ANAND - MILIND

chitragupta

Anand and Milind are music directors duo consisting of Anand Shrivastav and his younger brother Milind. They have composed music for over 200 Bollywood films and are the sons of 60s music director, Chitragupta.

Anand-Milind debuted in Ab Aayega Mazaa (1984) and rose to fame after the success of Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988). The film's successful songs include "Papa Kehte Hain","Ghazab Ka Hai Din", and "Akele Hai To Kya Gham Hai". The music for "Akele Hain To Kya Gum Hai" is an exact reproduction of the instrumental number Return to the Alamo by the band The Shadows. The same year also saw the moderate success of the horror flick Woh phir Aayegi.

Lal Dupatta Malmal Ka stormed the music stands in 1989 and the music of this telefilm proved to be a classic, staying popular even today. The film also strengthened their work-relationship with music baron Gulshan Kumar of T-Series. The duo then composed the songs for Salman Khan's film, Baaghi: A Rebel for Love. Baaghi was followed by a series of box office hits like Dil, Beta (1992) and Dhak Dhak Karne Laga. Love (1991), starring Salman Khan and Revathy, boasted of chartbusting-music, popular even today, despite the film's failure at the box office. It also marked the debut of the southern nightingale Chitra, into Bollywood and Hindi films. In 1994 they also composed, now famous music for Rahul Rawail's Anjaam which starred Madhuri Dixit and Shahrukh Khan. Suhaag (1994), starring Ajay Devgun, Akshay Kumar Karishma Kapoor and Naghma, is another film that sold huge units that year. One of their best albums in 1994 was the highly ignored Vikram Bhatt directed romantic film Madhosh, which launched Aamir Khan's brother Faisal Khan.
 Anand-Milind had a remarkable association with Madhuri Dixit.
Towards the end of the 90's they composed music for many Mithun Chakraborty films with little success. They have also composed music for a few Bhojpuri films.
Anand-Milind played a role in launching many Bollywood stars, including Aamir Khan and Juhi Chawla in Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak; Salman Khan and Naghma in Baaghi; Akshay Kumar in Saugandh and Karishma in Prem Qaidi.They also played god-fathers to singers Udit Narayan, Abhijeet, Poornima, Gayatri Iyer, and Parvez.

Anand-Milind styled their music mostly based on Indian melodies and folk tunes. Their compositions bore some resemblance to the Laxmikant-Pyarelal school of music, in the early 90's, resulting in most of their compositions between 1988-1995 being popular in the interiors and rural India, even today. In fact, Laxmikant-Pyarelal loyalists like Mohan Kumar, Harmesh Malhotra, K. Vishwanath, Ashok Ghai, Boney Kapoor, to name a few, opted for Anand-Milind in the 90's over Laxmikant-Pyarelal for their new projects.

Later, they went on to copy a lot of southern tunes by maestro Illayaraja and the beats and style from these songs, formed a major part of their arrangements. So much so, that a lot of their tunes began sounding alike. This was one of the main reasons for their downfall in the late 90'ss from the immense popularity they achieved during the early 90's, giving room to new composers and their fresh compositions.

Anand-Milind experimented with their music and proved their true musical genius with Mrityudand (1997) (where they worked for the first time with wordsmith Javed Akhtar) and Daayraa (1997) (with poetry by none other than Gulzar). Both these albums received rave reviews by critics unanimously, but both soundtracks were highly ignored, in terms of promotion. Sangeet was another fine example of them exploring and experimenting.

As guest composers, Anand-Milind made an impact with Tanhaai in Dillagi and Saawan Barse Tarse Dil in Dahek. Apart from this, they have also appeared as guest composers in films like Jaanam Samjha Karo, Chotta Chetan, and Rakht.


Unlike their biggest competitor, Nadeem-Shravan (who worked with selected favorites), Anand-Milind worked with and introduced a lot of playback singers. They initially recorded a few songs with Kishore Kumar. They also worked with legends Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle. It's common knowledge that Anand-Milind re-introduced Udit Narayan and Abhijeet. They also heavily promoted Poornima and worked with Sapna Mukherjee on a regular basis. Alka Yagnik, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Sadhna Sargam, Kumar Sanu and Anuradha Paudwal were regulars.

With changing times, Anand-Milind now opt for the newer breed of singers and have done a good amount of work with Kay Kay, Sowmya Raoh, Shaan, Sunidhi Chauhan, Shreya Ghoshal and Richa Sharma.

Awards

• Filmfare Award - 1988 Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak
• Filmfare Award - 1990 Baaghi - Nomination, did not win
• Filmfare Award - 1990 Dil - Nomination, did not win
• Filmfare Award - 1992 Beta - Nomination, did not win

Anand-Milind composed the title track and the theme music for the popular detective serial Karamchand, which hit prime time Indian television, during the late 80's. Pankaj Parashar.

Anand-Milind had their share of controversies. When Alka Yagnik's songs in the film Dil were dubbed by Anuradha Paudwal, Alka Yagnik did not work with the duo for almost 2 years, only to patch up in 1993 and record close to 200 songs.

Legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar, who worked with Anand-Milind's father Chitragupt, gave Milind his name.
Anand-Milind created a record of sorts by completing 100 films in 1994, most of which were composed between 1990-1994.