Melody King " Nadeem Akhtar Saifi"

Melody King " Nadeem Akhtar Saifi"
By Amjad Chudhary

I was born in August 1986 and grew up in the era of 90s. I have seen the greatest things happening around me in cricket, hockey, Squash, Football, and music. I have always preferred Sub-continent music over western music, the melodies of the 90s are still in my mind which I am unable to forget because of memories are associated with them. The period of the 90s was among the best in Bollywood music, the Indian film industry has produced several music directors whose names remain as legends in memory but the one who deserves the title, 'Kings of Melody', they are Nadeem Akhtar Saifi and Shravan Rathod, recognized as Nadeem-Shravan.

No one from that era can forget the music and songs of Films like Ashiqui, Sajan, Dil hai k Manta nhn, Sadak, Dewanaa, Dilwale, Raja Hindustani, Pardes, Early 2000s movies like Dharkan, Kasoor, Raaz, Humraaz. These all were among the top hits and are still among the minds of people around the globe. Probably it was the last melodies' era of Indian Cinema. The duo of Nadeem Shravan faced a set up due to the murder of T-Series owner Gulshan Kumar when they were top in the list and were the highest-paid music directors in the Bollywood. Gulshan Kumar was assassinated in Mumbai in by underworld. Gulshan was the one who gave Nadeem-Shravan their big break in Bollywood in film Ashiqui (1990) as music director which lead them towards overnight success. Nadeem Akhtar Saifi was accused of the murder of Gulshan Kumar.

Nadeem was in London due to the treatment of his wife when Gulshan was murdered in daylight in front of Mandir in Mumbai. Underworld did Abu Salem was behind the murder of Gulshan because he was demanding extortion money from him which he denied paying. Mumbai police accused Four main suspects including Nadeem as a prime suspect and Ramesh Taurani of Tips Music. They accused Nadeem that he has arranged a music show free of cost for Aness Ibrahim in May 1997 and there they decided the murder of Gulshan Kumar, police also believed that Nadeem had differences with Gulshan Kumar for not promoting his solo music album while Taurani has a rivalry with Gulshan in Business. Because T series was having about 65% shares of music rights at the time of Gulshan Murder. Mumbai police arrested all the shooters involved in murder including the underworld kingpin Abu Saleem as well. All of them refused to accept the involvement of Nadeem in the murder. Arrest warrants of Nadeem were dispensed and a deportation appeal was made to the British government for sending him back to Mumbai so that he could be arrested and put on trial. Nadeem felt that he is being mistreated and will be detained with an unfair trial, he decided to remain in the UK and filed an asylum application with the British government. This incident spoiled the standing of the music duo but producers continued signing both without any hiatus. Nadeem-Shravan used to collaborate on the telephone and internet for producing music that kept them alive in the music industry. Residing in London, Nadeem faced a much difficult time, but he did not lose his hope and composed soulful music, which made his enemies full of anger.

In 2001, the case was taken to the London High Court, which rejected the Indian government's request for extradition on the ground there was no prima facie case against Saifi and It also ordered the Indian government to pay 0.9 million pounds as compensation to Nadeem. In August 2001, the trial's key witness, Mohammed Ali Hussain Shaikh, who had earlier stated that Saifi participated in the murder, eventually revealed that he didn't know Saifi and had never seen him. The main accused Abu Salem also deprived of Nadeem's involvement on TV. Saifi was also exonerated by four courts, including the House of Lords in the United Kingdom and the sessions court in Mumbai. Saifi finally attained British citizenship, and later moved to Dubai, where he runs his business of perfumes. Despite being cleared of all charges, he is still unable to return India because he still fears for his life and wants the Indian government, which lost all cases against him, to officially invite him to return to his homeland. The dealing with Nadeem was quite unfair because Sanjay Dutt was accused of a bigger crime, sedition with India and involvement in terrorist attacks, but Dutt was never treated as Nadeem was because he was not a Muslim nor Nadeem had any strong relationship with Bal Thackeray of Shiv Sena.

Current music fails to make its enduring influence on the hearts, and minds of the listener because of the absence of melody. Most of the Indian films now have only one or two hit songs which are over and done in some times but Nadeem-Shravan had the symbol of creating music albums, which had six to seven songs with all of them being Chartbusters. We all are lovers of the 90s era are still waiting for the melody’s tune given by Nadeem. He was a legend and will remain a legend and will bounce back soon Inshallah.