All good things must come to an end or so they say, but instead of mulling over the impending end I guess we are better off appreciating the great run they had and how good it was while it lasted. This post is dedicated to one of my favorite music directors from Bollywood who have always had a bunch of songs on my playlists as I was growing up. The broke into Bollywood when music was beginning to make its presence felt after almost a decade and a half of dying a slow death at the hands of mindless action flicks courtsey the angry young man who was no longer so young. Although they had been composing for a lot longer they hit the big league in 1992 with hits like Khiladi, Raju Ban gaya Gentleman and of course JJWS.
Pehla Nasha was a huge huge smash and it is always a pleasure when it plays up on my shuffle every single time. Their next stop was Kabhi Haan Kabhi Na one of SRK's best performances to date with the evergreen hit
Deewana Dil Deewana busting charts in all countdowns. The followed it up next year in 1995 with their biggest smash in DDLJ.
Tujhe dekha to ye and
Mehndi Laga Ke still sound as fresh as they did the first time around when I heard them at schol when love fever was sweeping across the nation as ppl did come and did fall in love. They had a couple of quiet years following this big effort but they still found time to compose some of my favorite numbers with
Baahon ke Darmiyan from a very underrated Khamoshi and
Ek Din Aap and
Chaand Taare from Yes Boss by them. Their music really hit the roof in 1998 as they churned out one hit after another in Ghulam , Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai, KKHH, Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya and Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha. Opinions may vary but barring some compositions like
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and a few others you could sense they were past their peak at that time. While they managed to churn out some lilting numbers like
Mujhe Raat Din,
Is Deewane Ladke Ko and
Tune Mujhe Pehchana Nahin and some numbers from Mohabbatein I thought they got back to their kind of music with
Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani but unfortunately the movie was a washout at the box-office. They started losng their prominence in the industry and even had to share composing credits in K3G. SRK showed is faith in them by retaining them for their home production and they repaid it by chalking up another great score for Chalte Chalte with numbers like
Chalte Chalte and
Tauba Tumhare ruling charts. The bagged Hum Tum on the basis of their performance and showed they still had what it took to compose ageless music witht the
title track from the movie. However trouble was brewing apparently between the two and creative differences forced them to announce their split in 2006 while releasing their last composed piece of work Fanaa. If you have managed to lay your hands on the album you shall know that they have decided to go out in style stamping their class all over the album with tracks like
Chaand Sifarish and
Dekho Naa. All I can say its been great having this asociation with you and thank you for all those hundreds of songs and all the millions of memories associated with them.