Chhaayaageet #31 - “I played what you wanted. Now let me play my favorite song.”
He sits at the shop every day, minding the family business. ”It will be yours to run one day. The sooner you start sitting at the shop the better”, his father’s words.
They have a pet shop that sells love birds and fish. Every day, he dutifully leaves his room in a Bombay chawl and goes to work at the shop. His heart goes somewhere else.
He dreams of being a writer or a lyricist in films. There is ample time in the day to write scripts, poems, and ghazals.
He’s made friends with a violinist who plays in an orchestra ensemble. The violinist dreams of being a music composer. They meet at the pet shop often. Two friends sharing their art and dreams with each other.
One day the pet shop poet shares his poetry with the violinist. The violinist listens to it and advises: “Your poetry is too deep for the common man to understand. Don’t become a lyricist. Just focus on scripts.”
Time goes by. Love birds and fish are selling well. But the pet shop poet’s dream of becoming a writer is a struggle. The violinst’s struggle is more painful.
One day he confesses to his friend: ”My dream of becoming a composer is being ruined. I don’t have a lyricist. RD Burman had Anand Bakshi and Gulzar. Shankar Jaikishan had Shailendra. I don’t have anyone.”
The pet shop poet replies: ”You told me not to write songs, not to become a lyricist. Yet here you are depressed because you don’t have a lyricist. Let me write songs with you.”
From that day onwards, they form a team. They work at the pet shop until the wee hours of the morning, writing and composing songs, imagining possible situations in films - romance, estrangement, lovers on a moonlit night, etc. Together they build a stock of close to 200 songs.
The violinist starts doing the rounds, knocking on doors of filmmakers. He would be called for auditions. He plays whatever they’ve asked him to compose, and then he would say: “I played what you wanted. Now let me play my favorite song.”
He would play it, and they would comment: ”It’s too long.” OR “It’s a bit tiring.” OR “It’s too slow.” OR “It’s a bit sloppy” OR Why don’t you change this or that?
No one gets his song. No one understands it. Nobody wants it. Despite the criticism he is not ready to change even one note in it.
Until he has a meeting with this filmmaker, for whom songs are an integral part of the story, who has himself composed music for one of his films.
After the audition, the violinist makes the customary request, expecting to hear similar criticism. The filmmaker hears the song and is speechless.
“Can you play it again?”
What? The violinist is in disbelief. This guy wants to hear his song again, when others could barely sit through it once!
He plays it again. And the filmmaker asks for it again, and one more time.
”It is good”, the filmmaker gives his verdict.
That’s it?!!
They meet again over time. The filmmaker listens to many songs in the violinist’s stock repertoire. However, nothing is being finalized. There is no offer coming forth from the filmmaker.
Six months go by. By now, the violinist is getting desperate, and getting tired of the struggle. One day, feeling very dejected, he calls the filmmaker.
”I would really like you to listen to this song I have.”
The filmmaker detects the sadness in his voice.
”You sound very sad. What happened? Come over to my office.”
The violinist shows up as suggested.
”I have only the first antara, but I want you to listen to it.”
The filmmaker asks him to play it again. And again, and again. One more time. And again. He asks the violinist to play it nine times. At the end of it, the filmmaker starts weeping.
He immediately signs the violinist as the music composer for his next grand musical.
Tadap tadap ke is dil se
Aah nikalti rahi
Mujhko saza di pyar ki
Aisa kya gunah kiya
To lut gaye, haan lut gaye
To lut gaye hum teri mohabbat mein
Ismail Darbar started out as a violinist for Laxmikant Pyarelal, Kalyanji Anandji, Bappi Lahiri, Rajesh Roshan, Anand-Milind, Jatin-Lalit, Nadeem-Shravan, and AR Rahman. He teamed up with Mehboob, who had a pet shop family business. Ismail Darbar and Mehboob composed Chand chupa badal mein, Tadap tadap, and the title track of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, among many other songs, during their days of struggle and marathon sessions working together in Mehboob’s pet shop.
When Ismail Darbar would ask filmmakers to listen to his favorite song, it was the title track of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. No one liked it, until Sanjay Leela Bhansali asked to listen to it three times.
Later when Bhansali asked Ismail Darbar to come to his office, Darbar played one antara of Tadap tadap that he had recorded in KK’s voice. KK was also struggling to become a playback singer. He had been singing jingles until then and had recorded approximately 3,500 jingles in 4 years.
How did KK come into Mehboob and Ismail Darbar’s orbit?
During their struggle days, Ismail Darbar introduced Mehboob to Ram Gopal Varma. Mehboob got his break first, as RGV asked him to write the songs for Rangeela. One day KK auditioned for Rahman. Mehboob was also there. Rahman said: “For the first time in 10 years, I am listening to a singer who can sing with emotion in high scales.” Mehboob immediately went to Ismail Darbar and said: “We found someone to sing Tadap tadap.” They recorded the first antara in KK’s voice. That was the version that Darbar played nine times for Bhansali.
During the recording of this song in the studio, it got very late arranging the music. KK went to sleep. At 4am he was woken up and told the music was ready. KK washed his face, stood in front of the mic and recorded the song in the first take. Tadap tadap was KK’s first break.
Music: Ismail Darbar
Lyrics: Mehboob
Singer: KK
*ing: Aishwarya Rai, Salman Khan
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Film: Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999)