Komal Nahta

A song like Ande ka funda of Jodi No 1 is soaring high on the song charts. Here's the heartening part. It's the work of a rank newcomer.

It has been penned and composed by Pratik Joseph, who has also sung the song. Pratik is a young professor of Mathematics in a Bombay college and had, more than a year ago, sent an audio cassette with his songs taped, to David Dhawan. Pratik has also long since wanted to sing a song for a David Dhawan film.

Perhaps having to cope with umpteen such requests from all types of strugglers, David didn't really care to even play the cassette for many days till, one day, his son (who had heard the cassette) forced David to hear out Pratik's cassette. That -- and Providence -- did the trick.

The aspiring singer was contacted and, within a few days, Ande ka funda had been written, even recorded in the professor's voice.

And it doesn't require great mathematical skills to calculate that the song, to an extent, led to the grand opening of the film. That should gladden the hearts of newcomers.

While the audiences in Bombay, other parts of Maharashtra and down South are laughing all through the comic Jodi No 1, distributors of North and East India are sober and sad. The Govinda-Sanjay Dutt starrer has not fared well in circuits like Rajasthan, Punjab, Bengal, Bihar, etc.

But thanks to Jodi No 1 doing brisk business in Bombay, the advance booking of the next Govinda starrer, Albela, is wonderful in Bombay.

The same can't be said of Delhi because the plans haven't opened on a very exciting note in the capital. Of course, the bumper promotion of the Tips film, Aishwarya Rai's presence and the racy music have contributed to the good advance booking in Bombay.

The music of Aamir Khan's Lagaan has met with mixed response in the film trade, at least. But it won't be long before the sceptical ones in Bollywood will have to change their opinion.

A R Rahman's tracks have a tendency to grow on the listeners.

But there's no escaping the truth. The music industry is passing through a terrible low.

Music companies which had picked up audio rights of films for fancy prices in the last 24 to 30 months are now seriously rethinking as well as relinquishing their rights. Audio companies are looking for the slightest pretext to wriggle out of contracts which they now feel are priced on the higher side.

So we have Super Cassettes leaving the rights of Aamir Khan starrer Dil Chahta Hai, Anil Kapoor starrer Nayak -The Real Hero and Amitabh starrer Aks. Universal, too, it is learnt, is contemplating dropping at least two films like hot potatoes.

What puts the music companies in a better position than film producers is breach of contract by the latter. The breach could be in the form of delay in delivering the master track to the music company, replacement of a hero or heroine etc.

Another thing that puts producers at the mercy of the music companies is the fact that they (producers) have no control over the action of the companies. For instance, if an audio company decides to not popularise or publicise the music of a film, the producer can do precious little about it.

Yes, the music company would stand to lose in terms of reduced sales but the producer has to think of his film and how it fares all over.

And you can no sooner ignore music than the soles of your feet!