Adnan a big hit with Indipop fans
Surabhi Khosla

Finally Adnan Sami’s prayers have been answered. God has lifted him up the charts with such speed that it has left the music industry breathless and the entire Indian audience in raptures.

A perfect example of an expatriate Indian who has achieved a harmonious fusion between his adopted Canadian roots and his Indian culture, Adnan Sami’s album, ‘Kabhi To Nazar Milao’ released by Magnasound has taken India by storm.

Educated in Britain at the prestigious Rugby School and a graduate of the University of London, Adnan is no novice in the world of music. He began playing the piano at the age of five and was first acknowledged by the world at the age of nine, when BBC introduced him as a child prodigy.

At that age, he admired Miles Davis, Bee Gees, BB King and Pink Floyd. But as he grew older, he was drawn towards classical music. As fond as he was of Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin, Adnan was more influenced by the Indian classical legends like Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Pandit Bhim Sen Joshi and Ustaad Amir Khan and he tried to perform cover versions of the music produced by these maestros on the electric piano.

Though this was not much appreciated by many ardent classical music fans, Adnan was nonetheless declared Keyboard Discovery of the 90s by a popular American magazine ‘Keyboard’ after they reviewed one of his solo piano performances in the UK.

The Swedish Radio and Television Broadcasting declared him the fastest keyboard player in the world and the Foreign and Common Wealth Office of Great Britain featured him in a documentary on “People who influenced Asian culture in UK for the last fifty years”.

With a career ranging from classical to jazz to modern pop-rock, Adnan has played it all and not just for the masses. As a classical concert pianist, he has had the honour of giving solo royal command performances before such royalty as the King of Sweden and King Hussein of Jordan. He has also performed before various heads of states, including those of France, India, UAE, Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Kirghistan.

However, success in India did not come as easily as he had anticipated. Adnan’s first album in India, an instrumental duet with Ustad Zakir Hussain called ‘The One and Only’ released by Magnasound was appreciated in the classical field but did not do well commercially.

Not one to give up, he committed himself to experimenting with new styles and formulae and thus was born ‘Kabhi To Nazar Milao’. With his second venture, Adnan has been able to create that level of quality music in the popular genre, which is a very rare commodity these days. And he’s scored a bull’s-eye as the songs have become chart-toppers from the word go.

Says he, “Music is a form of self-expression and I do not feel satisfied until my compositions do not come from within the depths of my imagination. To create pleasing melodies, one has to conquer all inhibitions and bring out one’s most intimate inner feelings.”

And he is certainly true to his words. ‘Kabhi To Nazar Milao’ is an album straight from the heart. The romantic, lighthearted and catchy tunes are an intelligent combination of the “traditional” and the “contemporary”, some in the pure forms and others through fusion to create one of the finest collection of songs to be put together in one album in recent years.

“For me music is a vision whose melody needs to be unfolded in the form of a story,” says Adnan who trained under Shiv Kumar Sharma in Mumbai and can play the violin and the tabla with the air of a maestro. In fact he specialises in playing Indian classical music on western instruments.

In ‘Kabhi To Nazar Milao’ Asha Bhonsle’s vocal genius lends passion to the poignant lyrics. Says Adnan, “Asha’s rich vocal tonality and natural grace has done wonders for my album. The vibes of her voice are enough to touch even the coldest depths of ones heart.”

It is not for nothing he calls her a deity of music whose melodies have made her a living legend. “When she agreed to sing for my album with me, I was over the moon,” he confesses.

With the songs ready and Asha Bhonsle giving him the green signal, Adnan did not waste any time and rushed to London to record the album and released it in India soon afterwards to a great response.

And a bit of gimmickry has helped him tremendously. Though the video of the song ‘Barsaat’ had a beautiful model and Adnan playing on the piano, violin and the tabla, the video of ‘Lift Karadey’ had Govinda lip-synching to his melodious voice.

So what are the future plans for this multiple International Award winner? Hmmm... Adnan is thoughtful as he thinks over this one. “I am working on two more music albums and I have been approached by some producers to compose music for movies. My albums should be out for release some time soon.”

