It is often said that Madan Mohan received more recognition and acknowledgement of his contribution after his demise. Indeed, his colleagues, the media, his fans, were lavish in praise for the late composer in all the tributes they paid him when he died and continue to give him respect even more than 30 years later. Respect for Madan Mohan has only escalated over the years as more and more people discover his music and the impact it had on the listeners.
I never had the opportunity to work with Madanji in his lifetime.
When I look back, I do wonder why, especially since we had a lot in common.
Apart from being Punjabis, we both shared the love for poetry and food.
He was one of the few composers who was familiar with classic Urdu poetry, and had a great sensitivity to lyrics. This was amply reflected in his compositions.
He worked often with Sahir Saab, who was a close associate of mine and I was very fond of their work together in Railway Platform and Ghazal. Of course his teaming with other poets too created marvelous results, including Rajinder Krishan, Majrooh Saab, Raja Mehdi Ali Khan and Kaifi Azmi.
I hear from a lot of common friends about his fondness for food and especially of his cooking abilities. Unfortunately I was not lucky to have tasted his cooking, but if it was like his delectable compositions, I am sure I missed out on some great food, as I am a great connoisseur of good cuisine.
Madanji passed away at a young age, and just about when I had become a producer myself. Who knows, maybe I would have worked with him?
But it was destined that I was to work with his compositions.
How ironical that for my most important project, Veer Zaara, 30 years after he passed away, it was Madanji's compositions that embellished my film.
Little did I know at that time that we would be creating history, as never before in the world had a composer been credited with the music score of a soundtrack, three decades after his demise.
When I decided to make Veer Zaara, a cross border romance set 2 decades ago, I was apprehensive about the music. I knew I needed music with its roots in Indian melody, with an old world charm, with emphasis on Indian sounds traversing the cultures of north India and Pakistan.
I had many sittings with top composers but something was just not clicking. One day I casually mentioned this to Sanjeev Kohli, CEO of my Company. He then just equally casually mentioned that he had some tapes of his father, which had some unheard compositions. This was intriguing and I immediately asked him to work on them, and create some demos to see if they could be used in today's times. When he played us 30 demo tracks, I knew I had the score of Veer Zaara, and we then adapted the tunes to suit the varied situations in the films. They fit like a glove on the sad songs, the ballads, the 'Des' song, the punjabi folk lodi, the haunting jaanam!
When I needed subsequently a qawwali in the film, I contemplated using a previously popular qawalli in the background, but Sanjeev, taking up the challenge, overnight found 6 qawwali tunes left behind by Madanji of which we used 2 in the film. It was a miracle that all situations had a tune left behind by Madanji. As though many years ago the composer of Heer Ranjha and Laila Majnu had planned songs for the next love legend to be made so many decades later!
And the most historical aspect of the score was that the great artiste for whom these tunes were originally created, our dear Didi, sang 30 years later for her Madan Bhaiya.
The Madanji and Lataji combination is legendary and a part of history. Who can forget their songs in Anpadh, Adalat, Jahanara, Mera Saaya, Woh Kaun Thi, Haqeeqat, Sanjog, Dastak and Heer Ranjha, among others?
Lataji considered Madanji as an elder brother, and I too am fortunate that she calls me Yash Bhaiya.
Lataji has often shared so many memories of Madanji with me, and has so many memorable anecdotes of their work together.
His son, Sanjeev has been working with me for almost 15 years now and often speaks of his father.
Through them and through his own spoken words and compositions on his rare tapes, I almost feel that I had always known him well and that we had often worked together.
His contribution to melody in Hindi films is legendary and his songs will be remembered for all times.
I am indeed happy at the efforts of Vishwas Nerurkar and Prasad Mahadkar in releasing this book on Madanji, which will be fondly welcomed by his ever-loyal fans and admirers.
I never had the opportunity to work with Madanji in his lifetime.
Through them and through his own spoken words and compositions on his rare tapes, I almost feel that I had always known him well and that we had often worked together.
