe sirf andar jaane do , baaki sab main dekh loonga.

" I thought it would be sensible if I told Omji about Anu wanting to meet him and Omji folded his hands and said ,. " Na Baba, woh nahi, koi aur chalega " .

I just told Anu that Omji had many back to back appointments and couldn't give him time and Anu said " kitne din hadkaayenge ye bade bade log , ek din toh Anu Malik in sab par chaa jaayega aur phir ye log Anu ko dhoondte reh jaayenge ". I saluted his optimism again.

His time finally came when he scored the music for two of Harmesh Malhotra's films , " Poonam" and "Aapas Ki Baat".

And it was the first time that I was asked to write about him Anu Malik had proved that he had the "dum" in him .

He had told me about his desire to do the music for a Manmohan Desai film. I casually mentioned his desire to "Manji " .

And I don't know what happened after my talking to " Manji " about Anu , but it was big news to me and the industry when Manmohan Desai signed Anu Malik to be the music director of his ambitious film " Mard" with Amitabh Bachchan , Amrita Singh and Dara Singh .

The music of the film was accepted by the public and even the critics and Anu was now a big player in the game of Hindi film music .

It was at this time that we had the Screen Awards and he wanted to sing an English song written composed , and sung by him . I got the permission to include his performance at the show and he did it .

Success however kept spoiling him . He started lifting and plagiarising tunes and even entire compositions from other composers like A R Rahman , Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and from popular Hollywood singers and composers .

He even interfered in the lyrics and had the temerity to ask renowned poets like Dr Rahat Indori ( he died last year ) to lift lines from some of the best known poets of the Urdu language , which most song writers refused to do and when they refused , he wrote some lyrics himself . Success had certainly gon to his head .

He could have still been one of the leading composers , had he had control over his impulses .

He first got into a major controversy when the singer , Alisha Chinai acused him of sexual misappropriation .

The controversy got Anu into trouble when the media of the time picked up the story and added spice to it .

He came to me for support , but I was sure that he must have played some dirty tricks and so handed him over to my editor who was a lady .

He kept calling her " "mother" and "mummy " and had a favourable write up , but he was not going to change easily .

I had sent a fifteen year old girl from Indore , Ms Aditi Banerjee who wanted to be a singer .

I told Anu not to play his games with the little girl and he swore that he wouldn't . But , after just one meeting with him , Aditi and her parents left Mumbai and didn't even contact me again .

It was only some years later that Aditi's parents told me about how Anu had misbehaved with Aditi and the girl was in such a state of shock for two years that the parents decided to get her married and the dreams of a potential singer were crushed .

Some three years ago , two young singers , Sona Mahapatra and Neha Bhasin exposed him in the MeToo movement which had a very bad impact on his career .

He was dropped from a reality show , but was brought back . He however has no assignments on hand now .

He is sixty and still has a long way to go . But he will have to change in more ways than one . Will he ?

ZINDAGI MEIN MAUKE KABHI KABHI MILTE HAI. JO LOG AISE MAUKO KO HAATH LEKAR AAGE BADTE HAI , UNKA BHALA HOTA HAI . JO MAUKO KA GALAT FAAIDAA UTAATE HAI , UNKA KABHI ACCHA HOTA NAHI AUR HO NAHI SAKTA YE WAQT ANU KO SAMBAL NE KA AUR SUDARNE KA HAI. KYA WAQT KE SAATH ANU SUDAR GAYA HOGA ?