If his first popular album is anything to go by, they would certainly be worth the wait. The ‘big’ music man is surely on a song!
NF

This actress is now a producer
Parbina Rashid

She enjoyed five minutes of fame in ‘Mohra’ in which she starred opposite Sunil Shetty. After that she tried her luck in low-budget Bollywood productions like ‘Love Story 98’ and ‘Jiyala’ but failed to make much impact. Now this leggy model-turned-actress is trying her hand at production. She is Poonam Jhaver who visited the city in connection with the shooting of her maiden production ‘Aanch’.

An excited Poonam, who finalised a few locations for shooting, including the Panjab University campus and picturesque Chail and Nahan for the last phase of the shooting, said her film will give a realistic portrayal of an ego clash between two Thakurs. About 60 per cent of the movie has already been shot at various locations in Banaras in UP.

‘Aanch’ will introduce Vaijaintymala's son Suchindra Bali and Kajol and Rani Mukherjee's cousin Shivani Mukherjee as the romantic lead. Nana Patekar plays the main character along with Paresh Rawal as the village priest. Poonam herself plays the second female lead. One of the major attractions of the movie will be a song sung by Nana himself. The film is being directed by Rajesh Singh of ‘Betabi’ and ‘Baghi’ fame.

Poonam, who finds production extremely challenging, says she happens to be the first woman producer who was not born into a film family. "Nobody in my family has a filmi background. Except for my mother Manjushree who writes short stories, no one in my family has a creative bent of mind", she said.

Poonam, who started her career as a model for Killer jeans and Palmolive soap, is also making a video album in which she has sung all songs. "Given a chance I would like to try my hand at Punjabi movies too," said Poonam. 

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Another beauty queen makes film debut
Asha Singh

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• Writer-director B.B. Mukherjee launched ‘Sarhad’ with a week-long shoot in a five-star hotel at Bombay. Many action and dramatic scenes were canned on lead stars Chandrachur Singh, Mahima Chaudhury, Sayaji Shinde and Puru Rajkumar.
  
  

• Raveena Tandon, Chandrachur Singh, Tinnu Anand and Raj Babbar faced the camera for the opening shot of ‘Aur Phir Ek Din’. This was followed with a five-day shoot at various locations in Bombay with Akash Deep as director.
  
  

• Producer Kaushal Godha has re-titled his latest production as ‘Karz’. Starring Sunil Shetty, Sunny Deol, Shilpa Shetty and Ashutosh Rana, the film is being shot on a start-to-finish schedule with Harry Baweja as director.
  
  

• Three songs were filmed for ‘Pyar To Hota Hai Pyar’ over a 23-day marathon shoot at Kamalistan Studios and a private liner docked near Bombay. The film is making rapid progress with Mohan Bagga as producer-director and Abbas, Ashima Bhalla, Om Puri and Johnny Lever leading the cast.
  
  

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• Aftab Shivdasani, Yukta Mookhey, Sayed Zulfi and Govind Namdeo took part in a month-long shoot for ‘Pyaasa’ at Kamalistan Studios, Bombay. Director A. Muthu picturised three songs and some romantic scenes on them during this schedule.
  
  

• Writer-director Umesh Mehra completed a seven-day shoot for ‘Yeh Mohabbat Hai’ at Film City, Essel Studios and other locations of Bombay. Many action and dramatic scenes were filmed on lead stars Akanksha, Rahul Bhatt, Danny Denzongpa and Shakti Kapoor.
  
  

• Sanjay Dutt, Jackie Shroff, Nandita Das and Mita Vashisht took part in a fortnight-long shoot for ‘Pitaah’ at Panchgani, a hill station near Bombay. Director Mahesh Manjrekar canned some comic and romantic scenes on them during this schedule.
  
  

• Director Osho Raja completed a month-long shoot for ‘Bharat Bhagya Vidhata’ at Tihar Jail in New Delhi. Shatrughan Sinha, Jaya Prada, Chandrachur Singh and other members of the cast took part in the filming of some dramatic scenes.

— MF